AFC: Indonesia to play Malaysia for ticket to Tashkent

Emerging as runner-up in Group A after a defeat to Australia, the Indonesian team next faces Group B winner Malaysia in Wednesday's (February 24) semifinal of the AFC Futsal Championship ASEAN Zone qualifier.

"The match the day after tomorrow is a must-win game for us," Coach Robby Hartono said on Monday (February 22).

Australia, which beat Myanmar 6-1 in an earlier group game, went on thump Indonesia 4-1 on Monday at the Tennis Indoor Stadium in Senayan, Central Jakarta, to win Group A.

Indonesia's 7-1 rout of Myanmar on Sunday (February 21) was not enough of a psychological boost for the team facing Australia, Robby said.

"We didn't play a composed game, we kept getting easily irritated," he said of his players.

"We missed chances to score because our finishing was off."

On Wednesday, Australia will play Group B runner-up Vietnam, which was previously held to a 2-2 draw by Malaysia.

Malaysia dominated the group from the very beginning, starting with a 4-1 win over the Philippines on Saturday (February 20) and a comprehensive 13-1 thrashing of Cambodia on Sunday.

Vietnam trailed closely with a 12-2 rout of Cambodia and a 4-1 defeat of the Philippines.

In the final reckoning, Malaysia was named the group winner on goal difference - by a single goal.

The last time Indonesia faced Malaysia was at last year's ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Futsal Championship in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where Indonesia won 7-3 in the group stage to make it into the semifinals.

The team went on to lose to Vietnam in the last four, going down 11-10 on penalties.

"The Malaysian team depends on a few key players, while the skills on our team are more evenly distributed," Robby said, adding his team would play more aggressively against the 2007 Southeast Asian Games (SEA) silver medalists.

Indonesia took bronze at that event, hosted in Thailand.

Should Indonesia lose Wednesday's semifinal, it will have to play the loser of the Australia -Vietnam semifinal in a playoff Thursday (February 25).

The top three teams will go through to the AFC Futsal Championship finals in Uzbekistan.

Teams that have already qualified for the May 23-30 event in Tash-kent are host Uzbekistan, China, South Korea, Chinese Taipei, Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Lebanon, Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Thailand and Japan.