Kodiaks futsal teams off to ACAC championship

By Justin Seward - Lethbridge Herald on March 15, 2022.

Both Lethbridge College Kodiaks futsal earned berths into the ACAC championship after taking care of business at Ambrose University in Calgary on Saturday.
The men’s team went 2-0 at qualifiers three weeks ago and only had to win one of their two games at Ambrose University to earn a spot in the provincial tournmanet, and they did just that by defeating Ambrose 4-3 before falling to Medicine Hat College 6-5.
The women’s team had to win both games to join the men’s team at provincials and beat the Ambrose Lions 10-2 and Medicine Hat College 5-1.
The women had to beat Medicine Hat by two goals or more.
“I thought the teams played awesome,” said Sean Carey, futsal head coach
“Especially both (of the) girls game — they knew the importance of what they had to do for making championships and they showed up for both games and we had a plan the last two weeks. We (practiced) some tactical stuff and it worked on the weekend. With the boys, we knew you win the first game we were already in championship. So we put a lot of focus on the first game and the second game we tried some new things that we will try at championships.”
Carey added, “We played some great attacking style of futsal and yeah just got rewards for it.”
Carey felt the men’s strength was resiliency on the field.
“Being down 3-1 at halftime against Ambrose, we still at that point didn’t think that we were going to lose the game,” he said.
“And they came out of the blocks, like the first 15 minutes, they really took it to us. And you know what, kudos to Ambrose, they deserved to be ahead, as they were. But the boys stuck with a plan and just grinded away and we got a couple of quick goals and that really deflated them.”
As for the girls, it was the hunger the players had on the field.
“We just wanted it more than anybody else,” said Carey.
Carey says the expectation every year is to set foot on the field and win the banner.
The coaching staff will now shift their attention to reiterating to the players what works and what doesn’t before departing for Edmonton.
“The boys have a really legit shot of maybe going for the gold medal,” he said.
“We’ve got a couple of players that are exceptional and at another level … I think the boys, if they can keep the ball out of our own net, we’ll have a really legit shot of going the whole way. The girls, on their end, they need to just tighten up defensively —like going forward now we’re strong — but there’s some really strong programs on the girls side too that will have a lot of futsal history and winning championships.”