Japan cruises to Futsal semifinals
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Japan had to put up a real fight to beat Uzbekistan 1-0 in the quarterfinals of the Asian Indoor Soccer Championship at Bung Karno Sports Hall here on Monday.
Earlier in the day Thailand and Iran, both named the tournament's favorites, secured berths in the semifinals with each dominating in their performance over their respective opponents.
Thailand beat Iraq 5-2 with two goals coming from Nares Sukngam, and one each from Pattaya Piemkum, Anupong Polasak and Anucha Munjarern.
Iraq had consolation goals from Arkan Hamza and Waleed Jeel.
Vahid Shamsaee led an Iranian scoring spree by netting seven goals in their 10-2 pounding of Kyrgyzstan. He has collected 21 goals to earn his title as the top scorer so far.
Mohammad Hashem Zadeh, Hamid Shandizi and Maged Raisi were the other scorers for the winning team, while Mambetaliev Syrgak and Tashimatov Daiyrbek netted the two goals for Kyrgyzstan.
Meanwhile, Japan had Takaaki Ichihara to thank for its win. His goal in the twelfth minute of the first half was his team's only goal against the Uzbeks.
The Japanese, under the coaching of Michito Harada, had to endure blistering attacks, particularly in the second half, which forced player Hisamitsu Kawahara to work hard during the game.
Uzbekistan managed to establish a flurry of scoring opportunities with Bahodir Ahmedov and Nikolay Odushev coming close to tying the score. During the daunting final minutes of play, when the ball was in its possession, they opted for the all-five attacking tactics with the goalkeeper resting.
They found a stumbling block in Kawahara. Hastily taken final moves were also to blame for their failure to score.
Japan could have built on its lead two minutes into overtime when it was awarded a penalty kick, but Takuya Suzumura kicked the ball too high.
Asked why his team labored so hard in the match, coach Harada said: "Before taking to the court, I had expected a tough game. It apparently was."
Japan, which was a semifinalist four years ago in Kuala Lumpur, meets Thailand in the semifinals on Tuesday.
The other match will pit champion Iran against South Korea, which provided the golden goal to beat Kuwait 7-6 after conceding three goals in the final seconds of play.
The Koreans led 6-3 when the game had 40 seconds to spare. But the Kuwaitis were not about to lose the impetus and charged ahead with three goals on the trot.
The game was extended an extra five minutes, during which the Koreans proved to be the lucky side.