Courtesy: www.fam.org.my

National Futsal coach P. Balakrishnan will be looking for the advantage when he observe the Vietnam - Cambodia match in the opening game of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Futsal Championship qualifiers tomorrow.
With the Malaysian national Futsal team due to take Vietnam in its own
opening match of the meet on April 19th, 2006, any slight edge that could be gained from the first match will be of benefit to Balakrishnan and his lads.

Malaysia will be playing in the AFC Futsal Championship qualifiers along with four other countries at the Sukpa Indoor Stadium in Kuantan from April 18th-22nd, 2006.

“The players have been making steady progress since the tournament in Iran although as is usually the case, there is a certain sense of apprehension at the start of any tournament,” said Balakrishnan today.

“The team will just have to get down to work early where in Futsal, the risk of hesitation meant that it might cost us the game.

“So I hope that we can observe certain things in the Vietnam match which we can use to our own advantage to give us the positive start that we are looking for.”

Apart from the Vietnam match, Malaysia will be up against Maldives (on April 20th), Cambodia (April 21st) and Turkmenistan (April 22nd).

Only the top two teams in the qualifiers will make the final round of the championship which will be held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan later this year.

From the nightmare of the Iran friendlies earlier last month when the team conceded a 0-10 defeat to Shensa and a 1-6 loss to the Japanese national team, the Malaysian lads have improved somewhat since then.

In the four friendlies which they have played up to last week (pic), they beat MPSJ 9-0 in their first game, win 12-2 over ATM, edged Pulau Pinang 6-5 in their third friendly and then a 6-2 win over MBAS in the final game.

“Turkmenistan is the favourite for sure while for the remainder of the
competing teams, we are on equal footing which means that we would do well not to underestimate anyone,” he added.

MALAYSIAN FIXTURES:
Vietnam (April 19th); Maldives (April 20th); Cambodia (April 21st); Turkmenistan (April 22nd)

NATIONAL FUTSAL TEAM
Zaidi bin Ramli (ATM), Mohd Zaidi Zul Khapri (Perak DBI), Abdul Halim Abdul Hadi (Johor AOB), V. Muniswaran (Penang), Addie Azwan Zainal (DBKL), Mohd Saiful Md Noor (MBAS), K. Thayalan (MPSJ), Ng Boon Leong (PDRM), Mohd Fuad Yusof (Johor AOB), Ahmad Hanif Sarmin (Johor AOB), Mohamad Feroz Ab Karnim (DBKL), Mohd Azari Ithnain (Johor AOB), M. Kartik (Penang), S. Devandran (PB Melayu).





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