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The AFC.comIran back on top after fitting finale 19 May 2007 OSAKA: Iran has dethroned incumbent champion Japan 4-1 at the Osaka Municipal Central Gymnasium tonight to return the AFC Futsal Championship trophy to the cabinet that has housed it for seven of the past eight years.
Inspired by the outstanding Vahid Shamsaee, Iran was simply irresistible in their quest to reclaim Asian futsal’s top prize throughout an absorbing encounter between the unquestioned giants of the five-a-side game in Asia.
As they say; cometh the hour, cometh the man.
Today in Osaka, the hour was signalled by the first whistle of referee’s Badrul Hisham Kalam and Mohammad Al Haddad and the man was Shamsaee.
The dominant player of Asian futsal since the dawn of the Championships in 1999, Shamsaee was at his best today – setting up two goals, scoring one and treating the 5,289 spectators on hand to an exhibition of unparalleled quality.
Shamsaee’s contribution to the scoresheet was the third of IR Iran’s goals for the match, following on from Majid Latifi’s match opener and Mohammad Taheri and Kazem Mohammadi Tirabadi’s second half strikes.
In response, an outclassed Japanese side could only contribute once – Rikarudo Higa’s long range thunderbolt in the final minutes a mere consolation for the hosts.
IR Iran’s triumph, their eighth from nine Championship attempts, sees Asian futsal’s most sought after trophy return to what has become its spiritual home, following a brief stint in Japan after last years edition in Tashkent.
“We were defending out of our own half and looking for spaces in behind the Japanese players and were using Shamsaee to disrupt their defence and separate their defence,” said delighted Iran coach Hossein Shams after match.
“I believe that whatever Iran has done in Asian futsal, Japan has followed closely behind.
“Japan has made very good progress and when we both qualify for the 2008 FIFA Futsal World Championships in Brazil, I believe that Iran and Japan will perform much stronger than what we have previously and could quite easily qualify for the quarter finals.”
There was to be no respite to begin this most anticipated of matches.
Japan captain Kenta Fujii’s effort on goal after just five seconds exemplified the tone of an enthralling half where the all-star cast of Asian futsal were on show – and delivering on their promise of high quality sports entertainment.
Japanese lynchpin Kenichiro Kogure was at his inventive best, while fellow Spanish based players Takuya Suzumura and Daisuke Ono were heavily involved from the opening whistle.
At the other end, Shamsaee was dictating play with solid support from elegant captain Mohammad Reza Heidarain and exceptional 24-year-old defender Mohammad Keshavarz Nasrabadi.
While some of the head to head match ups were breathtaking, it was a half short on goals.
Short on goals, yes.
Short on quality, certainly not.
For every chance one team would create, the other would respond almost immediately.
In the third minute, Shamsaee beat Suzumura on the edge of the goal circle and forced a spectacular save from Japanese custodian Hisamitsu Kawahara.
Seconds later, Kogure oozed class when firing a shot from close range after bringing down a long ball from his defence.
After 15 minutes, Iran had the goal they had been threatening to produce – Latifi the scorer.
The 26-year-old received a pinpoint diagonal pass from Shamsaee to slide a powerful close range effort past a hopelessly exposed Kawahara at the near post.
Taking Latifi’s goal into the break, Iran accelerated their charge in the second stanza, with Shamsaee again instrumental.
Six minutes into the half, Taheri turned in Kawahara’s parry from one of several Shamsaee blasts at goal, capitalising on an explosive pace introduced by Iran from the beginning of the second period.
Almost immediately, Japan coach Sapo played his most candid card – introducing Higa at the expense of Kawahara to provide the hosts with five attacking outlets when in possession.
Almost as immediately, Iran benefited from the lack of presence in the Japanese goal.
On 31 minutes, Shamsaee dispossessed Fujii from within his own half and fired a low shot from some thirty metres.
In such rare form, there was no doubting Shamsaee’s shot was goal bound, and after a tense few seconds, Iran were celebrating a three-goal lead with less than ten minutes to play.
Coach Hossein’s over zealous celebration earned him an expulsion from the field of play, but such cacophony was soon forgotten when Mohammadi Tirabadi netted IR Iran’s fourth – another sucker punch strike in accordance with Shamsaee’s of six minutes earlier, only this time from all of 35 metres.
Higa’s response in the coming seconds lifted the spirits of the partisan home crowd, but ultimately, by this point the match was won and lost and Iran was safely able to make plans for transporting their reclaimed crown back home.
“I would like to congratulate my players, they did their very best to the very end,” said Sapo.
“The first half, I thought the game was going quite well, but, unfortunately we conceded a goal.
“We had chances of our own to score, we tried a lot of power plays in the second half but it didn’t work out for us.
“It has been a very tough tournament; I would like to congratulate the Iran team from the bottom of my heart.”
Uzbekistan claim third over spirited Kyrgyzstan19 May 2007OSAKA: Uzbekistan has claimed a worthy consolation for their efforts in Japan these Championships, defeating Kyrgyzstan 5-3 in the playoff for third place at the Osaka Municipal Central Gymnasium today.
Two first half goals from Abdulla Buriev and one from Anvar Mamedov saw the Uzbeks race to an ultimately unassailable 3-0 half time lead, before Nikolay Odushev and Buriev again secured the Uzbeks’ win with strikes in the second.
Kyrgyzstan ’s gallant replies came from Andrei Pestryakov, who netted a brace, and Nurjan Djetybaev.
The Uzbeks triumph, their first ever third placed Championships finish, was no less than what they deserved after their performances in Osaka over the past week.
Ghastly at times but astounding at others, Uzbekistan’s podium finish adds further credence to their standing in not only Asian, but world futsal.
One year short of commencing qualifiers for the 2008 FIFA Futsal World Championships in Brazil, where Asia has been allocated three places, the confidence the Uzbeks will have gained from such a finish will hold them in good stead when Asia’s elite futsal nations meet again next year in South East Asia.
Kyrgyzstan, perhaps reeling from their epic semi final performance against Japan , lacked the energy and discipline that earned them so many admirers just 22 hours earlier.
Elimination at the semi final stage, followed by defeat in the playoff for third place is not an unfamiliar scenario for the Kyrgyz, who have suffered an identical fate at the past two Championships.
“We know a lot about Uzbekistan because we’ve played them many times before, we know their weak points but unfortunately that wasn’t enough for us today,” said Kyrgyzstan coach Nurtazin Djetybaev.
“We will use today’s match as a learning experience for future meetings between ourselves and Uzbekistan .
“Our players were physically and mentally tired after last night, and as coach this was a difficult obstacle to overcome.
“We played aggressively, we did everything that we’ve done in practice and all of our players played their best, but unfortunately we didn’t win.”
Despite the loss, Kyrgyzstan ’s futsal reputation has received another significant boost at these Championships.
Consecutive Championship semi final appearances in Vietnam, Uzbekistan and now Japan has underlined the Kyrgyz’ pedigree, while in key players Pestryakov, Djetybaev and Daniar Abdyraimov, who between them scored twelve of the Kyrgyz’ twenty goals in Amagazaki and Osaka, the central Asian heavyweights have personnel belonging to the highest echelon of Asian futsal players.
However, the influence of the aforementioned three, and a second half played almost entirely in the Uzbekistan defensive half with ‘keeper Nikolay Shamonin withdrawn at the expense of attacker Abdyraimov, was ultimately unable to affect a change in fortunes for the men in red on this occasion.
“After seeing Japan’s game yesterday against Kyrgyzstan , we thought that it would be a difficult game and it was a difficult game, but we performed well enough to win,” said Uzbekistan assistant coach Pavel Bezglyadnov.
“One quarter of our team members are in their thirties and we don’t really have too many young players.
“Against IR Iran, we used our younger players and it didn’t really work, so today we used our experienced players and we won.
“This shows that in the future, we need to have our older players teach our young players some experience so to make Uzbekistan stronger in the future.”
Uzbek marksman Buriev’s hat-trick sees the 33-year-old finish the tournament with eleven goals – more than half his team’s total.
In fact, such was Uzbekistan ’s inconsistency in front of goal at these Championships; their entire tournament total was only two goals more than their accumulation from just the group stage in Tashkent last year.
Positively though, for Uzbekistan to claim their podium finish despite a string of contradictory performances augurs very well for their chances moving forward.
Veteran Buriev’s haul, combined with noteworthy contributions from first choice goalkeeper Rustam Umarov and captain Bahodir Ahmedov were integral to the Uzbeks success at these Championships, while 17-year-old Farruh Farhutdinov looms as an outstanding prospect for future campaigns.
Shamsaee rewarded for stellar display with MVP prize 19 May 2007 OSAKA: Few would argue that veteran striker Vahid Shamsaee has been the outstanding player of this tournament, certainly not after his display at the Osaka Municipal Central Gymnasium tonight almost single-handedly returned the AFC Futsal Championship to Iran.
Shamsaee was officially recognised for his contribution by way of receiving the tournament MVP award, a prize that has oddly eluded a player that has claimed the Golden Boot at every previous edition of the Championships.
Eleven tournament goals, combined with a man-of-the-match display in the final, was ultimately enough to secure the top individual honour of these Championships for Shamsaee, who is yet again the toast of IR Iran.
“After all my years in futsal, I have learned to follow the advice of the coaches, try to improve my game step by step and, on the big occasions, to just be calm and relax,” said Shamsaee.
“Since last year, we as a team have kept a promise to each other to win this Championship.
“It is all the sweeter for us this time because we have come to Japan and defeated the reigning champions in their home country.”
The greatest goal scorer in international futsal history, Shamsaee relinquished his monopoly on the AFC Futsal Championship Golden Boot to Japanese lynchpin Kenichiro Kogure, who netted twelve goals throughout the tournament.
Kogure’s prize was some consolation on an otherwise despondent night for the Japanese.
In truth, Kogure was deserving of some recognition for his efforts at these Championships, where he has spearheaded a resilient Japanese line up that came within three goals of defending their title.
In a further bonus for the champions, Iran were also presented with the Fair Play award, having accumulated the least amount of bookings of any side on a pro-rata basis throughout the tournament.
“Since 1999, we have been honoured to be playing alongside Japan,” said IR Iran captain Mohammad Reza Heidarian in accepting the award.
“We’re quite close to each other and Japan is a very good opponent.
“We look forward to showing the world just how far Asian futsal has come at the next FIFA World Championships in Brazil.”
The showdown we’ve all been waiting for19 May 2007OSAKA: It is the final that had to happen.
In one corner, the hosts and reigning champions Japan.
In the other, the traditional kings of Asian futsal and seven-time winners IR Iran.
Today, at the Osaka Municipal Central Gymnasium, these two teams that many predicted to face off for Asia ’s ultimate futsal prize will indeed meet in what promises to be an epic finale to complete this most fascinating of Championships.
Make no mistake; Japan and IR Iran have been the standout teams at this tournament.
Japan’s narrow semi final triumph over Kyrgyzstan was less than convincing, and IR Iran’s twelve-goal exchange with minnows Lebanon on the opening day wasn’t entirely in accordance with the dominance we have come to expect from the central Asians.
But importantly, the aforementioned results were merely minor blemishes on the road to a final appearance that both teams thoroughly deserve.
Japan’s march to the final began with a massive 16-0 triumph over the Philippines – the largest winning margin of these Championships.
Their next victory was half as impressive as their first, at least on the score board, as they put eight goals past Hong Kong whilst maintaining their clean sheet.
The hosts’ next opponents, Tajikistan, were the first team to the breach the Japanese goal – sliding two past Japanese ‘keepers Hisamitsu Kawahara and Ryota Ishiwata but also conceding six to see Japan conclude their Group A campaign with three straight wins and 30 goals to their name.
At both elimination stages, Japan has weathered valiant challenges from less fancied opposition.
Firstly, Thailand led twice before succumbing to a 9-6 defeat in the quarter finals in what was arguably the match of the tournament.
Lastly, Kyrgyzstan ’s determination and discipline almost cost Japan their place in the final, with Takuya Suzumura’s innocuous twelfth minute strike the only goal of the match and all that separated the reigning champions from their tenacious counterparts.
IR Iran’s progression to the showpiece match has been, with fleeting exceptions, almost effortless.
An opening day test against tournament surprise packet Lebanon saw the highly-fancied Iranian’s trail at one point before claiming an emphatic 8-4 win.
Lebanon would prove to be IR Iran’s sternest test in Group D, as best exemplified by Team Melli’s 15-1 and 8-0 thrashings of Malaysia and China PR respectively.
IR Iran’s next opponents, Australia , were virtual spectators throughout their quarter final match up – conceding eight goals and offering nothing in reply.
Finally, IR Iran’s semi final encounter against Uzbekistan loomed as their toughest assignment yet.
However, a combination of Uzbek indifference and vintage IR Iran attacking verve saw Hossein Shams’ charges march to an impressive 7-3 win.
Coming into today’s final, Japan has registered 40 goals of their own at these Championships, six fewer than IR Iran, and conceded eight, just one fewer than their traditional rivals.
Japan and IR Iran have met in four previous Championships finals, of which IR Iran has won all four.
Their monopoly over their regional rivals is virtually unparalleled in any of FIFA’s confederations, save for South America, where Brazil and Argentina have featured in over half of the CONMEBOL Championships finals.
Today’s meeting, the fifth of its kind between the unquestioned kings of Asian futsal, will surely contribute another fascinating chapter to the Shakespearean tale that is a match between the unyielding obedience of Japan and the inspired elegance of IR Iran.
Before the final kicks off, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan will battle for third place.
The Uzbeks will be hoping to add another podium finish to their runners-up efforts in 2001 and 2006, while Kyrgyzstan will be eager to carry their form from last night’s slender loss to the Japanese into a match that will potentially earn the central Asian’s their best ever Championships finish.
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