GARCIA CONFIDENT SPIRITED SOUTHEAST ASIANS COULD SURPRISE

The win over the Iraqis was the culmination of an impressive campaign for the Vietnamese side, who saw off two-time semi-finalists Shenzhen Nanling Tielang to advance from the group stages and also defeat Qatar’s Al Rayyan to reach the semi-finals for the first time.

Match report: Thai Son Nam 7-3 NAFT Al Wasat

“I’m used to playing in tournaments like this but my team at the beginning was in the third position in the pot so it’s very simple,” said the Spanish coach of his lowly-ranked team.

“We were not the favourites in this tournament but usually in these tournaments there is one surprise and the message for my team at the start five weeks ago, six weeks ago when we started to prepare for this tournament was that we could be the surprise.

“For us, this is good. There are many teams with the talent to get the top four or to the final because edition-by-edition as teams like Shenzhen, Chonburi and Nagoya have shown it’s very difficult. This tournament is growing.”

Thai Son Nam had the perfect start to the game as Tran Long Vu stole the ball from the Iraqis straight from the kick off before going on to score. The goal set the Vietnamese up for an impressive win and encapsulated the style of play Garcia has been working to instil in his players since taking over 16 months ago.

“This is the new futsal style,” he said. “I am used to coaching in Europe, in Spain for the last 15 years and this is our style. Maybe people like our spirit and our model, the way we play with this intensity because we try to recover the ball and press. We try to follow the new school of the game, the Spanish school.”

Nguyen Minh Tri and Tran Van Vu both scored a brace while Le Quoc Nam and an own goal from Mohammad Naser Safari saw Thai Son Nam pick up the win, while Safari, Waleed Khaled and Ali Abdulelah were on target for NAFT Al Wasat.

“This is our first appearance in this competition and to qualify for the quarter-finals was the goal for us,” said NAFT coach Haitham Abbas. “Hopefully, we can be better in the next time we play in this competition.

“It’s our first appearance here and our goal was to reach the quarter-final but we did better than that. We went further than the champions of the last two years, Nagoya and Chonburi, so to get as far as we did means I’m satisfied with our performance and with the players.

“After our game against Tasisat we were really tired. The players didn’t have enough experience. I thought we could finish third but unfortunately we didn’t.”

Despite the failure of teams from Japan, Thailand and China to reach the last four, Abbas, who is also head coach of the Iraq national team, did not think there had been a significant change in the teams and nations dominating futsal in Asia.

“It’s not that there has been a change in the power in Asia,” he said. “Qadsia and Al Rayyan are going to improve but teams like Nagoya and Chonburi are powerful too. We can’t say there’s been a power shift in Asia.”