As a member of the 2013 OFC Futsal Championship Invitational Technical Study Group, Schmeling was introduced to Oceania’s wider talent pools.
He has since been called in to share his knowledge and expertise with a number of different nations over the past 12 months and will be in New Caledonia to cast his eye on the latest edition of the tournament which gets underway this evening.
Schmeling says the Invitational is a great opportunity for him to take in what progress the various teams have made in the past year.
“I remember all of the games from last year very well. We had two countries from Asia – Australia and Malaysia – that showed a superior knowledge of the game, especially tactically,” he recalls.
“From the Oceania side, we had New Zealand, Tahiti, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and a New Zealand Invitational. New Zealand and Tahiti displayed good performances playing some good games against Oceania and Asian sides.
“I think these two teams were the best performers from Oceania in that tournament.”
Schmeling says the technical skills of Solomon Islands and Vanuatu were outstanding, but what they seemed to be lacking was tactical organisation on the court.
“In particular Solomon Islands couldn’t show the performances they had in the past, especially from the last World Cup.
“We also had New Caledonia with some good players but they were not organised tactically and the New Zealand Invitational were a side with very young players with no experience of international futsal games.”
Running an academy of his own in Australia, Schmeling is no stranger to the game and has leant his expertise to three OFC Member Associations.
“I worked with the Solomon Islands last FIFA World Cup, Vanuatu two months ago with the OFC Futsal Course Level 2 with coaches and the national team and three weeks ago in New Caledonia with the national team for three days,” he explains.
“For me, Solomon Islands has some of the best technical players in Oceania that could play at many professional clubs around the world, but they are not training and they will not play in the tournament in New Caledonia.
“Vanuatu and New Caledonia are very similar, they are still training and the coaches are still pushing and working with the team but New Caledonia has an advantage over Vanuatu because they have great facilities, and great arenas that allow them to develop programmes or organise national or international games.”
With five sides returning to compete for the second consecutive edition of this competition, Schmeling believes some exciting games are in store for audiences.
“My expectation for this competition is to see some technical and tactical improvement with close results and exciting games,” he says.
“New Caledonia, New Zealand, Tahiti and Vanuatu kept training after the tournament in Auckland last year which is very important. I believe that we will see positive things from the last OFC Championship.”
Runners-up to Australia last year, Schmeling says he thinks Malaysia will have the edge over their Oceania opponents again this year, and are the favourites to take home the trophy.
“Malaysia will be a very strong tactical team again for countries from Oceania, but I hope we can see some exciting games against them with some close results.
“This year I still believe New Zealand and Tahiti can play well again, but I think we’ll see good improvement from Vanuatu and New Caledonia too.”

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