A weakened Genesis side bowed out of the FA Futsal Cup at the hands of title challengers London Helvecia.
The game was expected to be an easy win for the hosts Helvecia as Genesis were missing key players through injury and suspension, including England U23 goalkeeper George Green and dangerous attacking threat Claudio Ribeiro. On the other hand, Helvecia’s side was star-studded with England internationals including Richard Ward and former Genesis defender Max Kilman.
Tough Battle
Without a recognised keeper available, Genesis opted to utilise player-coach Manuel Saramento as a fly-keeper, allowing him to regularly join attacks and give the away side an extra man in possession. This was something Helvecia didn’t appear to be expecting, despite taking an early lead, the subsequent period of the game panned out fairly evenly, with Genesis seeing a lot of the ball.
However, the half began to swing in Helvecia’s favour, as they started to carve open Genesis’ defence and create more chances, eventually doubling their lead when Ruben Santos dispatched from close range following Russell Goldstein’s square pass. Genesis then managed to create a couple of chances of their own, as Claudio De Almeida saw his effort cleared off of the line, shortly before Liam Hunt converted Sonny White’s low cross to pull one back for the visitors.
For a while it seemed Genesis may be trailing at half time by only the slenderest of margins, but late goals from Guilherme Monti and Vladimir Derendiajev gave the home side a three-goal cushion just before the break. At 4-1, Genesis were still very much in the tie and their young side had coped relatively well with the threats of Helvecia, limiting them to just a few chances that they had finished clinically.
Troubling
During the second half, Helvecia stepped up a gear, as Santos scored in the opening minute shortly before Monti and Ward’s goals made it 7-1 to the hosts as they continued to cause Genesis problems off the ball. The movement of Ward was particularly troubling as he was constantly finding space around Genesis’ goal, soon adding an eighth for the home side. Youngsters Sonny White and Brandon Hubbard both had chances for Genesis, but they failed to trouble Mario Gazolli in the Helvecia goal.
James Webb then made it nine for the home side after capitalising on some sloppy defending, before making it 10-1 shortly after, finishing off Monti’s pass. Monti then set up Derendiajev twice in quick succession with the latter finishing neatly on both occasions, making it 12-2 to Helvecia, who were carving out chances at an alarming rate.
This didn’t dishearten Genesis though, who pulled two goals back late on, the first coming from fly-keeper Saramento who completed his run up-field with an accurate finish into the corner, with Liam Hunt adding another consolation just moments later. It was Helvecia and Ward that rounded off the evening’s scoring however, as the England International tapped a free kick in at the back post to make it 13-3.
Captain’s View
Despite the result Genesis captain Adam Barr still took positives from the game. “I think the first half was 4-1 when it ended and we’d started a new system of high-pressure defending on the halfway line and it worked really well. You have to play in different ways against the top teams in the league because I think there’s 11 England internationals in their side whereas whereas there’s four of our players that are in the England under 19’s or 16’s.”
Barr added “I don’t think anything went wrong, I just think we tired. At the start of the first half we let in four or five goals and that costs you and then it’s game over I’m afraid, there’s still plenty of positives to take from the game, the youngsters always impress but tonight they really impressed.
“They aren’t just playing against anyone, these are England internationals that have been to the World Cup and European Championship qualifiers and Liam (Hunt) got two goals whereas Sonny (White) showed real maturity in his performance and Brandon and Jason are developing well.”
