Courtesy: Tripoli Post


Futsal World Cup: Libya Start With Loss Against Portugal

01/11/2012

Libya, as champions of Africa on Thursday started its adventure in the FIFA Futsal World Cup Thailand 2012 with a tough Group C game against Portugal, that it lost by 1-5. On the same day, from the same group, firm favourites and reigning Brazil take on Japan.

A first-half hat-trick from Cardinal that helped Portugal to this comfortable victory. It took them just four minutes to break the deadlock when Cardinal fired home from an acute angle. Libya levelled two minutes later through Ahamed Fathe’s rising shot from outside the box, but parity was short-lived.

The Libyans were not helped by an injury to one of their more experienced players, forward Rabia Abdel, but sloppy passing let them down. It allowed Portugal to be on the front foot for most of the half, with Ricardinho and Arnaldo pulling the strings.

Cardinal tapped the ball in from close range to make it 2-1 in the 16th minute and completed his hat-trick just two minutes later when he combined well with Arnaldo before slipping the ball past the keeper.

Portugal continued from where they left off at the start of the second half, Nandinho scoring a beauty from outside the area. The scoring was completed in the 29th minute when a long ball from the keeper was headed home by Marinho.

The only hiccup for Portugal was an injury to Cardinal following a nasty collision with Libya keeper Yousef Bensaed.

Libya, one of 24 participants in the tournament, and one of three representatives from Africa, are drawn in one of the toughest groups. Its hopes of even surviving the group stage are minimal, and managing any points from the three commitments against Portugal, Brazil and Japan would be regarded as a triumph.

Despite the tough draw, Libya are still optimistic of giving a good account of themselves as they have always done, and be able to enhance their reputation as Africa's best and help strengthen the popularity of the game in Libya after a very difficult year.

The FIFA Futsal World Cup is the international championship for futsal, an indoor version of association football. It is held every four years, on the even year between two FIFA World Cups. This year's is the seventh edition and is being hosted by Thailand. The final will be held on November 18 in Bangkok.

African champions Libya qualified to the final stage after their 6-4 victory over South Africa in Johannesburg. They are joined from Africa along by neighbours, Egypt and Morocco.

Libya are very highly regarded in the world of Futsal after winning the African championship in 2008 which they hosted. They are Africa's top-ranked team, and are placed 21st in the world rankings list.

In the last edition of the world event, Libya left Rio without winning a game, but won plenty of admirers for the way they played. In the 2008 event Libya lost 2-4 to Czechoslovakia, 2-4 to Iran, 0-3 to Spain, and drew 3-3 with Uruguay.

All the Libyan sport fans are highly delighted with the team's participation, but more so the team's Spanish coach, Pablo Prieto. He said he was very happy at the achievement and qualification after a very good match against South Africa.

Experience is one of the most vital qualities in any team and, when the pressure is on, coaches will always turn to their veteran players to see them through. This is the situation Libya’s coach Pablo Prieto finds himself in Thailand.

With most of his players making their debut on the world stage, Prieto has little choice but to rely on the two most experienced members of his squad, Mohamed Rahoma and Rabia Abdel.
The duo are the only two players who appeared in the last edition of the tournament four years ago in Brazil, and Prieto will be hoping they can steer Libya through.

Rahoma and Abdel are certainly shouldering a lot of responsibility. Not only are the rest of their team-mates FIFA Futsal World Cup debutants, some have only played a handful of matches at international level.

Prior to the opening game, Abdel said: “We take the World Cup very seriously and there’s going to be a lot of fear, especially for the new players. I hope they can get over it because our group is no walk in the park, with three very strong teams. They have to take to the pitch with enormous self-confidence as this will help them overcome any anxiety.”

Rahoma, seconds his team-mate’s words: “I’ve played with Rabia for more than six years and this will be our second World Cup. We’ll try to offer a little extra to the team and give our team-mates all the help they need."

Abdel has played the world champions once before, in 2010, when he scored his country’s only goal in a 2-1 defeat to the South Americans. He is justifiably proud of “netting against Brazil” and hopes, “to score against them again, and against Portugal and Japan, too”.

Scoring is Abdel’s job after all, while Rahoma is responsible for providing solidity at the back. But perhaps their most important duty in Thailand will be providing leadership to their young team-mates as they prepare for the toughest test of all. We all hope that Abdel will recover in time for the next match on Sunday against Brazil. Libya play their last Group C match on Wednesday.

The 14 players in coach Pablo Prieto's squad are: GOALKEEPERS: Yousef Bensaed (Adhahra), Ramzi Al Sharif (Al Ahli Benghazi), Husam Altumi (Adhahra). DEFENDERS: Ahmed Farah (Al Amen), Mohamed Rageb (Al Ittihad Tripoli), Mohamed Rahoma (no club). MIDFIELDERS: Husam Al Wahishi (Al Ahli Benghazi), Younis Sjames (Al Tersana). STRIKERS: Bader Hasan (Al Jazera), Rabie Abdel (no club), Andusalam Sherad (Al Ittihad Tripoli), Reda Fathe (Al Ahli Benghazi), Ahmed Fathe (Al Ahli Benghazi), Salem Aghila (Al Khutut)






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