BALAKRISHNAN EYES SEMI-FINAL SPOT

Despite being placed in a tough Group A against Argentina, England, Indonesia and Australia, Balakrishnan said that the team will have to be ambitious since they will be playing at home in the KL World 5’s slated for Jan 29 to Feb 3, 2008.

The KL World 5’s, the most lucrative futsal tournament in the world with a prize purse of USD150,000, is organised by ESPN STAR Sports, Asia’s No. 1 sports broadcaster.

“I will not go so much as saying that we will definitely win a place in the semi-finals of the KL World 5’s because of the quality of the opposition that we are up against,” said Balakrishnan.

“But the semi-final is what we are aiming for and even though our preparation has not exactly gone like clockwork – what with the few players unable to attend training because of work commitment – still we will prepare a strong squad to represent Malaysian Futsal.”

Group B has three-times world champions Brazil, Holland, Asian champions Iran, China and several times Asean champions Thailand in the mix.

Among the four teams in Group A, Balakrishnan has picked Argentina as the team to beat considering that they will be coming into the tournament as the defending champions.

England can provide a surprise or two while the last time Malaysia played Australia which was at the Asean Futsal Championship last year, they lost 3-2.

“We had several good results against Indonesia including a win at the SEA Games last year, so our chances of making to the last four will be quite fair,” added Balakrishnan.

“What’s important is that we get the latest tapes of teams like Argentina, Holland and England. From there, we will have to formulate a game plan for each of our opponent.”

The KL World 5’s will be telecasted to over 310 million viewers across Asia on ESPN STAR Sports channels.

GROUPINGS

GROUP A: Argentina, England, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia

GROUP B: Brazil, Holland, Iran, China, Thailand