Courtesy: Otago Daily Times


Dunedin to host double-header v Canterbury

13 October 2016

by Jeff Cheshire

National league futsal will return to Dunedin this weekend.
Southern United will kick off its season at the Edgar Centre against Canterbury United on Saturday at 4pm. The teams will play each other again on Sunday at 10am.

A change in format to the competition means the teams play a local series, a regional series and two national series over four weekends during the season.

That differs from the previous format, in which national series were played in Auckland, Wellington and Napier, with no opportunity for local games.

The result is more games in different locations, while also keeping costs down. Costs are key, as previously a national series had been run in Dunedin, but was moved away due to the expense of getting teams to the city.

That meant Otago fans had not seen national-level futsal for several years.

''It's nice to get some local games. It's something we've been calling out for for a while,'' Southern United coach Darren Hart said.

''It'll be interesting just because of the way you only play a few teams [at a time] and so how the league's shaping up doesn't really become apparent until you've played everyone at least once.

''It'll lead to some quite interesting league positions. It's going to be very hard to get a handle on who's good and who's not.''

Hart is happy with how the team is shaping up and is feeling the benefits of coming under the Southern United banner.

Sean McIntee will captain the side, while other key players include experienced former Futsal White Michael Sannum and Brazilian Carlos Hermann, one of three Queenstown-based players.

Southern players will be getting out into the futsal community this week, targeting school grades in particular.

A coaching clinic and games for year 5 and 6 school children will be held on Saturday in the lead-up to the game. Numbers are strong in school and club grades and the team hopes to help fans connect with the game at the higher level.

''People can see what that next step up looks like; there's lots of school futsal and league futsal here, but people don't really see what it looks like at that top tier,'' Hart said.



Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com