Qantas Futsalroos draw Japan at AFC Championship

The Qantas Futsalroos have drawn 2nd-ranked Japan, along with Turkmenistan and Chinese Taipei for next month’s AFC Futsal Championships being held in Thailand.

The Qantas Futsalroos have drawn 2nd-ranked Japan, along with Turkmenistan and Chinese Taipei for next month-s AFC Futsal Championships being held in Thailand.

While Japan will go in as the obvious Group B favourites, Australia will buoyed by its impressive showing at the World Futsal 5-s tournament in February, where they reached the semi finals.

Japan, who along with Iran, are the only teams to win the AFC title, finished runners-up last year, having ended Iran-s run of seven successive title wins in 2006. Australia will play Japan in its third match, which will hopefully decide who wins the group.

Australia-s opening game will be against Turkmenistan, a repeat of last year-s championship, although Australia will be keen eager to get a better start this time around, after losing 1-0.

The second match for Australia will be against Chinese Taipei, who finished second in its group, in the qualifying tournament played late last month in Malaysia.

All of Australia-s matches will be played at the Nimibutr Stadium in Bangkok.

The top two from the four groups will progress to the quarter finals, with Group B scheduled to play the top two from Group A at this stage.

The four groups are:

Group A - Thailand, Kyrgyzstan, Iraq, Indonesia Group B - Japan, Australia, Turkmenistan, Chinese Taipei Group C - Uzbekistan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Korea Republic Group D - IR Iran, Tajikistan, China PR, Kuwait

Australia-s matches are:

May 11 v Turkmenistan - 6.45pm (Thailand time) May 12 v Chinese Taipei - 12 noon (Thailand time) May 13 v Japan - 6.45pm (Thailand time)