In the coming days, Maltese representative teams in all categories will be engaged on the international scene, with pride of place going to the ‘A’ side who will face Lithuania on Wednesday in a friendly international at the Hibernians Ground, Corradino.
This will be the first match for Malta’s national team after the excellent performance in the 2-1 victory over Hungary in a UEFA 2008 Championship qualifying match on 11October. In this preparatory follow-up match, vocal support from the Maltese public is urged so that the team can perform to the best of its abilities against this emerging team who managed to hold Italy to a 1-1 away draw in a Euro Championship match recently.
In the Under-21 category, Malta are playing Tunisia today in a friendly encounter. Lack of competition for Mark Miller’s team has made it necessary for friendly matches to be arranged and the MFA has made provisions for this so that the Under 21 side is kept in trim and also for the coach to draft new players in the squad.
Meanwhile the Under 19 team are aiming to keep up the pace after their encouraging venture in the recent UEFA Championship, when they drew 1-1 with hosts Denmark and then Finland. There are two scheduled friendlies for this youths side, both against Georgia in the first week of December.
The Malta Under-17 team, guided by Oliver Spiteri, will also be in action in the UEFA mini-tournament starting from Friday and ending on the following Wednesday. The teams in our group will be Italy, Serbia and Andorra.
The matches will be played at the Hibernians ground, Corradino and the Victor Tedesco Stadium, Hamrun. Support for our youngsters is needed, with the students also being given the opportunity to attend the matches.
Even the women are making their international appearance between the 18 and 23 November. The side, coached by Pierre Brincat, are due to travel to Luxembourg to take part in the UEFA Championship 2007-2008 mini-tournament. They are in a group A3 comprising Lithuania, Luxembourg and Slovakia.
To cap a busy period for the Malta teams, the Futsal national side is set to play a match against an Italian club side in preparation for the UEFA Championship mini-tournament to be held in Malta between 15 and 21 January 2007. The team, under the charge of new Czech coach Michael Striz, will face Georgia, Cyprus and Kazakhstan in their group.
These commitments for all our national teams are evidence that the MFA is working constantly to keep enhancing our levels in the several representative categories. Only in this way can the desired progress be maintained.
Alex Vella
MFA Media Communications Officer