In December, I was given the opportunity to travel to Zurich with a team representing Middlesbrough Futsal Club in the Unicorns International Fustal Cup. I say ‘representing’ because the squad for the trip included ex Boro boy Jonathan Prosser (now at East Coast), Manchester’s Stuart Cook, (although he’s Cookie to us and always on the Boro guestlist!) Joe Ellard, a futsal enthusiast from Preston who has history with the club and who currently lives in Switzerland and Ben Pearey, Boro Futsal photographer.
There’s never a dull moment with this lot and I jumped at the chance to be part of the trip. Still, going abroad and staying in a converted bomb shelter for four days with 10 boys was always going to be an experience…and when you factor in one room and one giant bunk bed, things get really interesting! Aside from the smell (unbelievable) and the snoring (limited to one or two players but the manager more than made up for it!) it wasn’t too bad. We were all given individual sleeping bags, pillows and blankets and the boys kindly filled the top bunk first to give me some space.
I’m almost one of the boys, but not quite, and as much as I love the team, there was no way I was going to shower with them!
Practical considerations meant I had to have either the first or last shower and as I struggle to get up early at the best of times I usually plumped for last. So, four days of speed showering ensued. Aside from that, we had two days to relax before the tournament got going on the Saturday. Travelling all day Thursday followed by an astronomically expensive night out meant we spent most of Friday asleep.
In between laughing at Eliot Brown’s grasp of geography (Switzerland is apparently next to Finland…) and general team banter, we found a place to eat where the Italian owner was an ex pro footballer who had once played alongside Maradona! – You couldn’t make it up.
During our stay we were also given a guided tour around Fifa’s headquarters, including the press room and meditation area and an informative presentation on Fifa’s different projects.
The hosts of the tournament, Unicorns, had graciously picked us up from the airport when we arrived and were nice enough to drive us to and from the venue each day. They organised food vouchers for all the teams, played Pigbag whenever we played to make us feel at home and the whole tournament was well organised and professionally run.
The official programme lists me as ‘secretary’ because, as the manager said, ‘team bitch didn’t seem appropriate’! Cheers Damon, but it did allow me to sit on the bench, rather than on my own in the stands, something I used to do when I first started to travel with the team. It goes without saying, but for a fan and a reporter, the bench is the best seat in the house. You’re part of the action, involved in the team talks and can literally smell the sweat, lovely.
One of my nicknames at the club is ‘draw devil’ and it seems I struck again as Boro followed up their 7-5 win over All Stars in the opening fixture with a 2-2 draw against Italians Lugano Pro and then drew 3-3 with Collectif Futsal Colmar of France. Burying painful memories of the 2009 FA Cup in Sheffield, when they were knocked out of the Plate after Immy Rashid missed a penalty, Boro beat Collectif 3-0 on penalties to reach the final.
Boro had started with a small squad and the tournament took its toll, a depleted team battled Swiss Champions Geneva for the cup but despite a stunning individual goal from assistant manager Jamie Bettson (stunning not least because absolutely nobody was expecting it!) Boro lost 2-7.
In all honesty with a few more first team players we might have won it, but as it was we equipped ourselves well and represented both our town and our country with aplomb.
Goalkeeper Rui Fernandes deservedly scooped keeper of the tournament, and we were given a second place trophy which we negotiated to get on the plane home!
The tournament gave those who travelled experience of playing different teams from other nations and pumped them up for the second half of their domestic season.
For me it was a chance to visit a new place, watch futsal and be amongst friends. I even got to try my hand at sports photography as photographer Ben was on the bench as injury cover.
I’m grateful to the club for letting me tag along on these little trips and will continue to travel with them as long as they’ll have me. Now it’s just a case of waiting until the season gets going again.
This season is ours!
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