Birmingham 7 – 0 Cambridge United

Reported by Isaac Barrington

Birmingham emerged victorious as 7-0 winners over Cambridge United, continuing their 100% start to the new campaign.

The game started slowly, with neither side recieving many decent opportunities to open the scoring. Birmingham captain, Alex Igarza struck a free kick just wide, and the visitors’ Angel Martinez attempted a lob which dropped onto the roof of the net.

 Birmingham eventually broke the deadlock with 12 minutes and 12 seconds left in the first period. A well worked counter-attack involving Juanito, Perrer and Salvago, ended up with the latter converting a second post pass. 1-0

Birmingham came close to doubling their lead when Juanito struck the post with a fine, long-range effort. Cambridge’s Da Silva Viera was then caught in possession, leaving Jacobo-Miguel Perrer to double the lead on his Birmingham debut. 2-0

Two goals in an extraordinary final ten seconds of the half once again doubled the advantage, and left Birmingham with a comfortable 4-0 lead going into the break. Alberto Martinez diverted Alex Igarza’s cross-court ball into his own net, before Salvago slipped the ball underneath Jose Lima just seconds before the break. HT 4-0

Ametlla lost possession in his own half, but a great defensive recovery from Dan Guy ensured that he was able to stop the visitors from scoring and he cleared the ball away from danger on the goal-line. Alberto Martinez outpaced Guy, but his shot cannoned against the woodwork and out for a Birmingham kick-in.

Carlos Jane displayed some delightfully skilful footwork before firing the ball into the back of the net! Salvago completed his hat-trick when he grabbed the penultimate goal, punishing Miguel Gelabert after his poorly weighted pass. Finally, it was Dan Guy who got the goal from cclose range after a lovely piece of build-up play with Juanito. That was Guy’s fourth goal of the season which puts him one behind Juanito and  Juanje Marin at the top of the tally chart. FT 7-0!

Birmingham: Gonzalez (GK), Guy, Price,
Jane, Ametlla, Scott, Perrer, Juanito, Igarza, Salvago, Malekezi, Verdaguer

Cambridge: Lima (Gk), Angel Martinez,
Hardwick, Bouttell, Periera, Vakes (GK), Cruz, Gelabert, Da Silva Viera,
Tobajas, Birch, Alberto Martinez

Tigers 1 – 5 Birmingham

Reported by Isaac Barrington

Dan Guy bagged himself a hat-trick as Birmingham strolled to victory against local rivals Tigers.

Birmingham started well with good chances for both Marin and Ametlla before they opened the scoring. Dan Guy drove down the wing before squaring to Marin who neatly slotted the ball into the bottom corner. 1-0

New signings Arnau Ametlla and Mario Garrido both saw chances go begging, but it wasn’t long before Birmingham doubled their lead. Garrido made a fabulous tackle, before feeding Guy who found the bottom corner to give his side a two goal cushion. 2-0

Birmingham continued to dominate and Juanje Marin added to the score-line after a terrific run by captain Alex Igarza. 3-0

Juanito fired the ball over the bar and Tigers captain Tomczak could only find the side netting. The buzzer sounded for half-time, and Birmingham went into the break with a solid 3-0 advantage intact.

Tigers experienced their best passage of play just after half-time, and they did peg Birmingham back. Cristian Gonzalez fumbled the ball into his own net after a shot from Adam Breeze but it was never going to make a difference to the result. 3-1

Two Minutes later, Birmingham restored their three goal advantage when Guy rounded the keeper and side-footed into the gaping-goal. 4-1

Tigers knocked on the door but Gonzalez made three good saves in quick succession to keep the hosts hoping. He denied Breeze twice and Downes once in the space of two minutes.

Birmingham completed the day’s work when they added a fifth, seven minutes into the second half. Marin once again linked up well with Guy, this time taking a quick free kick which was bundled in at the far post to complete Guy’s hat-trick.

Birmingham played the last 12 minutes on five fouls, but they managed to keep their discipline and see the game out for an opening day 5-1 victory.

New coach Eduardo Valor will be delighted that his side have 3 points on the board, and will look forward to their first game at their new home next week against Manchester. FT 5-1

Tigers:  Lecheamsai (GK), Downes, Tomczak, Breeze, Oliver, McFaden, Jose, Rabama, Russel

Birmingham: Cristin (GK), Guy, Marin, Garrido, Igarza, Juanito, Price, Scott, Gonzalez (GK), Paulo Dias, Wood, Ametlla

Eduardo Valor appointed as new coach

Reported by Isaac Barrington

Former Valencia League district coach Eduardo Valor has been appointed as the new head coach of Birmingham for the upcoming season in the FA National Super League.

In Spain, Eduardo coached C.D. La Salle for 5 years, and led them to a second place finish in the Liga Nacional Juvenil division last season. He has also coached FS Torrent in the second division of the female league in Spain and described this as: “a good experience”. During his time at C.D. La Salle he led his side to the community final, but lost out at the final hurdle, however went on to achieve success with the Valencia district team in the same year, beating Murcia 6-0 in the final.

Valor played futsal himself until he was 15 when he started to coach children’s teams
continuing to play at a high level for another 4 years when he decided to hang up his boots and concentrate on coaching. He believes that: “it is really important to put work into the academy, and not enough clubs are doing this”. He stressed that one of the key factors for success is getting the balance right between the focus on youth teams and the first team. He has already proven that he likes to develop youth players, and assures everyone at Birmingham that this is something he hopes to continue with. In Spain, Valor worked with the young and extremely talented Gonzalo and Sergio Galan who were later pinched from his side with Gonzalo going on to play professionally in Spain, whilst his brother moved to England, where he plays for Bristol City Futsal. Gonzalo later moved from Spain, and is now in Belgium where he still plays Futsal to a high standard.

When asked, Eduardo described his philosophy for success in futsal as “conceding no goals, hard work and intensity”. He went on to speak passionately about how he believes that forming a good team spirit throughout the club is a vital measure for success. Eduardo believes that: “this is just the beginning of the journey here at Birmingham, and we are not starting from zero on this project”. He thinks that his experience in Spain, combined with club chairman Ikhlaq Hussain’s knowledge of the game in England, will help to achieve all of the objectives he has for the upcoming season. Valor aims to lead the club to the National final this season and he is: “looking forward to returning to Birmingham in August” when he will link up with a rather new-look Birmingham squad.

Suli Kurt joins Birmingham

Reported by Isaac Barrington

Spanish futsal pivot Suli Kurt has joined Birmingham ahead of the new season. Kurt has previously played for CD Murcia FS and Jumilla FS. During his time at Jumilla FS he played in the Primera division, which is the premier professional futsal league in Spain.

Kurt was only 8 years old when he began playing futsal, and played for Murcia FS until
he was 15. He says that he chose futsal over football, and that futsal is “a lot more technical than football.”

Kurt plans to study to ‘teach futsal’ and explained that training younger children is much more important than older ones, stating that the younger generation are our
future, “it is much more important to teach them technique from a very early age.”

He speaks highly of new coach Eduardo Valor: “He has a lot of energy and is a good
coach.” Kurt’s main objective for the season is to win the league, but most importantly he wants to have fun with his new team-mates. Kurt describes himself as “a very technical player with a good pass and a good head.”

Birmingham begin their campaign against local rivals Birmingham Tigers, on 11/9/16.

Birmingham 8 - 4 Genesis

Super League Play-offs

Reported by Isaac Barrington

Birmingham moved one step closer to the grand finals at St Georges, by defeating Genesis 8-4 in the first leg of their Super League play-off.

The game started lively and Birmingham were quick to close the ball down and they had most of the early possession and chances. Viada fired two shots just wide of the sticks before the hosts took the lead. Jaunito picked out Dan Guy in space on the right wing, who blasted a shot across the goalkeeper and into the bottom right-hand corner. 1-0

Against the run of play, Genesis soon equalised. Kilman was tripped by Guy and Ribeiro beat Poulson at his near post with a powerful strike. 1-1

Poulson did well to deny Ribeiro his second, and Birmingham were quick to counter. Viada was brought down by Indanhe and he was shown his first of two yellow cards by the official. Alex Igarza took the free kick, and he struck the ball through the wall and past the un-sighted keeper. 2-1

Perez linked up nicely with Lopez, but the visiting keeper denied him one-on-one and Lewis Scott’s shot on the spur of the moment was well saved.

Exactly three minutes after Indanhe was shown his first yellow card, he was given his second. Pol Viada tried to take the kick in quickly, but the Genesis number 8 stood directly in front of him, blocking the kick and was consequently given his second yellow card and sent for an early bath!

Genesis used the 2, 1 formation to try and play out the two minutes with 4 men, but Birmingham took advantage and grabbed their third. Igarza set up Jaunito who tapped the ball home and made the score 3-1 to the hosts!

With four minutes of the first half left, England international Max Kilman reduced the deficit. He neatly slotted the ball past Poulson from close range to ensure that the contest was still close going into half time. HT 3-2

Genesis were primarily built around Kilman, and he dictated all of their play from the back. He played a neat ball out wide to Crespo who slipped the ball underneath Cristin and into the net. 3-3

Genesis would just not lie down but just as Ribeiro thought he had given his team the lead, the woodwork came to Birmingham’s rescue and left the Genesis bench flapping in distress.

Viada’s shot forced a good save out of White, but the young English keeper could only parry it out for a corner. The Birmingham captain took the corner and Jaunito converted it, curling the ball away from White and into the bottom right hand corner from extremely close range. 4-3

Birmingham continued to apply pressure, but the game was still in the balance. White denied Jaunito from out wide and Guy’s effort deflected out for a corner kick.

Birmingham took command of the game with two quick fire goals. Pau Lopez strode forward down the left hand side to toe-poke the ball home and Orlando Perez also got his name on the scoresheet seconds later, after a goalmouth scramble. 6-3

With three minutes remaining, Kilman displayed some wonderful footwork and left both Igarza and Cristin on the deck before tapping home. 6-4

Birmingham rounded off a wonderful victory with two late goals, the first from Igarza and the second from Lewis Scott. Scott, who was tremendous throughout, unselfishly fed Igarza for as easy a tap in as possible, and Dan Guy somehow managed to pick out Igarza with a reverse pass before he pulled the ball back for Scott to fire home. 8-4

Rafa Merino will be delighted with the result, but everybody knows that a lot can change in 40 minutes of futsal, and an under par performance next week could lead to a Genesis comeback against the odds. FT 8-4

Birmingham: Poulson (Gk), Cristin (GK), Guy, Perez, Rion, Scott, Mulekezi, Jaunito, Viada, Sullivan

Genesis: White (GK), Kilman, Shawyer, Rogers, Walpole, Tamplin, Ribeiro, Crespo, Fernando, Sequeira, Indanhe

Birmingham 4 - 7 Helvecia (AET)

                                                                     FA Futsal Cup

Reported by Isaac Barrington

Helvecia defeated Birmingham 7-4 in the hosts’ first defeat of the season, in a feisty game, eventually taken into extra-time.

Helvecia coach Luis Marimon went into the game in confident mood, having achieved all of the season’s objectives to date. Birmingham, on the back of their 100% league record, were equally confident and the game proved to be an entertaining spectacle in front of the biggest crowd of the season at the Birmingham Futsal Arena.

Both sides began the game quickly, and it became apparent that this fixture was not going to be a one-sided encounter. The game produced good chances for both teams, however with both the goalkeepers on top form, they each made many vital saves to keep the score at 0-0.

The home side did eventually break the deadlock however. Brendan Tout fired a shot goalwards, and Lewis Scott was in the right place at the right time to divert the ball home on the far post. 1-0

Birmingham went into half-time on the back of some good play, but the game was finely balanced at 1-0 at the break.

The visitors knew that the next goal would be an extremely important one, and it was them who got it. Derendiajev pulled the ball back to Dickson from the by-line, and he slotted the ball past Cristin to grab the equaliser with just over one minute of the second half gone. 1-1

Birmingham were the quickest to react to a Helvecia free kick and they broke with Manel Rion who fired the ball past the distraught Gazolli and into the corner of the net. 2-1

Marimon deployed Dickson as the fly goalkeeper for Helvecia, but Pol Viada took advantage, rounding the regular keeper as he charged back onto the court, neatly slotting home with two minutes remaining. 3-1

With little more than two minutes remaining and just as Birmingham thought that they had won the game, Helvecia scored two goals in the space of 22 seconds. Medina tapped home on the far post for the first, and they dramatically got the equaliser when Birmingham gave up possession cheaply in the centre of the court, with Cook scrambling the ball over the line to take the game into extra-time.

With just over three minutes of extra-time left to play, Sullivan committed Birmingham’s sixth foul, and Cook calmly rose to the task, beating Cristin from 10 metres. 3-4

Birmingham used the fly keeper, but Helvecia seized the opportunity to shoot from distance, and Pol Viada’s desperate attempt to prevent a 5th goal for the visitors resulted in him receiving a red card for handball. Cristin limped off and Cameron Riley came on to face Cook from where the handball was committed, but he was unable to stop Cook from completing his hat-trick. 3-5

Birmingham were awarded a 6 metre spot kick after the referee saw Dickson’s arm arise to block Jaunito’s shot in the goalmouth, and he was also shown red. Jaunito converted the penalty, but it wouldn’t be enough to stop Helvecia progressing to the next round. 4-5.

Another two goals for Helvecia secured the win. Barcelos and Vitorino both took advantage of the empty net that Birmingham left free, and the game ended 4-7.

Raoni Medina spoke to me afterwards, and said that it was “by far the most challenging game that his side have faced yet.” Helvecia will play Middlesbrough in the next round but will be without their players who were given red cards.

Rafa Merino will now focus on the play-offs as Birmingham hope to make it to the grand finals on the 7th of May.

FT 4-7 (AET)

Birmingham: Riley (GK), Guy, Rion, Scott, Jaunito, Igarza, Cristin (GK), Sullivan, Viada (C) , Tout, Lopez

Helvecia: Gazolli (GK), Vitorino, Dickson, Barcelos, Cook, Medina (C), Alberton, Goldstein, Graca, Stewart, Derendiajev, Ferrari

Birmingham 5 - 1 Middlesbrough

Reported by Isaac Barrington

New signing Maradona Chiriac scored twice as Birmingham cruised to victory against Middlesbrough. Rafa Merino took the opportunity to rotate his players, showing the strength in the depth of his squad as the home side controlled the game.

Pol Viada opened the scoring after just two minutes, diverting Rion’s pass past Codd, 1-0. Rion soon doubled the hosts’ advantage, toe-poking the ball home after a pitch-perfect pass from Jaunito! 2-0

Birmingham remained in pole position, and had many more opportunities on goal. Jaunito couldn’t quite turn Tout’s cross in, and Rion blasted one over the bar from the edge of the area.

Boro called a time-out and it was after that that they began to test Poulson between the sticks. The Birmingham keeper was out quickly to clear the danger with McGee lurking, and McAvoy’s shot fell slightly wide.

Birmingham looked to add to the lead, and soon had their third. Codd comfortably saved Sullivan’s and Jaunito’s efforts, but it was Chiriac who finally did beat the Boro keeper. As the visitors looked to be in a good situation, Birmingham broke quickly after McGee struck the bar, and the new signing slotted past the keeper to make it 3-0.

With 13 minutes played, Price robbed the ball from R.Bettson, and unselfishly fed Chiriac for his second of the game! 4-0

R.Bettson had a fabulous opportunity to pull one back, but Birmingham were back in the goalmouth defending in numbers in a split-second.

Perez dragged a shot just wide, and Codd kept Tout’s shot out to ensure that it was only 4-0 going into half-time.

Junior made a fabulous block at the vital moment, and Poulson made a good save,

one-on-one with McGee. It couldn’t have been easier for Pete Bulmer to tap one home on the far post, but he somehow missed the target.

Codd was penalised for handball twice in one minute, for coming out of his area with the ball in his hands. Junior’s dummy only fooled the wall but not the keeper for the first, and his thunderbolt from the second was well blocked for a corner.

Junior and Jaunito linked up suberbly in the best move of the game, and Junior found the corner of the net from close range! 5-0

Guy made a perfectly timed tackle, raced up the other end of the court, but somehow nobody in the centre could convert!

Boro found a consolation with 6 minutes remaining. R.Bettson fired the ball across Poulson and in, however it was never going make a difference to the result.

Birmingham made their sixth foul with 1:29 shown on the clock, but R.Bettson missed the target altogether from the 10m penalty spot.

Youngster Zac Price’s volley was well saved by Codd, and R.Bettson’s shot took a deflection off Guy onto the post and behind.

Birmingham rounded off the season with a 100% record, and everyone involved will be delighted and ready to push on to the Grand Finals!

FT 5-1

Birmingham: Poulson (GK), Guy, Perez, Rion, Jaunito, Chiriac, Price, Hoseni, Sullivan, Viada, Junior, Tout

Middlesbrough: Codd (GK), McAvoy, Evans, R.Bettson, Clark, McGee, Bulmer, Aboulardi, Lazenby, J. Bettson,