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The AFC.comShahid Mansouri 5-4 GH Bank RBACTuesday, 28 June 2011Doha: GH Bank RBAC saw their AFC Club Futsal Championship 2011 dream come to an end after they lost 5-4 to Shahid Mansouri in their final group stage game at Al Rayyan Main Hall, with the Iranians advancing as Group B winners with a 100% record.
Having drawn their opening two games, the Thais needed to win to qualify but it was the Iranians who prevailed as they collected their third straight victory. Al Sadaka's triumph over Ardus meant it was the Lebanese who therefore progressed to the last four alongside Shahid.
Shahid i struck first when Morteza Azimaeidivkolaei was allowed to run at the Thai goal and he prodded the ball into the back of the net.
GH Bank were soon back on level terms, though, after Lertchai Issarasuwipakorn intercepted a pass, beat a defender and finished smartly but the Iranians retook the lead as Hamid Nasiri beat Surapong Tompa when one-on-one with the keeper.
Lertchai claimed his second goal, slotting home having been played in by Renato following a quick break and GH Bank then went in front after the latter pounced on a rebound to find the back of the net.
Shahid hit back and scored twice to take a half-time lead. After the Iranians won possession, Majid Tikdarinejad had the simple task of side-footing into an empty net before Nasiri grabbed his second of the game when he turned home a corner.
Neither side were able to add to their tally for the majority of the second period and the Thais became increasingly desperate, employing the powerplay for much of the final five minutes.
Shahid extended their lead when Tikdarinejad scored and although Renato pulled a goal back with 54 seconds left, it was not enough for the Thais.
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The AFC.comNot our true value says Bank managerTuesday, 28 June 2011Doha: GH Bank RBAC Team Manager Mohammed Iqbal Maracar was understandably downcast over his side's exit from the AFC Futsal Club Championship 2011 and admitted they had failed to do themselves justice in Doha.
Following two draws, the Thais needed to beat Shahid Mansouri at Al Rayyan Main Hall but instead were edged out 5-4 by the Iranians, who won Group B with three wins.
“We came here to get good results and titles but now I am very disappointed because we lost the match against Shahid Mansouri and we are forced to leave the tournament empty-handed,” said Maracar.
“We made some mistakes during the match. We had great expectations for this tournament but now we are out. We made a bad mistake late in the first-half resulting in their fourth goal and gave away another goal in the second-half but we were losing anyway.
“But this is futsal and we gained good experience from the tournament and should work harder in future to eradicate our mistakes.
“We had two draws but we could've won if the players were better and performed better than this. Against the Iranian side we could've won too but we were unlucky.”
Shahid boss Reza Lak admitted his unbeaten team had been pushed all the way by their determined opponents.
“We predicted a very tough match today. They played very well and tried hard to defeat us and go to the next stage. But as I mentioned before, we took this match seriously and used all our key players to show fair play to Ardus and Al Sadaka,” he said.
“This tournament has a very high quality and all the participants are in good situations. Also, the quality of the tournament shows that futsal has improved a lot in Asia and these kinds of competitions can help Asian futsal to improve more and more.”
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The AFC.comAl Sadaka 4-3 ArdusTuesday, 28 June 2011Doha: Hassan Chaito's late goal saw Al Sadaka edge Ardus 4-3 to reach the semi-finals of the AFC Futsal Club Championship 2011 following a dramatic final round of Group B games.
With Shahid Mansouri FC edging GH Bank RBAC 5-4, the winner of the encounter at Al Gharafa Main Hall would join the Iranians in the last four.
After trailing 3-2 for much of the second-half, Sergio Loch equalised for the Lebanese before Chaito's second goal of the game with two minutes left saw them through.
Ardus took the lead inside the opening two minutes when Dilshod Irsaliev placed a shot in the far corner.
Al Sadaka soon levelled when Zoran Leveski's perseverance paid off and he laid the ball to Jean Kotany, who fired home.
The Lebanese side took the lead almost immediately afterwards when Chaito robbed Konstantin Sviridov and slipped the ball between the legs of keeper Rustam Umarov.
Ardus equalised when Irsaliev's shot was parried but Jamoliddin Sharipov tucked away the rebound before Sviridov hit the post with a long-range free shot.
The Uzbeks went in at the break in front, though, when Javlon Anarov drilled a low shot into the bottom corner.
The second-half proved to be an end-to-end affair with Al Sadaka keeper Rabie El Kakhi proving in particularly fine form, denying Ardus a fourth goal on several occasions.
His contribution proved crucial as Hussein Dib's side hauled themselves level when Hussein Takaji laid the ball off to Loch to smash past Umarov and then grabbed the winner with two minutes left through Chaito's strike.
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The AFC.comDib delighted with Al Sadaka spiritTuesday, 28 June 2011Doha: Boss Hussein Dib insisted it was his side's team ethic that saw them through to the semi-finals of the AFC Futsal Club Championship 2011 after Hassan Chaito's late goal edged out Ardus 4-3 at Al Gharafa Main Hall.
Having trailed for much of the second-half, Sergio Loch equalised for the Lebanese before Chaito's second goal of the game with two minutes left sealed their progress after Group B winners Shahid Mansouri overcame GH Bank RBAC 5-4 in Al Rayyan.
“I have to thank all my players, we pulled together to reach the next stage,” he said.
“Al Sadaka means friendship and this is the most important thing, that we are friends that will fight for each other and never let each other down. We deserved to win, we played good futsal from the first game.
“We had a plan and today we completed the job. We made our destiny with our own hands.
“We are a young team, this is the first time we have played outside Lebanon. We do have some experienced players but you need time to find team chemistry, a lot of training together even if you have professionals.
“We dreamt of getting through and our dream came true.”
Dib now hopes Al Sadaka can go on and lift the trophy.
“We have very good ambition, now we are dreaming of going as far as we can go,” he added.
“The most important thing is to reach our goals without any pressure. If we had lost, thank god we got here, but we're going further so it will be great.”
For Ardus, elimination was hard to take and coach Alexander Petrov felt fortune deserted the Uzbeks over the course of their three group games.
“In today's match luck was not on our side. We started very well but we could not finish how we started,” he said.
“We came here to win but unfortunately we lost two games and drew one. I think we did not have much luck.”
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The AFC.comAl Rayyan 3-8 Nagoya OceansTuesday, 28 June 2011Doha: Nagoya Oceans showed exactly why they are considered among the favourites to lift the AFC Futsal Club Championship 2011 trophy after they demolished hosts Al Rayyan 8-3 at Al Rayyan Main Hall.
Both sides had already qualified from Group A prior to kick-off with top spot the only issue to be decided and it was the Japanese side that claimed it in emphatic fashion.
Nagoya struck first when Kaoru Morioka played in Yoshifumi Maeda and he knocked the ball through Al Rayyan keeper Badi Johar's legs but the hosts equalised with a clinical goal as Mohammad Taheri squared the ball into the path of Hassan Zadeh and he fired home past Hisamitsu Kawahara.
Nagoya went in front for a second time early in the second-half when Kenichiro Kogure diverted Morioka's shot into the back of the net but Al Rayyan replied almost immediately when Zadeh bent a low free-kick in at the near post.
The Japanese re-took the lead once more through Rafael Sakai, who then extended that advantage to 4-2 by sublimely lifting the ball over the Al Rayyan keeper.
He completed a three-minute hat-trick before Rafael Henmi added the sixth goal when he swept home Kogure's pass first-time.
Tomoyuki Kanai slid home Bruno's cross at the far post to make it 7-2 and Tomoaki Watanabe netted the eighth before Zadeh slotted in a penalty for his treble, by which time Al Rayyan were well beaten.
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The AFC.comOceans elatedTuesday, 28 June 2011Doha: Nagoya Oceans boss Jose Amarante was naturally delighted with his side's performance after they swept aside hosts Al Rayyan 8-3 to clinch top spot in Group A and set up a semi-final clash with Al Sadaka in the AFC Futsal Club Championship.
Rafael Sakai netted a three-minute hat-trick in the second-half to put the Japanese side firmly on the road to victory after Hassan Zadeh had twice drawn the Qatar side level.
Rafael Henmi, Tomoyuki Kanai and Tomoaki Watanabe added further goals before Zadeh slotted in a penalty to complete his treble, by which time Al Rayyan were well beaten.
“I am very happy at the moment and satisfied with the result and also the quality of the match although we made some mistakes today and should solve them soon,” said Amarante.
“Tomorrow is an off day and we have time to consider the mistakes and solve them in order to face the next opponent, Al Sadaka, in the semi-final stage.
“Al Sadaka play like Al Rayyan and they have some key players that we should keep in mind and be careful about.”
By contrast, Al Rayyan coach Hassan Ghouila was furious at his team's capitulation and they now face a difficult clash in the last four against the unbeaten Shahid Mansouri .
“I'm very angry at the performance of my players and also the final result of the game,” he said.
“We tried our best to gain a good result in today’s match but we made some mistakes and could not play well during the match.
“All the matches are important and all the teams are strong and if we want to be successful we should solve our problems and word harder than this.
“Shahid Mansouri are strong opponents and my players need to play better than today if they want to reach the final.”
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The AFC.comZhejiang Dragon 4-4 Al KarkhTuesday, 28 June 2011Doha: Zhejiang Dragon and Al Karkh ended the AFC Futsal Club Championship 2011 on a positive note as the two sides played out an entertaining 4-4 draw at Al Gharafa Main Hall.
In a game full of chances, it was the Iraqis who looked like they would wrap up their Group A campaign with a victory after establishing a 4-2 lead mid-way through the second period.
But Zhejiang never gave up and hit back through goals from Cong Lin and Deng Tao to ensure the spoils were shared.
Both sides had lost their previous two games and it was Zhejiang that enjoyed the better of the first-half but neither side were able to break the deadlock until the Chinese side took the lead with the interval approaching when a long ball forward was acrobatically flicked in by Zhang Wen.
Al Karkh levelled seconds before the break as keeper Wang Jun was unable to keep out Hashim Al Saraf's low shot and the Iraqis took the lead shortly after the re-start in fortuitous circumstances when Abdulkareem Al Sharshahi's shot was deflected into his own net by Deng.
Wang Xiang was in the right place at the right time to knock a loose ball into an empty net from close range and restore parity but Al Kharkh again edged in front when Al Saraf rolled a free-kick into the path of Al Sharshahi and he blasted home.
Asaad Hamdi stretched the lead to 4-2 but Cong cut the deficit to one goal when he converted a free-kick from right on the edge of the dee. Deng then made up for his earlier misfortune by netting the winner with just over three minutes remaining to ensure the Chinese side did not go home empty-handed.
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The AFC.comShan satisfied with Dragon’s developmentTuesday, 28 June 2011Doha: Zhejiang Dragon coach Shan Zhiping felt the 4-4 draw with Al Karkh was his side's best display at the AFC Futsal Club Championship 2011 as they ended the tournament on a positive note.
The Chinese side appeared to be heading for a third successive Group A defeat in trailing the Iraqis 4-2 midway through the second-half at Al Gharafa Main Hall but goals from Cong Lin and Deng Tao – who atoned for an earlier own goal – ensured they did not leave Doha empty-handed.
“In today's match, my young players tried their best, the performance was better than the last two games, I think this was our best performance of the competition,” said Shan.
“Both teams had chances to win, it was a tough game but it ended in a draw.
“The tournament is over but our pursuit of development will never stop. This is a fairly young team, the most important thing is to find out what we need and close the gap.
“This championship for us was very important and useful. We achieved more than we expected, we have learnt a lot from our strong opponents, tactics, technique, defence and attack and I think the team management also got a lot out of it.”
Like their opponents, Al Karkh were looking to end on a high and boss Saad Hussein Hadhal felt they were unfortunate to not garner more than just a point from their three games.
“We are not lucky in this tournament, we played well in all the matches but there were some mistakes,” he said.
“In this match, Zhejiang played very well. We started very well and we were winning but some mistakes from my players meant the Chinese team could draw with us.
“Teams defended against us and we grew as a result. It was good for us to participate in this tournament and teams must have respected us because we played well and they defended against us.
“We got a lot of benefit and gained more experience from this tournament. The club teams are stronger than the national teams. We faced strong teams like Nagoya and Al Rayyan, who are better than national teams.”
Posted by
Luca Ranocchiari -->
luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com
