Courtesy: The Malay Mail

Futsal/Asian Championship Qualifiers: Malaysia seek winning start against Vietnam

By GHAZ RAMLI

April 15

MALAYSIA are seeking a winning start, against Vietnam, in their vital opening match of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Futsal Championship qualifiers at the Sukpa Courts from April 18-22.

With almost a new squad who has yet to play in an international tournament, a tough time awaits the Malaysian team’s head coach, P. Balakrishnan.

Malaysia will be among nine teams eyeing the two qualifying spots from the championships.

The finals in Uzbekistan will be on May 21-28.

Malaysia, grouped together with Vietnam, Turkmenistan, Cambodia and Maldives, will need to start their campaign with a win against Vietnam.
“Though we lack exposure, the players have just an equal chance of bidding for the two spots,” said Balakrishnan after he named his final 14 for the tournament at the FA of Malaysia (FAM) house in Kelana Jaya.

Besides Vietnam, he is expecting a tough challenge from Turkmenistan.
“They have Russian background in the game and have been playing for the past 20 years. Besides their better knowledge of the game, we will also lose out to them physically,” said Balakrishnan.

For the Vietnam tie, Balakrishnan will field Perak DBI's Mohd Zaidi Zul Khapri in defence, Kuala Lumpur's Mohd Feroz Ab Karnim and captain Mohd Saiful Md Noor of Kedah, in centre to feed striker, Addie Azwan Zainal of Kuala Lumpur.

Meanwhile, Zaidi Ramli of the Armed Forces, who kept goal at last year's finals in Bangkok where Malaysia lost to Lebanon 2-1, retains his position.

In Group B, North Korea pulled out of the competition leaving the field to South Korea, Hong Kong, Macau and Australia.
Iran are currently ranked top in the AFC rankings while Japan and Kyrgyzstan fill the next two spots.

Malaysia are currently ranked 14th, the best among the teams in Kuantan.

However, Balakrishnan is not expecting an easy run as the other teams are ranked not far from each other.




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