If we had enough rest, we would have had a different result against Iran/Afghanistan’s goal is to be among the top 10 teams in the world

Afghan Voice Agency (AVA): Majid Mortezaei, head coach of the national futsal team, said in an interview with the futsal news site “Fut5al”: “With less than 11 hours of rest after the match against Brazil, we went against Iran, and maybe if we had rested more, we would have had a different result against Iran.”

 

After Afghanistan's 4-3 defeat to Iran in the quadrennial tournament in Brazil, he told the Futsal News Agency: "It was a very good game. Despite everything that happened to us on our trip to Brazil, we achieved our goals in both games against big teams like Brazil and Iran. Perhaps if the time gap between the game with Brazil and today's game against Iran had been more than 11 hours, a different result would have been achieved."

 

He added: "The initial delay in Afghanistan's arrival due to visa problems was as challenging as the tournament itself, and it was Afghanistan that had to deal with everything. After the tough game with Brazil, we returned to our hotel at 12:30 pm and immediately played against Iran at 10:30 am Brazil time, which put a lot of pressure on our players' bodies. These two tough games caused us to lose Hamidreza Hosseini in the game with Brazil and Omid Ghanbari in the game with Iran in the same minute, and both of them will be out of action for about two to three weeks."

 

The Iranian futsal head coach continued: "In the game against Iran, our team was not so much matched because injuries and the dismissal of Akbar Kazemi caused us to face a shortage of players, but we achieved our goal in both of these big games and showed that Afghanistan can be among the top futsal powers in the world."

 

Mortezai emphasized the problem of his players' jet lag and said: "We had to play as soon as we arrived in Brazil in less than 24 hours, but because we had a big goal, we played with all our strength. Otherwise, the jet lag rule says that with the distance we traveled, we should have rested for at least 6 days so that our bodies can get used to the new conditions. Our players now go to bed in the evening and wake up at 3:30 in the morning because their body clocks have not yet been adjusted."

 

He rejected any hostility between the players of the two teams in the game against Iran and said: "We were inseparable." Some of the Iranian players have been my students and many of the Afghan players play in Iran and we saw them calling each other by their first names on the pitch. The Iranian coach is a futsal legend in Asia and we are all friends. There was a good atmosphere and no one should have the wrong impression. Both teams tried their best because whichever team won, they would be in the final against Brazil.

 

Mortezai clarified: There was no negligence from Afghanistan and I have always said that the players should focus only on the game. In the game with Brazil, we made a total of 5 mistakes in both halves. In the game with Iran, Afghanistan really tried harder not to get involved in the sidelines and that is why Morocco is inviting us to a friendly match for the third time. We are deeply looking for technical work and in between the two halves of the game with Iran, I told my players that any sidelines are to your detriment and never have bad interactions and you saw that they played better in the second half.

 

The Iranian futsal coach described his team's prospects as bright, saying: "We played the game with Brazil in front of 4,000 Brazilian spectators, then we faced a powerful Iran. In a month, we will play another world power in Morocco, Portugal, and then we will play against Morocco. These four games are with the first to seventh ranked teams in the world. We also coordinated two games with Russia because we have come to the conclusion that to increase Afghanistan's power, we must play with big teams. Then, we will gradually move towards the Asian Games and, God willing, become one of the top four teams in Asia. God willing, I promise that with this form, we will beat big teams like Japan, Uzbekistan, Thailand, and Indonesia in Asia."