Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Dubai: Japan skipper Kenichiro Kogure has expressed the importance of the AFC Futsal Championship in helping him become one of the tournament's top players.
The 32-year-old has appeared in all but two editions of the competition since its inception in 1999 and is now just one match away from lifting the trophy for a second time following Japan's success in the 2006 AFC Futsal Championship, with an impressive Thai side standing in the way of Kogure having another taste of continental glory.
"I owe a lot to this competition," Kogure told www.the-afc.com following Japan's hard-fought semi-final victory over Australia, in which the Japan skipper finally broke the deadlock in the 29th minute after the East Asians had been continuously frustrated by the gritty Futsalroos.
"This is my tenth time in the competition and this tournament has helped me improve over the years.
"We have won just one title and it is my desire to repeat that success against Thailand. I desperately want to take the trophy to back to Japan."
But to do that Kogure, the top scorer at the 2007 AFC Futsal Championship, and his team-mates must overcome an entertaining Thai side that has scored five times in both the quarter-final win over Lebanon and in their thrilling extra-time win over pre-tournament favourites Iran.
No easy task given that Japan's form over the knockout stage has been less than impressive, with poor finishing restricting them to a nervous 1-0 win over Kyrgyzstan before experiencing the same problem against Australia, before finally capitalising on the tiring Futsalroos to score three unanswered goals in the last ten minutes.
Reflecting on the hard-fought 3-0 semi-final victory Kogure, who scored twice in Japan's 5-1 win over Uzbekistan in the 2006 final and once as Iran were knocked out in the semis with an identical scoreline, remarked:
"We didn't take the chances presented to us but we predicted it would be a tough game and it was.
"In this kind of game you need patience because we also had to work hard in defence as it was important not to concede before we scored as this would affect our strategy.
"We had two targets in this competition. The first was to reach the World Cup and second is to win this tournament. Now that we are in the final we cannot let this opportunity pass us by."
The final the AFC Futsal Championship UAE 2012 between Thailand and Japan will kick-off at 1930 (UAE time) and will be streamed live on www.the-afc.com