Courtesy: The Malay Mail

Asian championship qualifiers : Malaysia confident of progressing

By GHAZ RAMLI

April 1:

AS hosts of one of the three quali- fiers, Malaysia will be favoured to book one of two places for the Asian Futsal Championship.

The Kuantan event, from April 14-22, will see the top two teams joining four sides from the other two qualifiers in qualifying for the competition proper in Uzbekistan from May 21-28.

However, head coach P. Balakrishnan does not feel the pressure as he has confidence his players will deliver due to their commitment and determination.

Balakrishan was recently appointed head coach after assisting Brazilian coach Silvio Machado last year.

He will have the services of five players from Machado’s squad who competed in last year’s championship in Bangkok.

They are Kuala Lumpur City Hall’s (DBKL) Addie Azwan Zainal and Mohamad Feroz Ab Karnim, Armed Forces’ trusted goalkeeper Zaidi Ramli, Mohd Zaidi Zal Khapri from Ipoh City Council (DBI) and Alor Star Municipal Council (MBAS) stalwart Mohd Saiful Md Noor.

A total of 23 players are in the training squad, which will be trimmed to 14.

Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ) skipper Mohd Zary Affendi and influential midfielder K. Thayalan will be making their international debuts.

Along with Malaysia in Group A are Turkmenistan, Vietnam, Maldives and Cambodia.

Malaysia lost to Lebanon in the second round last year.

This year, Malaysia are the favourites as they are ranked 14th, the highest among the teams.

GROUPINGS

Group A: Malaysia (14), Turkmenistan (16), Vietnam (18), Maldives (21), Cambodia (22)

Group B: South Korea (15), Hong Kong (17), Macau (19), North Korea (23), Australia (25).

(Rankings in brackets)



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