THE 2024 Inaugural OFC Women’s Futsal Nations Cup tournament has been a learning experience for Solomon Islands.
That’s according to the Solomon Islands National Women’s Futsal team head coach Arthur Barko after completing the tournament as the third runners up.
He told Star Sport that their debut at the recent OFC Women’s Futsal Nation’s Cup was a good learning experience for the team.
He said, despite failing to make it to the finals, the tournament serves as a good learning experience for the girls.
“Majority in the team are not Futsal players but eleven a-side football players.
“However, during the course of the tournament the girls have learned so much which can help them in the future,” Barko said.
He added, Futsal is a popular football code in the country, but there has been no inclusive of the girls in Futsal over the years.
“The sport is popular amongst the boys only,” Barko said.
Despite their early elimination from the tournament after suffering three loses and a win in the tournament the team was able to receive the fairest team of the tournament award.
“That means Solomon Islands will still has a bright future in women’s futsal.
“ I’m confident to say that Solomon Islands will have a brighter future in women’s futsal.
“There are lots of hidden talents in the country but the only thing is to raise them well into the game,” the first women’s futsal coach lamented.
The tournament is the first major tournament for the team, as this is the first ever edition of the OFC Women’s Futsal Nations Cup.
Coach Barko said, that their first match against the Tahiti was regarded as their first international match.
“The girls have never played any international match ever before and the match against Tahiti was our first international match,” Barko revealed.
The squad was selected to represent the country after one week of open trial at the SIFF academy.
From there a provisional squad was named and continued with trainings in a month before the actual tournament, Barko added.
He said with the one month (4 weeks) of preparation towards, the first week was just a learning week for the team about the futsal game, including learning the futsal tactics, futsal basics and so forth with only three weeks left for trainings.
“So we do trainings for only 3 weeks and then make our first debut against Tahiti in the opener,” he said.
When asked about how he felt, leading the Solomon Islands first ever women’s futsal team into the first ever OFC Women’s Futsal nations cup tournament, the hardworking coach said; he wants to take a step to build a team for the future.
“I believe so much that the girls have so much talent and we need to work now for the future tournaments,” Barko concluded.
Star Sport understands that, women’s Futsal development needs to step up by organising future competitions.
By having an active women’s futsal league more talents can be identified and selected for the national squad.
By FLOYD TERRY JNR
Solomon Star, Honiara
