Some of Mainland’s most promising futsal talents have returned home with their heads held high after making history with the silver fern on their chests.

Benji Lapslie, Britney-Lee Nicholson, Hamish Mitchell, Hannah Hegarty, Jake Neil and Tom McGowan were all part of the Uni Futsal Whites and Uni Futsal Ferns squads that recorded first ever victories at the FISU (International University Sports Federation) World University Futsal Championships in Kazakhstan last month.

Seventeen countries from around the globe were represented in the men’s and women’s competitions as part of the World University Championships - a platform for homegrown student talent to take to the world stage and compete against some of the best university aged futsal players on the planet.

The Uni Futsal Ferns were the first to make history, as they recorded their first ever win at a global futsal event with a 5-3 win over the hosts in their opening match. They then repeated the feat days later with a second win over Kazakhstan on penalties after the game had finished 2-2.

Nicholson, who played a major role by getting on the scoresheet in both wins, said she was pleased that the team’s hardwork leading up to the tournament had paid off.

“All the girls were pretty proud of ourselves, we worked really hard before the tournament in our training camps, focusing on what we were going to do and how we were going to perform out on the world stage so it was great to see it worked well.”

Lapslie who has six caps for the full New Zealand Futsal Whites and was representing the Uni Futsal Whites for the first time said the competition was like nothing he had experienced before in his young career.

“The competition was really professional and pretty well run, they had 16,000 people show up to the opening ceremony which was pretty cool walking out in front of and everyone was cheering us on regardless of where we were from so yeah they were pretty supportive.”

The Uni Futsal Whites faced some challenging opposition throughout the tournament and came close to what would have been a huge scalp, losing narrowly to France 3-2. 

But in their very next game the men’s team followed in the women’s footsteps recording their first ever victory outside of Oceania with a 2-1 win over Israel.

“We knew that that was the game we were going to target and we came out and really put a performance out there so it was a great feeling to finally get that win.”

Hegarty, who was playing in her first University Championships, said the response since they've arrived home had been special.

"Getting to see all the family after such a long trip was really rewarding. As soon as I got back I went to see my grandma and that made it all worth it seeing how happy and proud she was." 

The men’s and women’s victories are yet another positive to come out of futsal for New Zealand. Futsal is now the fastest growing participation area within New Zealand Football. It is ranked third in participation for all indoor sports in New Zealand and is the eleventh most participated sport in secondary schools. 

Mainland Football futsal development officer Sam Lapslie said having five players from the Mainland region do so well at an international event will do wonders for the development of futsal in the Mainland region.

“The tournament has given these guys the chance to experience playing against various different playing styles and structures which provides the Mainland with great learnings and experiences to be taken forward to continue growing the high performance space in our country.”

All five players will now return to various futsal competitions, with the men beginning their preparations with the Canterbury United Futsal Dragons for the Futsal National League which kicks-off in mid-October. 

Article added: Friday 07 September 2018