Kurkuru leaves next week for Turkmenistan
By Taromane Martin
MENTAL fitness will be a concern for the Solomon Islands national futsal team, the Kurukurus, when they travel next week for the fifth Asian Indoor and Martial Arts game in Turkmenistan.
The Kurukurus will leave the country Monday next week travelling via Fiji where they will spend two nights before flying to Singapore.
From Singapore the team will travel to Thailand on September 15 before flying over to Turkmenistan for the first game against Hong Kong on September 16.
With the Kurukurus set for a long journey, Head Coach Jerry Sam says mental fitness will be an area of wary for their first game which is very crucial.
“It will all come down to our mental fitness. Physically the boys are prepared but with the travelling scheduled the boys will be tired and as I said it will all come down to our mental fitness,” Coach Sam said.
“For now our preparation is towards our first game which is very important. We’ve watched some clips of some of our opponents just to give the boys an idea of what level and intensity they need to reach.
“At the moment we are confident in our preparation so far. However, the first game is very important as it will determine the level of confidence in the team,” he said.
The Kurukurus who played their final friendly match with a Honiara Select side yesterday managed to secure an 8-3 win.
Despite the win Coach Jerry Sam feels his team still need to work on their defence and step it up a little to the level he is expecting at the games.
“This is a new Kurukuru team. There are a lot of new players which I’m trying groom, build their confidence for the 2019 OFC qualifiers.
“I feel we are two steps ahead in our preparations with the movements we have been learning so far.
“The players especially the new ones need to have confidence with themselves. For me as a coach I believe the more we have possession, the more our confidence will build and the more chances we can create on the attack.
“However, overall, I’m really happy with the boy’s performance though there were some areas we slacked on a bit.
“Throughout the week we have been working hard on it because the players need to step up to the level I’m expecting at the games. Tactically we need to improve and step up on our defence,” the coach said.
Jerry Sam meanwhile thanked the Honiara Select side for the friendly stressing, “It was a very tough game for us physically but not tactically. This is the type of intensity I want to expose the boys to,” he said.
