Courtesy:
The AFC.comIran 9-0 AustraliaSunday, 27 May 2012Dubai: Iran outlined their status as the overwhelming tournament favourites with an emphatic 9-0 win over Australia on Sunday that set up a 2012 AFC Futsal Championship quarter-final showdown with Uzbekistan in what will be a meeting between the 2010 tournament's champions and runners-up.
After dominating the majority of the opening exchanges of the first-period Iran broke the deadlock in the 11th minute when skipper Vahid Shamsaee released Mohammad Taheri down the right channel he drilled the ball past Angelo Konstantinou.
Iran continued to lay siege on Australia's goal and after Futsal's top international goal-scorer Shamsaee had made it 2-0 Ali Hassanzadeh knocked in Ahmad Esameilpour's penetrating cross for Iran's third.
With four minutes left on the clock Ghodrat Bahadori waltzed through the Australian defence to make 4-0 with a superb individual effort.
Iran continued from where they left off with Taheri latching onto Mohammad Keshavaraz's flick to score his second and Iran's fifth before Hossein Tayebi became the fifth Iranian to get his name on the scoresheet in the 31st minute.
Two minutes later it was 7-0 with Hassanzadeh bagging his brace after being set up by Bahadori and with less than three minutes left Javad Asgharimoghaddami got in on the scoring act but as fitting his iconic status in the sport it was Asian futsal legend Shamsaee the had the final say scoring Iran's ninth and final goal.
Courtesy:
The AFC.comQatar 6-3 Korea RepSunday, 27 May 2012Dubai: Qatar recorded their maiden win in the AFC Futsal Championship as the debutants recorded a 6-3 win over Korea Republic in an academic match played at Al Shabab Club Stadium on Sunday.
Debutant Qatar will be leaving with their head held high as the entertaining affair was their historical win in the continent.
Amro Mohssein Abdelaal, who missed out first two matches due to suspension showed what he is worth off as he created a goal in the 7th minute for Shalem Khalifa and later wrote his name in the scoresheet in the 21st minute.
Korea hit back with a lucky deflection goal which was given as an own goal off Muneer Mohammad, but Qatar players ensured that they go home with at least something to cheer about.
Muneer, Saad Bilal, Rashid Yousuf and Ali Al Sabah also scored a goal apiece before Korea pegged back two through Kim Min-kuk and power-player Kim Jenognam.
Qatar came in the tournament with expectations high given their form in the West Zone Qualifier which they had won beating Kuwait in the final. In contrast, after sipping in 26 goals in three matches in the championship, the road ahead for Korea Republic is challenging.
“Today’s match showed there are talents in our squad but we need to work on our defence as well as qualities so I hope in next two years time we work on those particular areas and come stronger and start giving a real challenge to our opponents,” Korea coach Lee Chang-hwan told www.the-afc.com.
Lee’s counterpart Abdel Benaim also hailed the historic victory stressing that though the match was an academic contest, there were lot up for grabs.
“This victory will spur people back in Qatar and Qatar Football Association to look at the chances of Qatar’s futsal development,” he said. The Al Gharafa coach, who took the charge of the national futsal team just few weeks ago, believe that importance must be given at the grassroots level to develop futsal in Qatar and all West Asian countries.
“Despite having facilities, we start very late in the West Asia, but if like Europe and Brazil we start from the very young, there will be chances for them to grow a talented player who can wins cups for the country,” Abdel, who had played futsal in Spain league, added.
Courtesy:
The AFC.comUAE 2-4 ThailandMonday, 28 May 2012Dubai: The UAE's hope of reaching the knockout phase of the AFC Futsal Championship at the first time of asking ended on Sunday when the 2012 hosts went down 4-2 to Thailand.
Having lost 3-1 to Kyrgyzstan the UAE went into their final Group A match needing to get a positive result against the Thais and hope that Central Asians would lose against a Turkmenistan side that were already out of the reckoning following defeats to both the UAE (3-1) and Thailand (5-1)
The UAE got off to the perfect start in Sunday's showdown at the Al Wasl Indoor Stadium as Wael Mohamed squared the ball across the court to Abdulkarim Jamil who made no mistake in dispatching it past Thai skipper Surapong Tompa with just under a minute played.
But the UAE's advantage would last just three minutes with Apiwat Chaemcharoen passing the ball to Nattavut Madyalan, who back-heeled it to Apiwat and he confidently shot Thailand back on to level terms.
The Thais took a tenth minute lead when Jirawat Sornwichian fired home the rebound after Jabir Mohamed had saved Suphawat Thueanklang's initial shot before Thailand went 3-1 with three minutes of the half remaining.
A long ball forward which was headed clear by keeper Surapong found its way to Suphawat who slipped the ball into the path of Kritsada Wongkaeo and after the GH Bank RBAC attacker had skilfully made space for the shot, he fired Thailand's third past Jabir in the UAE goal.
The prospect of missing out on the quarter-finals began to tell on the UAE and their head coach Padu (Paulo Eduardo De Jesus Pinho) was sent to the stands for protesting too strongly with Jordanian referee Husein Mahmoud.
And things got worse for the UAE when Suphawat hit the target from just inside the left sideline for Thailand's fourth goal in the 32nd minute before Abdulkarim Jamil scored his second of the night in the dying seconds, which proved to a mere consolation as the UAE's first appearance at the AFC Futsal Championship finals ended at the group stage after a debut they can be proud of.
Courtesy:
The AFC.comKyrgyzstan 2-1 TurkmenistanMonday, 28 May 2012Dubai: Kyrgyzstan made it into the quarterfinals of AFC Futsal Championship 2012 after beating Turkmenistan 2-1 in the last match of Group A where hosts UAE also failed to progress.
In one of the nervy matches of the tournament against neighbouring Turkmenistan, the Kyrgyz totally controlled the match early on but with Turkmenistan pegging one back with just less than four minutes remaining in the clock, the Kyrgyzstan bench had their heart on the sleeves in last three minutes.
Kyrgyzstan, who started the campaign with sombre note losing out to Thailand made it two in row and now will take on Japan in the quarterfinal on Tuesday.
“Though we won this match, we suffered same old problem – not taking our chances before and do it in difficult ways,” Kyrgyzstan coach Mukanov Amirzhan told www.the-afc.com.
Kyrgyzstan had so many chances earlier to put the match into the bed specially taking a comfortable 2-0 lead after Nurjan Djetybaev and Vadim Kondratkov scored respectively in the 15th and 17th minute.
“We nearly squared it off but fortunately a couple of their late attempts hit the posts rather than going in. Against Japan in the quarterfinals, there is no room for mistake, otherwise Japan will definitely make us pay for those mistakes,” the Kazak rued.
Turkmenistan Rejepov received red card in the 28th minute but Kyrgyzstan failed to make it count and the last three minutes of the match was very nervy after Nazim Rahimov scored in the 37th minute.
“This is a good team performance from us but Kyrgyzstan are too good for us at this moment,” Turkmenistan coach Kanayev Guvanch told www.the-afc.com.
“In few years time we will be a different team as we have hired a Japanese expert to help our futsal and at the same time there are lots of grassroots activities going on in Turkmenistan so things will be definitely get better in future,” Guvanch concluded.
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luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com
