Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kuala Lumpur: Newcomers Pelindo see tough competition in the qualification to the AFC Futsal Club Championship 2012 citing the as yet-to-be-determined Thai representatives as their toughest challenger pointing to previous encoutnters between the respective national teams.
The Indonesian champions, who on Thursday were pooled with their Thai counterparts in the first ever qualification round of the continental futsal club extravaganza, feel challenged due to their national futsal team’s history of losses to Thailand but will rally round in the futsal arena.
“I'm happy because it's our first time participating in the AFC Futsal Club Championship,” Pelindo Team Manager Ivan Zulhifan told the-afc.com after the official draw ceremony at AFC House.
“But unfortunately we have been grouped together with the upcoming Thailand champion which will definitely be strong.
“Looking at past experience, our national team has always lost to the Thai side, but we cannot give up because we can still improve and hopefully we will pass through the qualifiers and proceed to the finals in Kuwait.
“As for ACE of Myanmar, another contender in our group, we have never seen them in action, but we will not underestimate them and we will do our best against them too."
Pelindo, the upcoming champions of the Thai futsal league and ACE are the contenders in Group B of Zone 2 (ASEAN/East) of the qualifiers while Thai Son Nam of Vietnam, Australia’s Maccabi FC and the champions of the Chinese futsal league were drawn in Group A.
With only five teams in Zone 1 (West/South-Central) there was no need for a draw, with the quintet battling it out in a round-robin league format competition for the two available tickets to Kuwait.
The two qualifiers from the ASEAN/East Zone and the two from the West/South-Central Zone will join the league winners of the host nation as well as the national champions of Japan, Iran and Lebanon - whose club sides occupied the top three positions at the 2011 AFC Futsal Club Championship.
Pelindo coach Dadang Iskandar, meanwhile, is not affected with the draw result and remains confident with his current squad, which he feels will be strong enough to rise to the occasion.
“We will do our best to go through the group and proceed to the finals,” he said.
“After looking at the draw results, I think we can say we will maintain our squad because it's solid now already and the players have been consistent in their performance.”