There has been no room for a slow burn approach on the futsal court this year.
That has been a change for Southern United.
The side is traditionally among the top teams in the national Futsal Super League.
However, it also typically takes an approach of improving throughout each tournament to peak for the finals. This year’s revamped league
— cutting the tournament week› ends from four to two — has forced it to shift that approach. Coach Darren Hart felt the team had done agood job of that.
The side had been playing plenty of futsal with three trainings per week, as well as a game in Football South’s full court league.
It heads into its second, and final, tournament of the year in Auckland tomorrow.
Southern bagged seven points from the three games in its opening weekend and is placed second.
But the competition remains tight.
It faces the defending champion and top of the table Waikato Rapids first up at 1pm today, before facing Bay of Plenty Surge at 8.30pm.
Auckland City follows at 11.30am tomorrow, before Southern wraps up against the Northern Comets at 5.30pm.
From there the semifinals and finals will be played on Sunday.
Hart said how the team adjusted to the higher level would be key.
‘‘It’ll just be interesting to see how the intensity stacks up when we play Waikato first up.
‘‘It might be abit of a shock the first five minutes, but we do tend to play our best games against the good sides.
‘‘I guess we’ve got to go into it, play without fear, be confident and see what happens.’’
The side has plenty of experence in the likes of Mike Sannum and Carlos Hermann, but also has a youthful aspect to it.
Hart said it was good to have that blend, giving him the option of putting out a line-up to play intelligently and also one that could express them› selves more.
