Tia Berg will be travelling to Italy to play Futsal for Australia

The 18-year-old was selected off of her performance at the National Futsal Championships held at Hawkesbury Indoor Stadium last month.

She represented the NSW City West Youth Women’s team for a third time over the past four years.

Berg plays both soccer and futsal in the the National Premier Leagues 2 (NPL2).

She plays club futsal for the West City Crusaders.

She has been a standout player for the past few years and achieved selection to the NSW City West squad.

Both her club and representative teams have consistently played together over the past few years.

Her representative squad made the leap to the seniors competitions this year.

“We previously played a competition at the start of summer in September and then one in January, but this year it was just the one in January” she said.

Berg was very happy with her performance as she scored two goals and set up around another five for her teammates throughout the whole tournament.

“I’m happy that I was able to hit the back of the net a few times and assisted a few goals for my teammates,” Berg said.

“It was the best I have played in really a very long time … It was good to get back to that level.

“I’m so happy with how myself and my teammates played in the tournament.”

NSW City West came second in their pool and won the Championships Silver Plate.

“Apart from coming second my favourite moment from the tournament was when we were down 0-1 by half time, but came back and won 5-2,” she said.

“In that game I was able to score one and set up a few as well.”

Berg was contacted a few days later about her selection to the AFA’s Australian youth women’s team.

She is excited that she gets the chance to represent Australia and travel to a place like Italy to play.

The Australian team won’t have a chance to train together until they reach Italy.

Berg is expecting that she will need to put in a lot of hard work in the lead up to the trip.

“I’ll be training a lot more and be putting in a lot of hard work to get myself ready.

“I think I’ll do alright.

“I’ve been playing well this last year.

“I want to keep this form when I go to play for Australia.”

Berg is looking towards taking the step up to the NPL1 in 2019, which well help her become a better and stronger player in all forms of the game.

If she is unable to make the leap this year she just wants to continue improving her game so she can make it next year.

Berg has just graduated from Richmond High School and is planning on beginning her future studies.

“I will hopefully be attending TAFE this year where I will be studying to become a Personal Trainer.”

She is looking forward to the cup in Italy later this year where she is confident in her and her teams ability.