CAMBODIA HASTEN TO MOULD A TEAM FOR JAKARTA MEET

The meet has been slated for 20-25 February 2010.

National team manager Vann Ly said that 20 players from the eight futsal teams which took part in the league have been training regularly and where they will be short listed to 20 players just prior to the trip.

“We have only one month of training, but we keep working hard to get a good result from the tournament,” said Vann Ly.

“We need them to be strong technically and also physically.”

Cambodia are in Group B of the ASEAN zone qualifiers against Vietnam, Malaysia and Philippines.

May Tola, the FFC Deputy General Secretary said that they should be wary of Malaysia and Vietnam, but that he remains optimistic about the prospects of the team.

“Our performance is still lower than others,” he said. “But it’s the first time that we have a real Futsal team. Before, we used players from the regular football to participate in the Futsal tournament.

“In Malaysia, Futsal has become a social movement because many Malaysians like playing it. Vietnam are also one of the most experienced teams in the region, but I think that we are on the same level as the Philippines.

“Now the FFC considers Futsal as one of our main priorities for football development in the Kingdom.”

May Tola also note Cambodia’s irregularity in participation of both ASEAN and Asian Futsal Championships.

“As I remember, we participated only three times in the regional AFF tournaments,” he said.