Futsal Championship of Asia; Iran Reaches Final for the Sixth Time

The Iranian national futsal team faced the Thai futsal team in the semifinals of the 2004 Asian Championship and World Cup qualifiers on Saturday afternoon, winning the match with a score of six to one. According to IRNA news agency from Macau, Iran finished the first half of the match with a score of three to zero. The goals were scored by Vahid Shamsaei in the 6th minute of the first half and the 15th minute of the second half, Mohsen Zarei in the 10th minute of the first half, Mohammad Reza Heydarian in the 17th minute of the first half, and Mohammad Hashemzadeh and Babak Masoumi in the 7th and 16th minutes of the second half. The head coach of the Thai futsal team, having no hope of advancing, substituted the goalkeeper for an extra player at the beginning of the second half, but this tactic was ineffective. The Thai team managed to score their only goal in the 13th minute of the second half. Reza Naseri, the valuable goalkeeper of the Iranian futsal team, skillfully blocked all attacks from the Thai team. Thus, Iran and Japan will face each other in the final match of this round of the competition tomorrow (Sunday). With this victory, Iran, along with Japan, secured a spot in the World Cup competitions in Taiwan. The winner of the match between Thailand and Uzbekistan in the ranking match will also earn this spot. The World Futsal Championship will be held from December 1 to 15 of this year in Taiwan.