Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Kuwait City: Debutants All Sports of Lebanon shocked tournament favourites Uzbekistan’s Ardus 6-2 to go atop the Group B table in the AFC Futsal Club Championship on Monday.
Fresh from their win over defending champions Nagoya Oceans on Sunday, there were high expectations from the perennial under achievers Ardus this time around but All Sports dashed their hopes in the last minute of the match.
Khaled Takaji and Ali El Homsi scored two goals apiece while Ali Tneich and Spaniard Rafael Marques were also on the scoresheet as All Sports went atop the table with four points from two matches. Ardus’ goals were scored by Shlema Andrey and Brazilian Jhonathan Hernandez.
Spurred by Sunday’s win over Nagoya Oceans, Ardus were on course to record another victory when Artur Yunusov played a brilliant one-two with Dilshod Rakhmatov to score Ardus’ opener in the 14th minute.
Tneich brought the match at level four minutes into the second half and Ardus’ free fall started afterwards.
“The players were nervous after they scored the opener in the 29th minute,” conceded Ardus coach Alexander Petrov.
“Maybe we were overtly committed against Oceans on Sunday but by saying so I am not making an excuse for our poor show and All Sports’ excellent win. All the sides playing here are great sides so there is no favourite tag and today we got defeated by a better side.
“Our goalkeeper could have saved at least one goal but I am not going to blame him. It’s the on-field players who need to take the blame for this defeat,” he said.
The turning point of the match came in the 29th minute when Takaji scored All Sports’ second goal followed by Homsi’s strike two minutes later. Ardus did pull one back in the 32nd minute from Hernandez but with time running out they needed to resort to power play and the Lebanon players made full use of the Uzbek adventure by scoring three goals in the 40th minute alone.
“We played well in the first half but in the second half the boys were exceptional,” said All Sports coach Dory Zhkhour. “If you forget the scoreline, it was an evenly contested match and a hard fought win,” he added.
“It’s great to beat a strong team like Ardus who defeated Oceans yesterday. We are a new club in futsal and in two years' time of its establishment we got promoted from B division and ultimately won the league and we are here playing against the cream of Asia, so I hope we keep on playing good futsal in this highly competitive tournament,” he told reporters.