The Foundation University Futsal teams brought home the bacon by winning the championship crown in the Men’s division and 2nd place in the women’s division in the Futsal League Visayas Eliminations held in Iloilo City last Sept. 6-11.
The FU teams, led by Giles Roxas, assistant university athletic director, proved to be a surprise to the other teams who had been lording over this sport in the past years.
“Our opponents were veterans and they all looked like seasoned players. We were the dark horse in the tournament,” Roxas said.
The FU Men’s futsal team, with Most Valuable Player John Carl Tuballa, defeated much older and more experienced players from Sta. Barbara, Roxas City, Barotac, Jaro, Bacolod and the Central Philippines University. The CPU and FU were the only university-based futsal teams.
The Best Keeper awards also went to the two goalies of FU, Arnel Montesor and Stephanie Cayongcong, for the men’s and women’s division, respectively.
In the women’s division, the FU futsal players came in second to the Sta. Barbara team.
Roxas said that aside from the improved training their athletes had been getting, their outstanding performance is the product of a new technique introduced by coach Victor Vicente Sinco, who started the team coaching technique. Five coaches agree on the strategy to be implemented by the head coach during the game.
Training has also been strengthened to concentrate on smaller teams playing on smaller fields. Foundation University started its futsal program last year and was rewarded by a stunning 2nd place finish during the First Philippine National Games held last May, losing by only two points against the Philippine team.
The national futsal games will be held in Manila in November.