Iran coach happy to face Japan in final of AFC Futsal

AFC – HO CHI MINH CITY, Iran coach Jesus Candelas knows Japan will be mentally prepared to defend their AFC Futsal Championship crown when the two sides meet in the weekends final after the 10-time champions beat Uzbekistan 10-0 in Thursday’s semi-final at Phu Tho Stadium.

Tournaments leading scorer Hossein Tayebi took his tally to 14 goals as he and Vahid Shafiei both scored hat-tricks against Uzbekistan, while Alireza Vafaei, Asghar Hassanzadeh, Ahmad Esmaeilpour and Mohammad Shajari were also on target.

And after Japan earlier beat Kuwait 6-1 at Phu Tho Stadium, Iran will face the defending champions in Saturday’s final.
“We could score early goals in this game and it made us very relaxed during the game,” said Candelas.

“We tried to do our best and play how we had prepared for the game, but I have to say that Iran is not winning easily, Iran is in a very good mood and enjoying futsal.

“At the beginning of the tournament I did not expect to make the final because when I looked at the match schedule I thought in the semi-final we would play against Japan.

“We are not playing to just score goals, before anything we are trying to be a team. You have to be a team and then the goals will happen.

“What is important is at the last championship Japan were champions and are mentally prepared to defend the title, so this type of match is psychological first and then tactical and another aspect will be our physical preparation for the game.”

Uzbekistan will now have to pick themselves up for Saturday’s third place play-off against Kuwait at Phu Tho Stadium.

“Uzbekistan did not play badly, but our opponent were far too strong and the Iran team are the strongest team in this tournament,” said Uzbekistan coach Bahodir Ahmedov after seeing his side suffer their first defeat of the campaign.

“I am satisfied with my players because our aim was to go to the semi-final, but we were faced with the best team and that is why we didn’t stand a chance today.

“Today we made many mistakes in our defensive line and tomorrow we will concentrate on our defence in training and we hope to win and finish third in the tournament.”