Courtesy: UEFA.com


Mukhanov plays down Kazakhstan chances

Tuesday 2 December 2008

by Dennis Novitsky

On Monday, Kazakhstan will play in their first UEFA national-team final tournament and coach Amirzhan Mukhanov is realistic that life will not be easy.

'Realistic'
Kazakhstan will open the UEFA European Under-21 Futsal Tournament against Spain before facing Ukraine and the Netherlands in Group B, having beaten Belarus, Hungary and Latvia to qualify. But although the exploits of Kairat Almaty in reaching three UEFA Futsal Cup semi-finals have proved the strength of Kazakh futsal, Mukhanov is not predicting surprises. "We have to be realistic," Mukhanov said. "Our main goal will be to compete and perform worthily. We can't really have a goal of reaching the last four, for example. It seems like we'll have only one player born in 1987, while all others will be teenagers."

Club bond
Although the Kazakh league is strong, there are only five teams and a large number of players from Brazil, Russia and even Thailand. Yet the recent departure of some of the star foreigners has opened up the opportunity for local players, and the club where Mukhanov made his name as a coach provide the bedrock of his squad. "Our trump card, I hope, is team spirit," Mukhanov added. "Besides, most of the Kazakhstan U21 players play for Tulpar-Ikar Karagandy so we can talk about good team-work and a club philosophy. Also, I think it might help that we are dark horses for our opponents."

Rivals
Then again, Mukhanov admits he is slightly in the dark about those opponents himself. "We tried to get some information about our rivals, but to no avail," he said. "Of course, I've heard only good things about Spain, their preparation and style of play. The fact that Ukraine is coached by Gennadiy Lysenchuk, speaks for itself; they will be in great physical and tactical shape. I'd single out those two teams as they are favourites of our group. I can't say anything about the Dutch. We'll play against Spain in the first match and then watch Ukraine versus the Netherlands carefully. This game will give us much more information which we really lack now."

Stepping up
One thing he is sure about is that his players can move up to the senior side for 2010 UEFA European Futsal Championship qualifying in April following the retirement of five key squad members. "Almost all of them would fit in," Mukhanov said. "Well, at least four. The problem is that we don't have other choice. There are only five clubs in the national league and not enough players. We don't have a middle generation at all."






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