ASEAN members Thailand and Vietnam have been denied playing in the final of the AFC Women’s Futsal Championship when they failed to make past their semi-final matches last night.
Thailand were denied 2-1 by Japan while Vietnam were whitewashed 5-0 by Iran.
Masami Kato delivered Japan their place in the final when she scored the winner seven minutes from time.
Ryo Egawa’s lead after just five minutes was cancelled by Jenjira Bubpha right at the hour mark.
“Every payer fought very hard in every game. Our effort was good but I’m not happy with the result. We lost the game and we lost one player, but we fought back to make it 1-1. Once it got to 2-1, it became difficult for us,” said Thailand head coach Udom Taveesuk.
“I’d like to say sorry to all Thai fans, but we still have one last game to go. We came back well in the start of the second half but Japan are a very good team and every player has experience and control in these situations, so it wasn’t our game today.”
In the meantime, Vietnam simply had no answer to Iran’s quick play as the latter raced to a comfortable 4-0 lead at the half before adding another after the breather.
Arezoo Sadaghanizadeh nailed the opener in the fourth minute, Fatemeh Etedadi (9th and 37th minute), Sara Shirbeigi (14th) and Fahimeh Zarei (16th).
“The whole team knows that Iran are a very strong team, but unfortunately our players were a little bit afraid and didn’t show their best in the first half. The evidence for saying that is that in the second half we were much better. It’s the first time we’ve played a semi-final and the players were a little bit nervous, especially the very young players,” said Vietnam head coach Truong Quoc Tran.
