|
Only Al Sadd on Oceans’ horizon |
|
Wednesday, 10 March 2010 03:48 |
 Esfahan: Nagoya Oceans coach Adil Amarante is refusing to look beyond his side's semi-final showdown with Al Sadd of Qatar on Thursday as the inaugural AFC Futsal Club Championship heads towards a thrilling finale.
Esfahan: Nagoya Oceans coach Adil Amarante is refusing to look beyond his side's semi-final showdown with Al Sadd of Qatar on Thursday as the inaugural AFC Futsal Club Championship heads towards a thrilling finale.
The Japanese side suffered their first defeat at the tournament with a 6-2 loss to Foolad Mahan Sepahan in their final Group A game on Tuesday meaning they had to settle for second place with the Iranians finishing top of the standings.Nagoya had given Foolad arguably their most difficult test yet though and the match could possibly be seen as a dress rehearsal for the final.But Amarante is focussed solely on overcoming Al Sadd with the Qataris having been one of the other stand-out performers at the tournament so far.I am concentrating only on the semi-final match, said the Portuguese coach.
We need to win the next game so there is no point looking too far ahead yet.Al Sadd have had a day extra to prepare for the game so we also need to prepare and work out how to play against them.Like Nagoya, Al Sadd lost just once in the group stage as they were surprisingly beaten 11-6 by Chinese side Wuhan Dilong on Monday.The result does not reflect their true ability, however, as coach Fabiano Ribeiro opted to use his key player Xavier Rodrigo sparingly with the Brazilian on a yellow card and another would have seen him forced to sit out the semi-final.Rodrigo is certain to start against Nagoya and, along with Mohssein Amro, will be Al Sadd's main threat.Amrante felt his side made too many little mistakes against Foolad that ultimately proved costly and acknowledged that these need to be cut out if they are to secure victory on Thursday.We lost concentration (against Foolad) and made too many little mistakes, he added.
We have a plan during each match and depending on the opponent and how things develop in the game we change this plan accordingly.We must get to the final, we are prepared for this semi-final and we will go for the win.
|
Argentina
Brazil
China PR
Cuba
Czech
Eqypt
Guatemala
Italy
Iran
Japan
Libya
Paraguay
Portugal
Russia
Spain
Soloman
Thailand
Ukraine
USA
Uruguay
