By HENRY MORABANG
KOKOPO School Soccer teams may not have won any awards but they have won many hearts during the Australian National Futsal Championships in Canberra, Australia, this week.
And they came away from their first ever international championships with a leading goal scorer in one of the two divisions competed in.
Representing Papua New Guinea junior soccer at the championships, the Kokopo boys performed to their best of ability in their first international futsal tournament attended by any PNG representative team.
While results may not be the ultimate focus for the young travelling squads, coach Spencer Manhi is hoping that the boys would have learnt from their experience in Canberra this week.
ìIíve explained to the boys that Futsal is really good for them as it improve many aspects of their games. They can become better soccer players,î Manhi said yesterday.
Papua New Guinea was one of two countries which took part in the national titles, the other being the Solomon Islands which brought three teams to compete, including a menís national Futsal team to compete in the Open division ahead of their Futsal World Cup qualifiers.
Capital Football League public relations officer Chris Gottas said yesterday that the Kokopo boys played well and showed promising skill but being their first attempt at Futsal they may have found it tough going competing against experienced Futsal playing sides.
ìThe boys put in a fantastic effort and everyone enjoyed playing against them,î Gottas said.
ìUnfortunately, they didn’t progress to the finals but I hope they had fun while they were here, and hopefully we’ll see them again next year, or the very near future,î he said.
Gottas said Nathan James despite picking up a yellow card in the tournament was the leading scorer in the Under 12 division with 11 goals beating J. Abarquez of ACT Cobras by one goal.
James, Elwin Emil and Glen Bigiglen all picked up a yellow ticket each for unsportsmanship behaviour.
Unlike the Under 14 teams, the Under 12 boys played exceptionally well with two draws apart from their four loses.
The Under 12 lost their opening games to Tasmania 7-4 and got back to draw with QLD City 4-4. Victoria started their campaign by thrashing PNG boys 10-4 but Kokopo bounced back to hold ACT Colts 3-3 before being hammered by Northern NSW 10-3 and NSW Lightning 13-2.
The Under 14 side lost all their games. In the opening match, QLD City thrashed Kokopo 6-0, ACT Cobras beat us 10-1, NSW Lightning 11-0, Tasmania 5-3 and North QLD 5-4.