Rovers 3:3 FC Guillermo

SHAMROCK ROVERS 3 FC GUILLERMO 3

SHAMROCK ROVERS Futsal team had a number of new players in action in a friendly clash with FC Guillermo at Ballyfermot Leisure Centre today with the exotically named Jandro Hormazabal Riquelme capturing the attention.

Madrid-born Riquelme is no relation to the Argentina legend of the same name but he played his part in a Hoops line-up that also included a Paraguayan, an Italian and a number of Brazilians with Uruguayan Martin Perciavale on the coaching staff!

Rovers started strongly against their oppoents, who are newcomers to the Emerald Futsal League, which will be kicking off in the next few weeks.

Dubliner John Somers had made a couple of decent saves before Brazilian Ewerton tapped home their opening goal five minutes before the break after good work by Felipe Dubau, who had produced a powerful shot.

Unfortunately for the Hoops they did not hang onto their lead for long as FC Guillermo levelled less than a minute later after the ball was deflected home off a Rovers defender.

FC Guillermo are made up of Irish, Argentinean and Spanish players and will prove a decent addition to the Irish futsal scene. They produced an excellent second goal just before the break to move 2-1 ahead.

Rovers captain Vinicius Terco then delivered an equaliser early in the second half when his long range strike was too hot for the FC Guillermo keeper to hold and the ball dropped into the net.

Riquelme put the Hoops in the driving seat when he fired a low strike home after an excellent counter-attack.

FC Guillermo responded well and Paraguayan keeper Dario Fernandez was beaten with a powerful close-range strike.

Shamrock Rovers coach Stephen Finn said: "It was an excellent exercise as we had a number of new faces on show. I don't focus on the results in friendly matches but on the performance and we got that.

"When you introduce so many new faces in one go it can be hard to get a shape to our play but these guys are quick learners and we had a good look about us in attack and defence.

"We were also missing experienced guys like Ian Byrne, Philip McDonagh, Brendan Dawson, Alan Lynch and Alvin Lawlor for this game who will all come into the mix to increase the competition for places.

"The Emerald Futsal League starts in a couple of weeks and we've won it for each of the two years of the league's existence so we'd really like to keep challenging for that title in 2011.

"It was great to give two 16-year-olds Keith and James O'Kelly a run today as well and they both showed up well. Our long term aim is to have a first team, second team and youth team so the more young lads we get in the better."

SHAMROCK ROVERS: John Somers (GK); Vinicius Terco (C), Renan Silva, Felip Bartalini, Richard Maher; Dario Fernandez (GK), Giorgio Cinti, Jandro Riquelme, Felip Dubau, Steve Nicholl, Ewerton, Keith O'Kelly, James O'Kelly, Rodrigo Lourenco.