Courtesy: Malaysian FA


Campaign ends

4th May, 2006 (BANGKOK) – It was the end of the road for the Malaysian national Futsal team when they conceded a 0-2 defeat to Indonesia in the final and crucial match of Group B of the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Futsal Championship.
Following from Cambodia’s 8-6 annihilation of Vietnam in the first game of the afternoon, nothing short of a win over Indonesia would give Malaysia the chance into the last four.

But even though they managed to make headways into the Indonesian defence in the opening few minutes, Malaysia’s inability to make it count with their chances saw them on the losing end.

The failure of K. Thayalan to score with only the keeper to beat in the tenth minute saw Indonesia taking the lead through Andri Irawan from the ensuing counter-attack.

The break produced little in terms of urgency and pace in attack where the resulting anxiety saw Malaysia conceding a penalty which was saved by custodian Zaidi Ramli.

A minute later, captain Mohd Saiful Mohd Noor was red-carded for his desperate lunge at Indonesia’s Deny Handoyo.

Ten minutes to the end, Malaysia conceded their second goal of the evening when Sayan Karmandi ran from the right before feeding a cross to Deny to slam the ball home for the comprehensive win.

“It is disappointing to lose this way,” lamented Malaysian head coach P. Balakrishnan.

“It is obvious that we will just have to make some improvements to this team in time for the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) meet at the end of the month. There will be some players who will be dropped for sure.”

MALAYSIA: Zaidi Ramli, Mohd Zaidi Zulkhapri, Abdul Halim Hadi, Mohd Azari Thinain, M. Karthik, Addie Azwan Zainal, Mohd Saiful Mohd Noor, K. Thayalan, Ahmad Hanif Sarmin, Mohd Fuad Yusof, Mohd Feroz Ab Karnim, S. Devandran.

RESULTS

3rd May, 2006: Indonesia bt Cambodia 3-1; MALAYSIA bt Vietnam 9-4; Myanmar bt Brunei 7-2

4th May, 2006: Cambodia bt Vietnam 8-6; MALAYSIA lost to Indonesia 0-2

SEMI-FINALS FIXTURES (6th May, 2006): Indonesia vs Myanmar (2pm); Thailand vs Cambodia (4pm)





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