A North Coast team has taken on and beaten some of the nation’s finest futsal players on the Gold Coast last week.

The North Coast United squad took part in the Gold Coast International– Australia’s biggest futsal tournament held over four days at the Gold Coast Sports & Leisure Centre.

The North Coast team took on other region’s from throughout Australia, including teams from Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Victoria, and Port Macquarie.

North Coast United finished second in their pool heading into the final stage of the competition, having four wins and a draw from their first six games.

North Coast United faced the Victorian EFA Eagles in their knockout quarter final.

They would eventually go down 3-1, finishing a successful tournament with four wins and a draw from their seven games.

North Coast United manager Harley Parker said his squad had beaten teams that had much more experience and continuity playing together.

“It is incredible as we have never played together before and these teams are semi-professional,” he said.

Parker identified the key to how his side were able to beat more seasoned rivals.

“We just played really good futsal and they weren’t used to our style,” he said.

The proud manager said there were two clear highlights of his side’s time at the Gold Coast International.

“The highlight was probably beating South Brisbane 6-2 when they were undefeated after five games and they finished on top of our group,” he said.

“Another highlight was making the quarter finals when we had never played together before against semi-professional teams that play together year round, and we could have easily gone further but we just ran out of legs.”

 

By Aiden BURGESS