Ho chi Minh – Tehran.

Jesus Candelas expressed his satisfaction with the first victory of Futsal Team Melli against Indonesia. Iran defeated the East Asian country 5-1 in the opener of group B while in the other match of the group , the Australians narrowly beat China 2-1. Iran is leading the group on goal difference after one round.

Candelas said the his team took the match quite seriously and went in with full force. “The AFC Futsal Championship is not a place for trials and mistakes. We need to focus and take our chances. The boys played well and won comprehensively.” Candelas admitted that at some stage of the game , his players momentarily lost concentration allowing the Indonesians to attack and score their only goal. The Spanish coach of Team Melli  said “although every match will be different due to the opposing teams’ styles and strength , our focus and concentration should not change and as we must stay focused all the time in the the championship.”

Meanwhile , Seyed Reza Eftikhari , the head of the Futsal Committee , believes that Candelas utilization of a group of young players in the team will yield result. Eftikhari  “Of course, he needs a bit of time to integrate the experience of the older player with the energy and the enthusiasm of the younger generation , but I believe he is in the right track. We do have some y=talented and promising futsal players in Iran.”

Several senior player are out of Team Melli for this championship for one reason or another including the Team Capt Keshavarz.

Iran needs to be at its best to regain the lost title to Japan , as the defending champions underlined their ambition to defend their AFC Futsal Championship title following a one-sided 12-0 win over Korea Republic in Thursday’s Group D opener. Japan is considered by many analysts as the no 1 team in Asian Futsal taking the title from Iran in UAE in the last edition.

Japan , is not the only threat as Thailand has progressively become a force to be reckoned with. The Thai started their campaign with a big 7-1 win against Malaysia.

Iran will be playing China on Friday. Iran starting line up will be :

2     GK    ALIREZA SAMIMI
6     FP    ALIREZA VAFAEI
7     FP    ASGHAR HASSANZADEH
13    FP    FARHAD TAVAKOLI
15    FP    HOSSEIN TAYEBI