Giggs’ Mumbai and Crespo’s Kolkata kicks off with win

NEW DELHI, JULY 15: Mumbai and Kolkata have started their respective Premier Futsal campaign in the best possible manner, emerging victorious in the opening day of the competition at JLN Stadium on Friday. Ryan Giggs’ Mumbai defeated Chennai, while Hernan Crespo’s team got the better of Ronaldinho’s Goa. The score read 4-2 in both the matches.
Premier Futsal 2016 kicked off with Mumbai taking on Falcao’s Chennai, and there were plenty of entertainment for the huge crowd gathered to watch quality players.
It was Mumbai’s Adriano Foglia, who was showing his trademark moves, and trickery to trouble the home team. He even came close, chipping the goalkeeper early on. The Brazilian-born Italian was the most dangerous player for the visitors, and helped score the first goal of Premier Futsal via penalty in the first quarter.Mumbai doubled their lead in the second quarter, as Angellot showed his skills, dribbling past the goalkeeper, and managing to score despite a defender in the goalline. Chennai enjoyed decent possession, but they could not score any goal in the first half.
The game was played at furious place in the third quarter, with some end-to-end stuff, and Fogila showed why he is one of the best futsal players, scoring his second goal of the match. This goal more or less sealed the game for Mumbai, who further stretched the lead with a great strike from French futsal international, Kevin Ramirez in the fourth quarter.
Though the game was in Mumbai’s bag, Chennai scored two goals in the last quarter. One of those came from the legend, Falcao, who blasted the ball into the net with venom.
Mumbai’s Giggs and Foglia were the major stars in the opening game of Premier Futsal, and all eyes were on Goa’s Ronaldinho and Kolkata’s Crespo’s in the second match.
Crespo looked sharp, showing some great turns and touches to take some strikes in the first quarter. It was the Italian player’s team, who scored two quick goals to take an important lead. Mohammed Islam, who scored the second goal for Kolkata, also became the first Indian player to score in the competition.
Though the tournament was played for the first time, Kolkata players looked so comfortable, and linked very well. While Goa was quite static in attack, Crespo’s team were passing the ball swiftly. Neither team managed to find a goal in the second 10 minutes of the match.
But, it was the third quarter, which witnessed some brilliant football, with Raphael scoring for Goa, which was much-need for Ronaldinho’s team. But Crespo increased Kolkata’s lead to 3-1 with a goal few minutes later.
Goa were not giving up, and Vampeta scored in the dying minutes of the third quarter to again increase their hopes of a comeback. They were rather unlucky as they conceded an own goal in the final quarter, and Kolkata were in the driver’s seat to register a 4-2 victory few minutes later. The two victorious teams, Mumbai and Kolkata will face Kochi and Bengaluru respectively on Saturday.

Premier Futsal: the basics
A match will be played in four quarters of 10 minutes each with a two-minute break between every quarter.
A side can field five players from a squad of 13 — six Indian players, one legend, one freestyler and five international players.
The basic formation for a team comprises a goalkeeper, a sweeper, two wingers, and a pivot (striker).
Orange is the equivalent of a yellow card in football, and blue is the red-card equivalent; two orange cards will result in a blue. If a player receives a blue, he will be expelled and replaced by another player from the squad.
Once a team commits five fouls, each foul thereafter will result in a penalty (to be taken nine metres from the goal-line) for the opponent.
A team should have at least one Indian player on the field at all times.
Throw-in, penalty, and a goalkeeper’s release will have to be completed within five seconds.
If the semi-finals and final end in a tie, there will be no extra-time. A best-of-three penalty shootout will decide the winner.
There will be three points for a win, and one for a draw.