By ADEM SARICAOGLU
THE St Albans Strikers have again proved why they are a serious force within the Victorian futsal scene.
Six of the club’s under-14s players will make up more than half of the state team headed for Canberra this week to take part in the Australian National Futsal Championships.
The six include Strikers captain Jonathan Vakirtzis along with Nathan Liberto, Ryan Dragovic, Oner Kucuk, Jamie Gazelle and Paolo Olivia.
Club senior coach Robert Lakovski said this particular age group had enjoyed sustained success for the past several years.
“I think this year having the seven players (goalkeeper James Kapuranovski will miss through injury) originally selected was by far our best result,” Lakovski said.
“In the years gone by I think we’ve had four, maybe five in the squad, so to have seven in there is just fantastic recognition of the talent we’ve got in our club.”
Club under-14s coach Renato Liberto said the result was testament to the commitment the tight-knit group had displayed in their time together both on and off the court.
“They’ve been together for five to six years at St Albans Futsal Club with Rob, so for me I’m pretty pleased that some of these kids have stuck together,” Liberto said.
“I think it’s their determination to try and succeed.
“They’re good friends, they’ve got good camaraderie and they work well together. I think that’s important.
“Rather than being individuals, they play well as a team and support each other.”
Vakirtzis agrees it helps on the court that he and his team-mates have become so close off it.
Last year’s state captain, Vakirtzis is confident his side can improve on past results this week.
“It’s good because being in the state team you get to play against some high quality players,” Vakirtzis said of the national tournament.
“We can really see the professional level of futsal and see how good some of our competitors are in Australia.
“I think we’ve got one of the best teams coming up this year so I think we can go close to winning it.”
