Indonesia had to settle for overall fourth in the AFC Under-20 Futsal Championship when they succumbed to a 9-1 loss to Iran the classification match that was played at the Pour Sharifi Stadium yesterday.
The hosts, who were denied a place in the final by eventual champions Japan, had in intense opening quarter with Indonesia determined to finish the meet on a high.
But for all their aggression, Indonesia found themselves trailing as early as third minute when Salar Aghapour fired in a freekick as Ali Akrami then doubled Iran’s advantage a minute later.
Iran then went on a rampage as they capitalized on Indonesia’s series of mistakes to score through Aghapour in the six minute and 25th minute penalty, Sajjad Sarbaz (11th), Reza Ghanbarisaeidabad (16th), Erfan Ijihosseinzadeh (17th), Belal Esmaili Kooraneh (29th) and Dehghannezhad (39th).
Adriansyah scered the only goal for Indonesia in the 36th minute.
“Firstly, I want to congratulate Iran for the victory. There were multiple strategies that we deployed from high pressing and power play, but Iran were determined to not lose again. They played really systematic and exploited our weak points in this match. I’m still satisfied with what we have achieved here, because we are here with players that had no international experience before. I’m happy that we have shown that we are on the same level as Iran, Japan and Thailand. The players did a remarkable effort in this tournament. I will go back and speak to our federation, because I think we can reach the 2024 World Cup with this group of players,” said Indonesian head coach Sayan Karmadi afterwards.
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