Solomon Islands futsal coach Vinicius Leite says each day his players are growing stronger as a team during their training camp in Brisbane, Australia.
The Brazilian has been overwhelmed with the national futsal team’s commitment to training since taking the helm of the team this year.
“I think the boys have never worked this hard before.
“Each day we grow stronger and are more united as a team,” he said.
There are few new faces in the current Kurukuru team alongside some experienced players such as Elliot Ragomo, Samuel Osifelo, George Stevenson and Colman Makau.
Vinicius stressed how well the new inclusions are doing in training and their strong bond with the rest of the squad.
“Players are interacting more with each other building more chemistry and the new group of players has adapted well to our training philosophy,” he added.
This year’s OFC Futsal Nations Cup is dubbed to be the most competitive as Tahiti, New Zealand, Vanuatu and hosts New Caledonia will look to dethrone Kurukuru’s dominance in the region.
“I have no doubts that this will be by far, the toughest OFC Qualifiers and that is why we are preparing like never before,” said the Solomon Islands coach.
“We know the challenges ahead of us and each day we sweat more in practice so we bleed less in battle.
“We know it is more difficult to stay on top than it is to get there so we are making sure every day we train harder to stay there,” Vinicius explained.
Kurukuru played two trial matches agianst Galaxy at the Gold Coast Leisure Sports Centre and Vinicius is satisfied with players’ performances.
“We have had two trial matches and so far I am pleased with the individual and team performances overall,” he said.
“Results don’t matter much at these moments despite the two comfortable wins 5-1 and 9-1 but what matters to me at this stage is that players are applying in games.
“What we have been doing in the training sessions in a competitive environment so we can assess what is working and what is not so we can make improvements for the next session to try and minimize the mistakes we make”, he stated.
The national futsal side will be arriving in the country on Friday, 7 June to continue their preparation for the FIFA Futsal World Cup qualifiers at the OFC Futsal Nations Cup in New Caledonia.
The OFC Futsal Nations Cup 2019 tournament will be hosted by New Caledonia between 27 October and 2 November.
