The Oceania futsal Kings, the Kurukurus is set to start their journey for Colombia next month.
Head Coach Juliano Schmelling confirmed this to the local media yesterday in a press conference.
The team will be heading to Australia early next month to play their friendly matches against Australia national futsal team.
From Australia they will travel to Brazil to wrap-up their preparations with friendlies against Brazilian professional clubs before they will be heading to Colombia for the 2016 FIFA Futsal World.
“The Kurukuru boys have been training since March preparing for the main tournament in September,’’ he said.
“We’ve only have one and half week to train here before flying out to Australia to start the process of our friendly games,’’ he said.
He said the trip to Australia is very important for the team in their preparation.
Juliano and his assistance coach Jerry Sam will also name their final 14 men squad to represent the country in Colombia next week before flying to Australia.
Currently both coaches are working with 23 players who are vying for their spaces in the final squad.
From the 23 players’ captain Elliot Ragomo and George Stevenson are currently doing their preparation in Brazil while James Egeta is playing in Australian national league.
Kurukuru have been pooled alongside two top 10 futsal countries, Argentina and Kazakhstan while Coasta Rica is ranked top 20.
Despite being drawn in a pool of death, Juliano said their goal is to make it to the second stage of the competition.
“We know we are being pooled in a challenging pool but were are prepared for it,’’ he said.
“We know the difficulty to play against Argentina, Kazakhstan and Coasta Rica,’’ he said.
“But we are preparing to play this three good games.’’
“Our goal is to qualify for second round,’’ he said.
Juliano also stressed that he has confidence in his boys with the intensive training program they have and with the support of SIFF and their major sponsor SIPA.
Meanwhile Elliot and Stevenson will join the team in Brazil before they will travel together to Colombia.
By CROFTON UTUKANA
