Courtesy: www.etaiwannews.com

Taiwan gets crushed in Futsal warm-up

After 14-0 loss to Hungary, hosts need to get better quickly as world championships loom

2004-10-10 / Taiwan News, Contributing Writer / By Jason Pan

Taiwan has a lot of work to do with the Futsal World Championships just over a month away.

In the final day of play yesterday at the 2004 Futsal Invitational tournament in Taipei, Hungary and Japan outclassed their two weaker opponents by lopsided scores.

Ranked ninth globally in five-a-side indoor Futsal soccer, the highly experienced Hungary team took home the world championship warm-up event's gold medal with a 14-0 thrashing of the hosts the Taipei City Sports Gymnasium yesterday.

Japan, ranked 18th in the world, also confirmed its status as the fastest rising indoor soccer powerhouse in Asia by trouncing Malaysia 6-0 to capture second place.

Hungary in effect won the tournament when it defeated Japan 3-2 on Wednesday with a goal two minutes from time.

The Taiwan national soccer federation organized this international friendly series as a preparation for the 2004 FIFA Futsal World Championship, which will be held in northern Taiwan November 21 to December 5.

Among the Futsal squads who have qualified through regional playoffs and will come to Taiwan are Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Japan, Iran, U.S., Cuba, Paraguay, Australia, and Thailand.

Futsal is a five-a-side game of soccer, usually played indoors, that has become increasingly popular around the world. The name originates from the Spanish word "FUTbol" and the French or Spanish world for indoor - "SALon" or "SALa."

Chang Chan-wei, secretary-general of the Chinese Taipei Football Association, understands that the local side has a tall mountain to climb if it stands any chance in November.

"We needed this kind of competition against highly-ranked teams. The matches will help us to improve our standards and prepare for the world championship," Chang said.

Taiwan also lost to Japan at the warm-up event, 6-1, and defeated Malaysia, 4-0. Speaking with reporters earlier in the day, Chang said the team still had a ways to go before finding its best lineup.

"Some of the players on the team still do not have a lot of experience in the five-a-side game, and there's still a lack of cohesion in the way they play," Chang said.

"In the five-a-side game, it's really critical that every player know where every other player is. Otherwise you leave gaps that the other team can easily take advantage of," Chang said.

Chang was confident that the tournament, Taiwan's first crack at holding a world soccer event, would be run professionally.

Tickets for the tournament will go on sale on October 15. It will be held at National Taiwan University's new gymnasium and the indoor arena at Linkou. Tickets will be NT$1,750 for the opening day of play, the semifinals day, and the last day of play featuring the finals and bronze medal match. Tickets for the quarterfinals will be NT$525, while admission to round-robin games will be NT$350, according to Chang.

Because only 1,000 seats per day will be available, the local FA's secretary-general believes the matches will sell out - even if the price of admission may be beyond what the local market can bear.

"There are only about 1,000 tickets to sell because the arenas are small. So I think we'll be fine," Chang said. "We've had a lot of interest for tickets from overseas. Japan tour groups have already been asking for ticket allotments to cover their needs."

Chang said that if people were interested in reserving tickets before they went on sale on the 15th, they could call the Football Association at (02) 2596-1185 for more information.