St. George’s Park added another unique event to its list of firsts this week when the England Deaf and Partially Sighted teams went head to head.
Arranged as part of the England Deaf team’s preparations for the European qualifiers in Oslo later this month, Head Coach Paul Harrison said the fixture provided challenges on and off the court as both players and coaches adapted to a unique environment.
England Deaf coach Paul Harrison
He said: “The game was an opportunity for us to play against good opposition who would present us with different challenges.
“We are a relatively new squad; this is only our second time being together, and so for us there is the challenge of making sure the players understand what we have asked them to do.
“One of the challenges was in the first two minutes where we wanted them to press. They didn’t do that and so for me to try and get that information to them is quite difficult; some get it, some don’t.”
For Ian Bateman, Head Coach of the Partially Sighted team, the challenge of facing fully-sighted players allowed his team to test themselves in scenarios quite different to those they normally face.
Bateman explained: “A lot of our players play in the Visually Impaired League, so against other VI players, but that probably doesn’t test us as much as playing sighted opposition.
“Any opportunity to play is fantastic because the benefit of playing games and playing quality opposition can only be good for us.
“Any chance we get, whether that is national league futsal squads, we will go and play because the court time is absolutely key.”
At the final whistle, the result was a 6-0 win to the England Deaf team but Harrison was keen to stress that this was an exercise where overcoming new challenges was more valuable than the scoreline.
Physios get to work in the Futsal Hall
“We wanted to de-emphasise the result. We have been working all weekend in relation to set-plays and movement in attack and defence.
“I am happy for the most part they tried to do some of the things they worked on in training.”
For John McDougal, vice-captain of the Partially Sighted team, it was the challenge of playing against the pace and intensity of the Deaf squad that proved the most beneficial test.
He said: “As much as it is nice to win a game, that wasn’t our purpose for being here today. It is a 14-month cycle until the World Cup and this is the beginning of that cycle.
“When you play against other international teams, whatever team that might be, it is the sharpness, the speed and they [the England Deaf players] are clinical. That is really important to learn and you can’t get that from domestic futsal.”
Jamie Clarke, one of the stars of the Deaf team, believed the performance showed that Harrison's charges were moving in the right direction.
“[We have shown] what we have learned in training and we have done the job in the right way.
"The manager was happy with it and I feel happy for the team because we have done our own job and worked really hard [to win].”
Aside from the technical value of the game, there was also a social benefit. It was the first time the Partially Sighted team had been together in 12 months, and so Bateman and his staff were keen to take advantage of the training camp to reunite and strengthen the social dynamic of the group.
Bateman added: “We talk about the four-corner model in terms of coach education and this event was as much social as anything else.
“Two of the lads are fresh into the squad out of the development group so we need to integrate them into the senior squad, while some of the lads haven’t seen each other for 12 months so that is really key.”
The England Deaf team will play Norway, Russia and France later this month in a bid to qualify for the November’s European Deaf Futsal Championship in Bulgaria.
England v Norway, 22 February
England v Russia, 22 February
England v France, 23 February
