Jesus VelascoBarça futsal coach, was satisfied with his team’s advance to the semifinals of the ‘playoff’ for the League title despite losing 3-4 to ElPozo Murcia, making it a good 1-3 first leg for a 6-5 aggregate, but issued a warning to his players: “We must take note of what we learned in this tie to face what remains.”
ElPozo managed to force extra time with Gadeia making it 2-4 in the last minute of regulation time at the Palau Blaugrana. Barça reacted and a goal from Matheus in the first minute of extra time gave them the classification.
“They have made life very complicated for us and they have been about to throw us out,” he lamented. Velascoexplaining that “when we have been aggressive in defending from five to four it has worked out well for us, but it is very complicated when you are winning. In the last seven minutes we have gone behind and we have failed”.
And he argued about the start, with 0-1 until Adolfo equalized shortly before the break, that “they had to take risks and we have surely entered a bit with the idea that we are in the semifinals and that is how the first half has died, in which we have not been up to the task. In the second half we have shown what we are, we came out with a different spirit, we came from behind and we had that feeling that we were superior. We are a great team, but only when we have the ball and they have taken it from us”.
Velasco was critical of the goalkeeper-player rule, an attack of five that ElPozo used frequently: “The regulations allow it and they have respected it, nothing can be said but if we want this to improve, for there to be more money, for us to be professionals, for there to be more television stations and for more people to come and see us, we have to change the regulations. The big problem is that futsal is not of interest to football and that is why the regulations are not changed. Only if they put the rule of the field behind. If you want to attack in 20×20 you have plenty of space and if you don’t want to, now you have 40×40 and it’s very complicated. In the end you don’t see a dynamic game, which is what makes this sport spectacular and someday someone has to change it”.
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