Vietnam were trounced 1-13 by Iran in the semifinal of the ongoing AFC Futsal Championship in Uzbekistan on Friday, striking a sour note on the team’s celebration for their first-ever ticket to the World Cup grabbed a few days earlier.
The Iranians did not give their Vietnamese a slight chance in a match they completely dominated, scoring seven times in the first half alone.
Iran’s Farhad Tavakoli scored four, whereas Mahdi Javid netted a hat-trick and captain Mohammad Keshavarz had a double. Other Iranian scorers are Hamid Ahmadi, Hossein Tayebi and Alireza Vafaei.
Phung Trong Luan netted the only goal for Vietnam in the 17 minutes.
“Today we didn’t have the strength to compete with Iran because of our efforts in the previous two games against Japan and Thailand,” Vietnam’s coach Bruno Formoso was quoted by the AFC as saying.
“We tried our hardest but we just couldn’t recover. It has been a huge effort this tournament, and Iran just had too many really good players for us to match.
“We weren’t only tired physically but also psychologically because with the game against Japan going to extra-time and penalties it took a lot out of us.”
Iran are the ten-time AFC Futsal Championship winners, and a defeat against such a strong rival was not unexpected to Vietnamese fans.
While the loss does not affect Vietnam’s qualification for the FIFA Futsal World Cup, to take place in Colombia from September 10 to October 1, it did upset supporters, who were overwhelmed by happiness following the historic victory of their beloved team against Japan on Wednesday.
Vietnam beat Japan in penalty shootout to become one of the five top teams at the Uzbekistan event, thus qualifying for the World Cup in Colombia as per FIFA rules.
Vietnam will face Thailand in the runner-up game on Sunday, whereas Iran will compete for their 11th title in the finale with hosts Uzbekistan.
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