Beach Soccer - Friendly match shows Seychelles have much to work on |28 March 2015

Beach soccer is relatively new to the sands of Seychelles, but with its fast development since its inception here, it is clear that much improvement is needed on the pitch to continue on this upward curve.

The public got a taste of how far we’ve come in the sport when they saw Seychelles playing a friendly game on Thursday evening against Lokomotiv Moscow, one of the sport’s top clubs.

Lokomotiv Moscow are former European and world champions and they have been training alongside the national team since their arrival, sharing their skills and experience with the national side who also boast the coaching talents of Brazilian star Bruno.

Thursday’s friendly match started slowly and at the end of the first period of play the score was 1-0 in favour of the Russians after defender Anton Shkarin’s goal.

Lokomotiv Moscow stepped up a gear in the second tier as they scored six times to take the score to 7-0 at the break.
Lokomotiv’s experience was clear though as they kept the ball in the air with high passes and some acrobatic finishes.

The Russian side scored three more goals in the third period to bring the score to 10-0, the final one coming from Anatoliy Peremitin who completed a hat-trick to finish as the top scorer.

Lokomotiv Moscow’s Ilya Leonov stated after the match that beach soccer is still new to Seychelles and therefore it will take a while before we reach a higher level, but with more training and commitment from the players we can surely improve.

The main difference between the two sides was that Seychelles kept playing the ball on the ground which proved to be a tough task as the ball kept changing directions or failed to reach the intended target because of the sandy and uneven surface.

The two teams will meet in a second friendly encounter today at 11am at the Roche Caïman sand pitch.

S. N.