Source: The-AFC.com

Hosts Nagoya Oceans started their AFC Club Futsal Championship 2013 campaign on a promising note after beating Lebanon’s Al Sadaka 4-2 in their opening match played at the Ocean Arena on Tuesday.

The hosts were shell-shocked as early as in the second minute of the match after the Lebanese champions opened the scoring through Karim Zaid.

However, Rafael Sakai offered a huge relief to the supporting Ocean Arena crowd by netting the equaliser in the 14th minute and then the hosts totally dominated the match.

Morioka Kaoru made it 2-1 in the 20th minute and an own goal from Boris Cizmar further extended Nagoya’s lead to 3-1. Tomoaki Watanabe took the match beyond the Lebanese by scoring Nagoya’s fourth in the 26th minute as a second goal of the match from Zaid turned out as mere consolation in the 36th minute.

“Our plan was to get at least a point from the home team,” conceded Al Sadaka coach Hassan Deeb.

“We relied on counterattacking futsal and were looking to not granting them the space they needed.

“It worked very well in the beginning and we managed to score as well but we were reduced to only four players and they scored two quick goals,” he added recalling their match against the same opponents two years ago in Doha.

“There are still two more matches to come and since the group already saw one draw earlier, we still have high hopes of qualifying for the semi-final,” he said referring the 2-2 draw between Shenzhen Nanling and Thai Son Nam in Group A.

Nagoya coach Victor Acosta conceded that they did not anticipate letting an early goal to the Lebanese.

“We did not expect that because our players playing at home came under instant pressure and they took time to bring things back to normal.

“The second goal in the first half was a huge relief because the opponents were looking for counterattacking futsal and our players had to run more.

“We controlled the second half and tried to rotate the squad as we have to think of preserving our stamina for the entire tournament,” he added.





FP Staff --> info@futsalplanet.com