If the Tahitian Futsal team are to have success at the OFC Futsal Championships in Suva this week a lot of credit will go to Scott Gilligan, the technical advisor working with the side.
Since April of this year, Gilligan and head coach Rani Bea have been living with the squad in a football academy in Tahiti, training twice a day with every Sunday off.
Gilligan is the current Australian futsal coach and was approached to help prepare the Tahiti team for the OFC Championships.
“Tahiti embraced Futsal for the first time last year,” Gilligan said. “The first ever tournament attracted 20 teams and the winner earned the right to represent Tahiti at the OFC Futsal Championships.”
Gilligan said that eight players in the Tahitian side are from the small island of Rapa – where there is no airport and they have to take a boat across to the main Island.
Though the team has only been playing Futsal for a short time Gilligan said he was impressed with how far they have come and developed.
“There have been big improvements across the board for all our players, everyone has really improved a lot. There are no outstanding stars but collectively we work well as a unit. I think we will shock a few teams.”
Gilligan was level headed about his expectations from the tournament.
“The intention is to come here and win but I think realistically Solomon Islands are the team to beat. However there are some aspects of the game like pressure defence and scoring goals on the back post that Tahiti do better than the Australian team so you never know.
“But it is a learning curve for them, only the goalkeeper has ever been out of the country from the squad.”
Gilligan said it was difficult to try and control their excitement because he didn’t want it to affect their game.
“They are very excited. I want them to feel like it’s just another game but I know their level of excitement is just going to keep them buzzing.”
Gilligan said Tahiti carries a young squad with an average age of 22 and have had the advantage of training in some quality facilities in Tahiti.
“We trained on full sized pitches – which were a godsend in more ways than one. A lot of countries haven’t been training on a full court, and we have trained for 100 minutes, rather than 70, so we are very well conditioned.”
Tahiti have a bye on Match Day One and will face Tuvalu first up at 20H00 on match day two.