Courtesy: New Straits Times


Futsal: Not good enough

MALAYSIA missed out on qualification to the 2012 AFC Futsal Championship after finishing third in the Asean zone qualifying Group C in Bangkok yesterday.

A 14-3 win over Cambodia was not enough for the national futsal team to advance to the semi-finals of the qualifiers as Australia held Vietnam 2-2 to finish second with five points, a point ahead of Malaysia.

Malaysia held Australia to a 4-4 draw after scoring two goals in the final three minutes on Wednesday and lost 4-0 to Vietnam in the opening match on Tuesday.

Vietnam played the final 10 minutes against Australia a man down after Nguyen Hoang Gian was shown the red card with the score tied 1-1 before Nguyen Trong Thien’s 36th minute strike salvaged a draw for the group winners to cancel a Chris Zeballos goal which had given Australia a 2-1 lead.

With the final group games kicking off at the same time, Malaysia needed to overcome a 19-goal difference and hope that Vietnam would beat Australia.




Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com