By Luke Sheehan
THE St Albans Secondary College futsal team has kicked its way onto the podium, finishing third in the National School Futsal Championships.
Coach Robert Lakoviski said it was an amazing effort from his side, especially given their horror tournament draw.
“It was divided into two groups of five. We had to finish top two to qualify for the semi-finals and we finished equal first…our group was deemed the ‘group of death’,” he said. “Unfortunately tiredness was the key in the semi-finals. Interestingly, the two teams from the ‘easy’ group made it through to the final. Finishing third in Australia was no easy effort.”
Third place at the Nationals for the St Albans side followed victories in the Victorian State Schools Futsal Championship in June and the Victorian Secondary School Sport Association senior soccer title in August; in the latter they went through the season undefeated.
St Albans Secondary College took out the Victorian School Futsal Championships in a thriller, defeating Caroline Springs College 5-4 in the Senior Boys final.
The team’s biggest challenge came in the semi-finals of the State Championship, when they trailed SEDA Yarraville 4-1 shortly after half-time.
Not to be denied, the boys scored the last three goals in the final six minutes to send the game into extra-time. They eventually prevailed in a penalty shootout.
The team list for the National School Futsal Championships was: Mirsad Kaltak, Carl Magri, Jessie Nagy, Enes Kesic, Josip Mijic, Michael Kondoski, Stanamir Krajisnik, Adam Vukovic, Aaron Magri and Nikola Grba.
