Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Dubai: Japan coach Miguel Rodrigo has seen a definite improvement in the standard of play at the 2012 AFC Futsal Championship compared with the tournament two years ago.
Japan, the only nation other than Iran to have lifted the AFC Futsal Championship trophy, is one of the continent’s most developed futsal nations with a professional league and a coach that has been working with the national team for the past three years.
Rodrigo, who took part in his first AFC Futsal Championship in 2010 when he led Japan to a third-place finish has guided the East Asians to the last eight in Dubai with a 100% record in the group stage following a hard-fought win over Lebanon and back-to-back 6-1 victories over Tajikistan and Chinese Taipei.
And despite that one-side nature of the last two Group B wins, Rodrigo has continuously stated that there are now, now longer any ‘easy’ at this level, with competing teams keen to benefit from global expertise.
“Coaches in Asia have been working very hard at improving their style of play,” said the Spaniard.
“This is a good motivation for me as someone who works in Asia and I am very happy to see the game of futsal improving here as Asia continues to bridge the gap between them and Europe and Latin America.
“At Uzbekistan 2010 we had a couple of easy games in which our opponents played an ‘antiquated’ style of play. It was slow and nobody pressed; they relied too much on long balls and didn’t elaborate their attacks. It was mini-football and not futsal and futsal is a game of technique, tactics and more ball possession.
“As I have said before there are no easy games at this tournament and now I see most of the teams playing the modern way and maybe a lot to do with this is the introduction of foreign coaches.
“The mentality of coaching in Spain is one of the best in the world and that is why it’s no surprise to say many Spanish coaches here in Dubai. While teams may lack individual quality they are improving technically and tactically and in Asia this is very important.”
But it’s not all rosy in the Asian futsal garden with Rodrigo expressing his disappointment at the ruling that prohibits teams for calling up a replacement for an injured player.
Japan played their last two group matches without key player Shota Hoshi who injured his knee after scoring in the East Asians’ 3-2 opening win over Lebanon.
“Losing one of the best players of the team greatly affects us. I thought that we would be able to call up a replacement but I was told that this is not possible,” Rodrigo recalled.
“For me this is disappointing and is taking a step back in helping promote and develop futsal in Asia.
“I was told by a tournament official that the reason for this is that they can’t be sure a player is genuinely injured or not but in Asia we have the medical technology to identify this.
They allow injury replacements in football but not in futsal and for me this doesn’t make sense.
“Other teams will be affected by this as well and I am only saying that if a regulation is changed, or introduced, then it must be a change for the better and not the worse.”
Rodrigo will be hoping the absence of Hoshi isn’t too costly when Japan take on Kyrgyzstan in the 2012 AFC Futsal Championship quarter-final against Kyrgyzstan, which kicks-off on Tuesday at 1830 UAE time and will be streamed live on www.the-afc.com.