University of East London’s firsts picked up their third win in as many games on Sunday, as they convincingly saw off an impressive London School of Economics side 10-3 in the South Eastern Conference Cup at SportsDock.
Despite being in the division below UEL, London School of Economics’ firsts boasted the best form in the southern region with five wins and a draw from their last six fixtures. Goalscorer Amine Mimoune noted how the match was tougher than the scoreline suggests.
“It was tightly fought, and there were individual battles all over the court.” Mimoune claimed. “We had to work hard but the quality of our futsal shone through in the end.”
Dominant Start
It was UEL who threatened early on, and after a couple of wasted opportunities they took the lead when pivot Yacine Rabia bundled the ball home after reacting quickest to Bruno Cesar’s ball from the right. Harman Sandhu then doubled the hosts’ lead before Rabia added his second in typical fashion, converting powerfully at the far post.
LSE did look dangerous when they broke forward however, and should have pulled one back early on, but their forward somehow put it over from point-blank range. Their wide players were looking to spring attacks through dribbling and beating players, but James Rene was proving to difficult to beat at the back for UEL.
Goal of the Game
The East Londoners added three more goals before the break, the first of which came from Amine Mimoune, who introduced himself to the match by rifling in a free kick from the edge of the area.
Shortly after this Sandhu scored what proved to be the goal of the game, finishing simply at the second post following an excellent team move starting from the back from goalkeeper Dan Grimes, and involving every player.
Problems
At 6-0, coach Trevor Tamatave warned his players against complacency at half time, but things got slightly worrying after this when the visitors pulled two back at the start of the second half.
With a little more momentum now, LSE were causing more problems than before and could have added another when they saw their effort turned round the post by Grimes, then had a chance tipped onto the bar from the resulting corner.
UEL regained composure however, and began to keep the ball again, making things difficult for the away side.
Quarter Finals
Mimoune completed a skilful run with a smart finish to add a seventh for the Blues, but the visitors then pulled another goal back after winning the ball back in the final third, a common theme for all of their goals on the day.
This wasn’t enough to get them back in the game however, and Sandhu, Mimoune and Rabia all got on the scoresheet once more to complete the day’s scoring, following some really impressive play by the home side, whose performance sees them march through to the quarter finals where they’ll face one of City University or Brunel University seconds.
Former Genesis FC player, Harman Sandhu was impressed with the Blues’ display.
“Obviously I’m pleased to score three, but the first six goals were really good. They were great futsal goals.
“There was some really good futsal build up, and we played them off the court with it at times.”
Next week they’ll be focused on their away tie against Canterbury Christ Church, where they plan to continue their unbeaten start to the season.
Man of the Match: James Rene – Rene’s characteristically determined performance made things extremely difficult for the LSE attack, as he stopped countless attacks off of the ball and controlled the tempo of the game on it.