The 14 Girls Futsal team took a big leap for female futsal at the FNC 2012 Futsal Championships in January and brought home the first gold medal in female futsal.

It has been a long haul.  The early days of Junior FFV State Futsal in 2006 were a struggle with most Victorian State girls teams finishing at the bottom of the ladder. But each year saw a significant improvement and the style and quality of play improved in successive years.  This enabled Victorian State teams to move into semi-finals and then finally to take the stage in Grand Finals. 

Previous Grand Final results 
2006   Thunder 2 - Victoria 1   U14  
2010   Thunder 4 - Victoria 0   U13 
2010   Thunder 2 - Victoria 0   U16 
2011   Thunder 4 - Victoria 2   U11 
2011   Thunder 7 - Victoria 2   U12 
2012   Thunder 1 - Victoria 0   U13 
2012   Lightning 2 - Victoria 4  U14  

Year 2011 saw the second year of Victorian MFL female futsal and gave many players the opportunity to play in a competitve environment - the need to move quickly in a confined space, the logic of attack, to shoot for goal without hesitation and the rapid interconversion from defence to attack.  The girls in the current squad came from the EFA Eagles, Cobras and Bayside Pirates and these clubs also competed in the FFV Futsal Club Championships that were held in Bendigo and Geelong.

The origins of the current U14 State year started in 2009 as an U11 squad and the three original players grew from year to year to make the current team.  It was truly a great effort in that the Victorian team tackled the might of the NSW teams who have a well established competitive system of 20 teams in their Futsal league.  The Victorian State U14 team finished with 6-1 win/loss record.  The squad started slowly but moved into full gear mid-way through the Nationals - taking out SNSW 4-1 in the semi-final and defeating Lightning 4-2 in the Grand Final.  Although Grand Finals are filled with anxiety, the team started strongly and had a 2-0 lead within 5 minutes and would have been 3-0 when a blistering shot nearly destroyed the cross-bar.  The final goal with 30 seconds to go capped off a great game and set the team for a mighty jubilant Victorian dance.

But the struggle does not stop there - we have a vision to go one step closer in our upcoming U14 squad and to defend ourselves again next year.  The aim is to present the best 10 Victorian girls to present our skills at the Nationals.  While Futsal inherently improves the skill of a football/Futsal player - we aim to show that Victoria can continue the climb up that Futsal ladder and be the top team.  The third female MFL competition starts this year - contacts for the female clubs can be found on the FFV website or by contacting the FFV representative.  Playing within the MFL gives every player the opportunity to trial at the next Victorian Futsal trials.

By John Perich