Courtesy: Khaleej Times


UAE start with a victory

by Hisham Al Gizouli

26 May 2012

Hosts UAE started their AFC Futsal Championship campaign with a convincing 3-1 victory over Turkmenistan at Al Wasl indoor hall on Friday evening.

Yousuf Al Qawadi put the home team ahead in the 5th minute of the first period, but the visitors levelled the result eight seconds only before the break after captain Atayev sent home the equaliser with a lovely move.

However, the Boys in White did the better work in the second half and Badr Ebrahim made it 2-1 in the last five minutes of the fast-paced clash and Abdul Karim increased the advantage to 3-1 in the dying minutes of the clash.

Meanwhile, In another clash, Australia beat Qatar 3-1 at Al Shabab Stadium. And early in the afternoon, China cruised to a sweeping 5-2 victory over Indonesia to show the way at the top of Group B at the Al Shabab Stadium.

Hu Jie claimed a double as Cong Lin, Deng Tao and Zhao Liang struck for China ahead of the second clash against Uzbekistan on Saturday. After a great start, Indonesia were only unlucky in the final touch and China led 1-0 two minutes from the halftime after Jie did the better work upfront.

“We knew the Indonesia goalkeeper is good in air so the possible way to beat him was to rely on the ground shots,” Chinese Brazilian coach Guilherme Carvalho Franco Da Silveira said after the match.

The Indonesian fought back to level the result before the interval with a lovely move from Atif Tamimi. But, once again the Chinese took the initiative and Zhao Liang made it 2-1 after the break.

Zhejiang Dragon FC star Deng Tao scored a goal in the 29th minute and created one for his club mate Cong Lin to further harass Indonesia. Captain Hu Jie scored the fifth Chinese goal right at the death after Denny Handoyo gave a ray of hope for the Indonesian in the 35th minute with a sublime goal

Kuwait held Uzbekistan to a 1-1 draw in Group D opener.

Abdulrahman Almosabehi put the Kuwaitis ahead as early as 6th from a corner through an own goal from Konstantin Sviridov. But the 2010 finalists made a quick comeback to the match through through Dilshod Irsaliev three minutes later.

“We were not in our best in first 30 minutes,” said Uzbekistan’s Spanish tactician Pazos Mandez Jose Maria.

“Nothing to take away the brilliant match Kuwait played, we could have won the match later in the second half,” Pazos was referring two Uzbek shots deep into the second half which kissed the bar and deflected back in playing area. Kuwait play Indonesia and Uzbekistan take on China on Saturday.

In another clash, a brace by Alisher Ulmasov in the final 30 seconds helped Tajikistan to cruise to a 6-4 victory over Chinese Taipei as the two Group B outsiders opened their campaigns.

Lo Chih visited the back of the net in the early minutes and the Chinese and Sharipov doubled the East Asians’ lead before Han Chang made it 3-0 with three minutes of the first period remaining with a well-taken angled drive.

Fatkhullo Fatkhuloev reduced the deficit to 1-3 but Chinese Taipei maintained their three-goals difference just seconds later when Han added the fourth goals for Chinese Taipei’s a second later. Jumaev again reduced the deficit to 2-4 seven minutes later

Tajikistan pulled one back inthe 25th minute when Jumaev skilfully curled the ball past Shih, who was beaten again seven minutes later following a powerful drive from Orzu Dodkhudoev.

And Shih would be picking the ball out of the net for fourth time in the match when Nazarov’s shot was deflected past the helpless keeper by Yang Chao-hsun asthe Tajiks levelled the match at 4-4.

And with just 30 seconds remaining Chinese Taipei were caught by a quick counter-attack allowing Alisher Ulmasov to turnthe tide of the match in Tajikistan’s favour.

In the final match of the afternoon, A Rafael Henmi’s penalty with 8 seconds left to play gave Japan a dramatic 3-2 victory over Lebanon in Group B.




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