Mumbai 5s Crowned Premier Futsal Champions

by Chittu Shetty July 26, 2016

The Inaugural season of Premier futsal has ended with Ryan Giggs’ Mumbai winning the final against Kochi in an enthralling match which had to be decided by its first ever penalty shootout, a fitting finale to the exciting two weeks of the league. Although the 4 quarters of the game just produced a goal apiece to both side, it was nonetheless an exciting game with plenty of amazing moments.

After a good even start, Kochi went ahead through an easy touch at far post by Moraes in the 13^th minute. The second quarter ended in a quick pace with both sides missing quite a few half chances and the scored remained 1-0 at half time. In the third quarter, a dubious foul by giggs ended with a free kick for Kochi and Michael Salgado shot directly into the net as the crowd started roaring only to be disappointed as the Goal was disallowed for being an indirect free kick. The last quarter saw a very defensive tactics implemented by Kochi as Mumbai piled on attacks after attacks. With amount of shots (24) on goals, Mumbai deservingly got the equalizer in the dying moments of the game when Angellot came up with an excellent juggle to get the ball past two Kochi defenders before vollying it on goal. The Match eventually ended in a 1-1 draw and went to the first ever penalties of the league.

The slightly modified penalty shootout rule gives an option for the striker to take as many shots as he wants, shoot or dribble past the Goalkeeper from 9 meters but find the goal within 5 seconds. Both teams are given 3 chances after which sudden death begins. Mumbai started with a miss as Foglia‘s shot was blocked by Casalone, while on the other hand chaguinha showed his super skill to put Kochi ahead. The next two penalties saw Mumbai score one through their ever reliable Angellot, and a miss from Kevin Ramirez, while for Kochi both Paulino and Moraes missed thier chance. And so begun the sudden death, Perez and Gekabert both scored to make it 2-2, But the Marque Players Giggs and Salgado both ended up missing it as the shootout continued. It finally boiled down to the Goalkeepers of the match to finish it off and while Amado scored, Casalona hit his shot wide to hand over the trophy to the Mumbai.

The Most Valuable Player of the tournament was awarded to Angellot (Mumbai 5s), while the golden Arm Band went to Chaguina (Kochi 5s). The Best Indian Player was awarded to Jonathan Piers (Bengalore 5s).