Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Dubai: Korea Republic coach Lee Chang-hwan admits that compared to the football team the futsal team has not been bossing the continent and far off the pace with other bigwigs.
However, Hwan is optimistic that his young team will have a tournament to remember in 2012 AFC Futsal Championship.
“We begin with a tie against Iran but we are not scared, we try to win and even if not, the match will give us a good account of ourselves,” he said.
Korea Republic arrived in Dubai one week before to acclimatize and had a couple of friendly matches against domestic rivals in Korea before coming to Dubai.
“Our preparations for the tournament have been excellent and we hope we book a place in the semifinal so that we feature in the FIFA Futsal World Cup later this year.”
While other team’s aim is to feature in the World Cup in Thailand, 10-time champions Iran has been making plans to win the World Cup itself as coach Ali Sanei terms this championship an ideal place to get the preparation right for the bigger mission.
“This championship has been scheduled at the right time, we would of course like to continue our dominance in Asia by winning this championship and later on try to conquer the world,” he said, admitting that the tournament will not be an easy walk for the defending champions.
“Every team will try to beat us and we have to be careful and make sure that there won’t be room for complacency,” he said.
As part of the preparation, Iran played in West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) championship which they won without losing a single match as well as Huanzhou four-nation tournament where they failed to beat Romania in the final.
The return of Iranian futsal legend Vahid Shamsaee after missing out 2010 championship will spur Iran who will be without the services of Masoud Daneshvar who was a last minute omission because of the back problem. Daneshvar had scored 11 goals in the 2010 AFC Futsal Championship in Uzbekistan.