Only two teams have ever got their hands on the futsal championship trophy; OFC founding Member Association Australia, who left the Confederation in 2006, and the Solomon Islands.
With neither side present at this year’s edition of the competition Bret is aware the race is wide open for those nations who are competing.
“We have been working on physical training, and we want to maintain a certain level of fitness in the players for the duration of this tournament,” Bret explains.
He says while results aren’t the most important outcome for this competition the team will still be out to do their best.
“We are trying to prepare this team to get a good result in 2015. The first test was in New Zealand last year and despite displaying some good aspects of play, we weren’t really able to get a good result,” he says.
“This time the tournament will allow us to really see whether we have been able to correct what we did in New Zealand and prepare for the ultimate objective, which is the qualifiers in 2015.”
With futsal on the rise in New Caledonia Bret is confident his team will have the home support they need to fire on the court.
“The national team is of course the showcase for futsal in this country,” Bret says.
“What’s interesting is that there is a growing infatuation for the game. There are more and more registered players, the national team players are doing well and there is a real desire to develop futsal here and that’s what is so interesting at the moment.”
The OFC Futsal Championship Invitational gets underway at the Arène du Sud in Paita, New Caledonia on 12 August. New Caledonia have a bye first up and get their campaign started against Tahiti at 6pm on 13 August.

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