Six-year-long Iranian win streak ended by Japan

AFC - Japan put six-time Asian futsal kingpins Iran in their place by handing Team Melli their first ever loss 1-3 in the history of the AFC Futsal Championship at the Phu Tho Stadium on Saturday.

Today’s memorable win erased bitter memories for the Japanese who have come up short in no less than three finals of this tournament against Iran. The defeat also halted one of the longest running win streaks in any sport since Iran have not lost or even drawn a single match since they started playing in this tournament in 1999.

The Japanese found their hero in Kogure Kenichiro who slammed in two second period goals while Fuji Kenta added one more five minutes from time. Only Hossein Sultani was on target for the out-of-form champions.

Iranian coach Jurandir blamed his team’s lax defence for the shock defeat. “Japan played and co-ordinated really well. Their defence couldn’t be breached,” said Jurandir. “My players failed to defend properly and didn’t follow the pre-match strategy."

The win put Japan on top of Group G in the Cup competition with three points and ahead of Thailand, who beat China 3-2 in the earlier encounter. The first half ended 1-1 with China taking the lead one minute before half-time through Yan Fei, which was almost immediately neutralised by a whiplash shot from Anucha Manjaren.

The second half was dramatic as both teams were reduced to four men in the last seven minutes. China suffered the first blow when Li Kou Chang was given the marching orders after 33 minutes for rough play. Panuwat Janta who had scored to make it 2-1 just a minute before this quickly netted his brace and the Thais, who are ASEAN futsal champions, began exploiting the massive wide space available to them.

China did well to pull one back - a Zhang Xi goal – but the damage was done. And despite Thai Narongsak Khongkaew’s sending off in the last minute the Chinese failed to recoup.

Thailand coach Glaucio Castro was elated with the win. “This match was very important to us because all the teams in our group are very strong.”

“We are happy and satisfied with the result,” Castro added.

Chinese coach Xu Jian said absence of some key players through injury had affected the team’s performance. “Thailand played excellently today and they are a very strong team.”

“Although we didn’t win, the result is satisfying as some of our players were injured and we couldn’t adopt attacking tactics.”