Courtesy: The AFC.com




Sunday, 20 May 2012

Dubai: The national futsal team of Korea Republic arrived in Dubai Sunday morning with star player Kim Jang-goon as the only major absentee from the AFC Futsal Championship 2012 squad.

Kim suffered knee injury a couple of months back and failed to recover in time. The Taeguk Warriors will play two international futsal friendlies against Group B opponents Lebanon and Tajikistan on Monday and Tuesday before opening their campaign on 25th May against 10-time AFC Futsal champions Iran.

Korea Republic have been struggling in recent past in continental futsal but coach Lee Chang-hwan believes that the current squad has the ability to turn things around.

“In fact we feel that we got a very good draw,” he told www.the-afc.com despite having favorites Iran, Australia and Qatar in the group. “We start with a big match against Iran and that will give us clear idea and at the same time will prepare us to face Australia and Qatar in the subsequent matches.

“We will definitely do better than our previous continental campaigns specially the one in Uzbekistan in 2010. Now we are in the third season of national futsal league so the overall qualities of players have been improved.”

Lee also believes that they had ideal training and preparation ahead of the championship despite not playing any international matches earlier.

“We started training from 21st April with 24 players at the Paju National Training Centre. And after two weeks time, we reduced the size by 14 players and played two local friendlies against Yong-in Futsal Club and Seoul Gwangjin Futsal Club so I think the preparation went good.

“We have the potential to finish within top four in the championship and book a ticket for the FIFA Futsal World Cup. We have some young players who are new but have immense potentials,” he added.

Korea qualified for the tournament proper after finishing runners-up in East Zone qualification. The top four teams of the AFC Futsal Championship 2012 qualify for the 2012 FIFA Futsal World Cup to be held later this year in Thailand.




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