FCBARCELONA.CAT

20.05.2007 19:03

Mission accomplished

Cristina Collado

It was not easy, but Barça Senseit have managed to stay in the futsal top flight for one more season. It has been a long and difficult year, and injuries to key players have not helped matters at all.

Barça Senseit spent much of the season in the relegation positions, but with one game to spare, they have avoided the drop out of the División de Honor. The side had probably expected to do much better than they actually did, but struggled to adapt to the higher level. And they have also had to contend with numerous injuries, meaning it was very difficult to develop any kind of consistency.

But Barça Senseit got the job done when it mattered, and were able to breathe easily in this weekend’s win over Azkar Lugo, as relegation was at last a mathematical impossibility.

No pressure

The Lugo game was the first of the season in which Barça Senseit had nothing more to play for than entertaining the crowd. Manager Marc Carmona recognised that the lack of pressure caused them to play a fairly weak game. “I wasn’t happy with the way we were playing at half time” he said. “We did not know how to respond to the fact we weren’t playing for anything, we needed a bit more pressure. It wasn’t a good performance from us.”

Javi Rodríguez agreed, when saying “At first you could tell we were too relaxed, because we weren’t playing for anything. We wanted to celebrate with our fans, but there was nothing to play for, we had already secured our place for next season.”

Final victory

But the game ended in a home win. That was what Carmona wanted, so with the game tied at one each, he sent on Javi Rodríguez with three minutes to go. And after the change, Barça scored with the very first attack, Valtinho converting the last goal of the league season. “It has been a very difficult season for me” said the Brazilian. “And for the rest of the team too. So, I think the fans deserved a win in this last game. The manager took a risk just when nobody was expecting it, and it paid off.”

Injury woes

Valtinho’s goal put an end to a troubled season. Things got off to the worst of starts with two injuries to two new signings, Marcelinho and Pedrinho, both of whom were only to return towards the end of the campaign. Another regular first team choice, Chico, spent most of the season on the sidelines, and the knock-on effect was an excessive burden on a tightly-stretched squad. As the coach said, “we only had our full squad available for one week all season”.

“We suffered a lot, mainly because of injuries, and that meant we could not play at the level we would have liked”, said Javi Rodríguez.