Indonesia beats England in world futsal meet
Indonesia beats England in world futsal meet
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia registered a surprise 3-2 win over England at the KL
World 5s futsal (indoor, 5-a-side soccer) tournament in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia, on Friday, a report said.
The two teams met in the bowl semifinals match, which was
played among the bottom-placed teams in their respective groups.
Indonesia last in Group B after losing to Argentina 20-1 and
Japan 9-1 while England suffered its defeats to Iran and
Uzbekistan in Group D.
In the England game, Indonesia fielded Achmad Ramdhani,
Andrian Asuri, Akbar Mallarangan, Andri Irawan and Listiyanto
Raharjo as goalkeeper and team captain.
Edward Amaluddin put Indonesia in the lead after he scored in
the eighth minute of the first half. Indonesia continued to
attack but poor control of the ball prevented them from building
the lead.
England equalized through Paulo Osborne in the 17th.
Entering the second half, England took control and led after
Benjamin Goddard netted home in the 26th minute.
Trailing by a goal, Indonesia began to claw back and was
rewarded seven minutes later when Akbar Mallarangan found the
back of the net. In the dying seconds of the game, England was
caught in an abrupt let-up to allow Edward Amaluddin to steal the
winning goal for Indonesia.
The team broke into cheers at the end of the game while the
opponents left the court in dejection.
"We're glad that we could beat England and reach the final of
the bowl competition. We were lucky to score in the last
seconds," Aurias Rahanthoknam, the Indonesian head coach, said in
a release.
"Anyway, a win is a win. We're happy to take it," he said.
Indonesia, whose team members are mostly made up of players
recruited from the national students' futsal league, will face
the winner between South Africa and Malaysia, which play their
semifinals match on Saturday.
Japan was leading Uzbekistan 3-0 in the plate competition,
which is played among the group runners-up, while the cup
competition pitted Argentina against Iran in the first semifinal
match and Brazil against Uruguay in the second.