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The AFC.comTsia targets last eightSaturday, 19 November 2011Kuala Lumpur: After edging Hong Kong in a thrilling East Zone qualification, third-place playoff Chinese Taipei coach Tsia Chia Peng his set his side the target of reaching the last-eight of the 2012 AFC Futsal Championship at the tournament proper in the UAE next May. Chinese Taipei emerged 5-4 winners from entertaining, see-saw encounter that saw the lead switch numerous times and the performance of his side at the Cheras Indoor Stadium and the chance to properly prepare the squad for the finals has boosted Tsia's confidence.
"The key to the victory was all about our fighting spirit and passion for futsal," he told www.the-afc.com.
"We did not give up and made it to the finals even though everyone was very, very tired. Li Chi-chao scored a very important goal for us today. He has very good skills and is physically very strong while Huang Chen-tsung also did a fantastic job for us.
"As most of our players are also 11-aside footballers we didn't have enough time to prepare for the qualifiers and we couldn't play enough friendly matches.
"But I want to be properly prepared for the finals and out target is to reach the quarter-finals."
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The AFC.comChinese Taipei edge nine-goal thriller Saturday, 19 November 2011Kuala Lumpur: Chinese Taipei booked their place in the 2012 AFC Futsal Championship after edging Hong Kong 5-4 after extra-time in the East Zone qualifying competition to join China and Korea Republic at the tournament proper in the UAE next May.
Friday's match at the Cheras Indoor Stadium represented the final throw of the qualification dice for the both teams and their desire to participate in the AFC Futsal Championship was clear to see in a hard-fought encounter that went right down to the wire.
Lo Chih-an opened the scoring for Chinese Taipei but his sixth minute effort was cancelled out after just 120 seconds as Chow Ka Wa drew Hong Kong level.
Liu Chi Chi-chao regained Chinese Taipei's lead two minutes into the second period but again the advantage was short-lived with YipTsz Chun restoring parity four minutes later before Lau Ka Shing gave Hong Kong the upper hand after just sixty seconds.
Hong Kong were just two minutes away from qualifying for the 2012 AFC Futsal Championship when Liu scored his second of the match to force extra-time, in which Chinese Taipei took the initiative with three minutes gone as Lo bagged his brace.
Chu Kwok Leung pulled Hong Kong level four minutes later but it was Chinese Taipei that would have the final say, with Weng Wei-pin scoring the decisive goal in the 49th minute of play to send his side through to UAE 2012.
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The AFC.comChina top East Zone campaignSaturday, 19 November 2011Kuala Lumpur: China emerged the top side of the 2012 AFC Futsal Championship, East Zone qualifiers with a 5-3 extra-time victory over Korea Republic in the final match of the six-team competition at the Cheras Indoor Stadium.
With both sides having already booked their ticket to next May's tournament proper - where they will be joined by Chinese Taipei after they defeated Hong Kong 5-4 after extra-time in the third-place playoff - all that remained to be decided was who would head to UAE 2012 with the honour of being the number one side from the East Zone.
As it transpired it will be the Chinese that will carry that mantle but they had to come from 2-0 first-half deficit to do so as Zhang Xi emerged his side's hero with a late hat-trick.
Korea Republic's own hat-trick hero Shin Jong-hoon, who had scored three times in every game of the qualifying campaign thus far, set himself on the road of making it four trebles in four matches when he opened the scoring in the third minute.
But it was to be Shin's only goal and after Kim Sun-ho had scored four minutes later and Oh Hyun-jong found the net in the 32nd minute to restore Korea's two-goal advantage after Liang Shuang had reduced the deficit in the 24th minute China would go on to dominate the late stages of the game.
The Koreans were 3-1 up with five minutes to go but a quickfire double from Zhang, who scored in the 35th and 36th minutes, drew China level and forced extra-time, one minute into which Zhao Liang put the Chinese 4-3 in from before Zhang sealed the 5-3 win with his hat-trick in the 49th minute.
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The AFC.comTargholizade: China's experience showedSaturday, 19 November 2011Kuala Lumpur: AFC Director of Futsal, Ali Targholizade, believes that China's international experience is a key factor behind them finishing top of the 2012 AFC Futsal Championship, East Zone qualifying campaign.
The Chinese defeated fellow-qualifiers Korea Republic 5-3 after extra-time as the curtain came down on the six-team qualification competition at the Cheras Indoor Stadium on Friday with Targholizade pinpointing participation in international competition as well as highly developed futsal infrastructure as reasons for their success.
"China have taken part in the World Cup and have much more international experience than the other five East Zone countries," Targholizade told www.the-afc.com.
China have taken part in every AFC Futsal Championship since 2002, reaching the semi-finals of the last two tournaments, and participated in the three FIFA Futsal World Cups (1992, 1996 and 2008) and also have a well-developed domestic structure.
"The technical and tactical aspect of the game has improved a lot due to China's increasing experience and because they have a home and away National Futsal League in their country," continued the Iranian official.
The establishment of a strong league and continuing education through courses for coaches and referees are fundamentally important in boosting fustal stresses Targholizade and it is these elements that should be adopted by all Member Associations keen to develop.
One such MA would be Mongolia, who made their international futsal debut at the East Zone qualifiers.
Despite being at the other end of the futsal development spectrum to China, the Mongolians did themselves proud during their time in Kuala Lumpur and Targholizade believes they highlighted their potential in the two matches they played at the Cheras Indoor Stadium.
"In general, I believe that from what we saw of Mongolia from their start in international futsal we will see a lot more of them in further official competitions," he said.
"Large results are normal in futsal and there are more goals due to the very limited space so losing 5-1 to Korea Republic on their international debut was actually a very creditable result for Mongolia.
"They played very well, were very disciplined and respected fair play it was just their lack of international experience and perhaps the sensation of the occasion that led to the result.
"Mongolia performed much better in the 3-0 loss against Hong Kong than they did in the first match although they missed a few chances and conceded goals on individual mistakes," continued Targholizade, who was particularly impressed with the performances of Tsatsral Jargal, scorer of Mongolia's first-ever international futsal goal; skipper Bayasgalan Garidmagnai and Tserenjav Enkhjargal.
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