Castellón at the treble

By Andy Hall

Playas de Castellón FS can keep alive their dream of a hat-trick of UEFA Futsal Cup successes when they enter the second qualifying round this week.

Major hurdle
The Spanish team were winners of the first two editions of the UEFA competition for the best club sides in Europe, but only the winners of their Group A mini-tournament, being played at Torrejón de Ardoz on the outskirts of Madrid this week, will progress to this season's two-legged final on 24 April and 1 May.

Tough opponents
Standing in Castellón's way are mini-tournament hosts, and Spain's top team, Boomerang Interviú FS, along with Dutch hopefuls ZVV West Stars and Ukrainian contenders FC InterKrAZ Kyiv. Castellón coach Eduardo García Belda, or Miki as he is known, believes the club have every chance, telling their official website: "The team are coming into form, and everyone is expecting us to reach the final. But we can take nothing for granted."

First success
Castellón began life as Club Macer FS in 1983 and took just five years to reach the División de Honor, the élite league for Futsal clubs in Spain. While in the División de Honor, they changed their name to Bisontes de Castellón before arriving at their current appellation in 1994. After six seasons of near misses in league and cup, their first major success came with the Spanish title in 2000.

Familiar names
Things took off in 2001/02, when under Faustino Pérez, the club famously won the first edition of the UEFA Futsal Cup. After a finals tournament played in Lisbon, the Spanish side beat Belgium's Action 21 Charleroi 5-1 in the decisive match. It was a similar story the following year when, after qualifying for the competition as holders, Castellón beat Charleroi again, this time by a 7-5 aggregate score after a two-legged final.

Strong defence
That triumph ensured they would be back to defend their crown in 2003/04, and Castellón have made a strong claim to win it again. In last October's qualifying round they comfortably saw off Csö-Montage Budapest FC of Hungary, Beer Sheva of Israel and Cyprus's AGBU-Ararat Nicosia FC.

Boomerang challenge
Castellón's domestic season has also been impressive. Under the guidance of Miki, the club have lost just twice in the league since Christmas. However, they will need to excel themselves if they are to dethrone Boomerang, who are eight points clear at the top with just seven games to go. Yet confidence is high and following their latest league win at the weekend, Josema, one of the stars of last year's success, said: "Our performance will increase morale even more ahead of the next set of qualifiers for the Futsal Cup."

Big stage
On 7 March, Castellón lost 3-1 to Boomerang in the final of the Spanish Cup, and Brazilian side AC Carlos Barbosa defeated them 6-3 in the Intercontinental Cup final on 22 February. However, such experiences on the big stage have only hardened Castellón's resolve to do well in the UEFA event.

Third chance
Most observers feel that although each of the four Group A teams will meet once over three days of action on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, it will all come down to the final match. That will see Castellón and Boomerang go head to head in what will very possibly be a winner-takes-all affair. Given Castellón's experience in this competition, they may just believe they have what it takes to make it third time lucky.