In the just concluded first round of the Futsal Asian Cup qualifiers, the Chinese team suffered a 1-5 loss, a result that mirrored what happened to the national soccer team a decade ago.
Nevertheless, Thailand has a clear advantage as hosts. Our country is still proud of its defeat, after all, it did not leave a defeat in the standings. Meanwhile, two West Asian teams, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, also joined the competition. In comparison, the development of futsal in West Asia seems to be lagging behind.
A total of 31 teams competed in the tournament, divided into 8 groups. Among them, the second group with the best results in the first and seventh groups will advance directly, while the performance of the last group will not affect the qualification. It is worth noting that Turkmenistan were in the same group as the five-man national football team, but withdrew before the tournament.
Although China lost 1-5 against Thailand, the victory did not count towards the points. The AFC has adjusted the rules so that the five-man national soccer team will play two rounds of matches against Hong Kong, China to determine the final group standings. With one win, the five-man national soccer team is expected to advance to the finals.
The round was a cold one, with the 2-3 battle between Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan being the most notable. Saudi Arabia broke through first, but Afghanistan then scored three goals in a row. In the last minute of the match, Abdullah Mohammad Alakili scored a goal for Saudi Arabia to save the embarrassment.
The AFC officially announced that Afghanistan will advance to the final round, while Macau, China suffered a heavy defeat in the same group of matches. West Asian futsal leaders Lebanon were beaten by Kyrgyzstan.
In a marquee match, Japan successfully defended their title with a 4-0 win over Australia. The Japanese team is centered on naturalized players and captain Oliveira scored a hat-trick to lead the team to win. Australia, on the other hand, finished at the bottom of the table.
Here are the results of the teams' matches:
Group A: China 1-5 Thailand; despite the standings, play in this group has not yet officially begun as Thailand's results do not count.
Group B: Indonesia 12-0 Macao, China; Afghanistan 3-2 Saudi Arabia; Macao, China is weak and is at the bottom of the table in almost every game. Afghanistan is leading with 3 points, basically locking up the qualifying spot. Indonesia and Saudi Arabia will fight for the final place.
Group C: Iran 18-2 Maldives; Lebanon 3-4 Kyrgyzstan; Lebanon will face Central Asia's Iran in the next round with little chance of advancing. Last year the West Asian Futsal exploded with five teams advancing to the final, while this year only one to two teams may be able to advance.
Group D: Mongolia Vietnam 6-1; Nepal Korea 5-1;
Group E: Tajikistan 6-3 India, Palestine 1-2 Myanmar; Tajikistan performed well in both the 11-a-side and 5-a-side tournaments, and no one expected the two countries with populations of more than 1.4 billion to finish last in the group before the tournament.
Group F: Kuwait 4-2 Brunei; Bahrain 1-0 Timor-Leste; Bahrain has been positive in futsal, but has been slow to progress in men's soccer. The five-a-side women's soccer team beat China's five-a-side women's soccer team in an invitational tournament in Japan in September to finish third.
Group G: Cambodia Uzbekistan 6-1; Malaysia Iraq 2-1;
Group H: Australia, Japan 4-0.
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