MEDIA RELEASE
PERFECT RECORD FOR FUTSAL WIZARDS BRAZIL
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| Thailand's Natthapon Suttiroj (No.3 in dark blue) - Brazil's Joao Batista Carvalho (No.13 in yellow) |
Thailand, the reigning SEA Games champion are kingpins in the region, but Brazil, the three-time world champion was a different proposition altogether.
To the Thai's credit they did hold the Brazilians for long periods of time, and even threathened to score an early goal. But once the opportunity passed , it was the Brazilians's turn to turn on the pressure.
Finally in the 7th min the Brazilians struck. The man with the lethal left foot, Lenision Junior assisted by Paulo Santos, cracked open the Thai defence to put Brazil one up.
And the Brazilians had to wait for another seven minutes before Junior made it 2-0 with another left-footed shot, which swerved beyond the reach of their goalkeeper Surapong Tompa.
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| Thailand's Keattiyot Chalaemkhet (No.14 in dark blue) - Brazil's Joao Batista Carvalho (No.13 in yellow) |
Brazil's coach, Paulo De Oliveira, said: "We had a tough match against Iran on Wednesday and it affected us today. But in any case, Thailand are a good side and have improved tremendously over the years. We use to beat them by double digit scoreline but not anymore.
"We also made the mistake of being over-confident, especially in the opening half - something which we should not be doing.
"But we are in the semis now and the only worry now is how to step up our level of performance. To tell the truth we are only playing at 60 per cent. No thanks to injuries to players like Alessandro Viera(Falcao) and Ari Santos."
Said his Thai counterpart, coach Piemkum Pattaya: " I am not happy with the scoreline. We should have scored at least one goal. But I am pleased with the overall performance considering the strength and the experience of the Brazilians.
"In fact, this is not the best result we had against them. We played them in 2003 and we lost 1-4."
FIXTURES and RESULTS (31 Jan, 2008)
| 10am: Australia vs Malaysia | (7-0) |
| 1pm: Holland vs Iran | (1-3) |
| 3pm: Indonesia vs Argentina | (0-6) |
| 6pm: Brazil vs Thailand | (4-0) |
| 9pm: England vs Australia |
CURRENT STANDINGS
| Group A | |||||||
| P | W | D | L | F | A | PTS | |
| ARGENTINA | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 2 | 9 |
| AUSTRALIA | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 1 | 6 |
| MALAYSIA | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 16 | 3 |
| INDONESIA | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 16 | 3 |
| ENGLAND | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 19 | 0 |
| Group B | |||||||
| P | W | D | L | F | A | PTS | |
| BRAZIL | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 9 |
| HOLLAND | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 4 |
| IRAN | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 3 |
| THAILAND | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 8 | 3 |
| CHINA | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 0 |
About the KL World 5's
The KL World 5's takes place between 29th January and 3rd February 2008 at Stadium Negara, Malaysia's first indoor stadium and a national heritage building. The event will be telecasted to over 310 million viewers across Asia on STAR Sports with over 100 hours of coverage, comprising 30 telecast hours, including 20 hours of live programming - translating into extensive media exposure for Malaysia.
The KL World 5's will have a total purse of US$150,000, and feature 10 teams in this prestigious tournament. The event is expected to draw futsal fans from Malaysia and the region with the pedigree of the international teams such as Brazil, Argentina, Holland and England will join the likes of Asian champion Iran, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia and hosts Malaysia in action.
ESPN STAR Sports and the Ministry of Youth and Sports have a rich tradition of partnerships stemming from a multi-year strategic alliance signed in October 2005 to raise participation and interest in sport in Malaysia.
For more information, please visit www.klworld5s.com
About ESPN STAR Sports
ESPN STAR Sports is a 50:50 joint venture between two of the world's leading cable and satellite broadcasters. As Asia's definitive and complete sports broadcaster and content provider, ESPN STAR Sports combines the strengths and resources of its ultimate parent companies – Walt Disney (ESPN, Inc.) and News Corporation Limited (STAR) – to deliver a diverse array of international and regional sports to viewers via its encrypted pay and free-to-air services.
ESPN STAR Sports showcases an unparalleled variety of premier live sports from around the globe 24 hours a day to a cumulative reach of more than 310 million viewers in Asia. ESPN STAR Sports has 17 networks covering 24 countries, each localised to deliver differentiated world-class premier sports programming to Asian viewers. This includes ESPN Asia, ESPN China, ESPN Hong Kong, ESPN India, ESPN Malaysia, ESPN Philippines, ESPN Singapore, ESPN Taiwan, MBC-ESPN (Korea), STAR Sports Asia, STAR Sports Hong Kong, STAR Sports India, STAR Sports Malaysia, STAR Sports Singapore, STAR Sports Southeast Asia, STAR Sports Taiwan, and STAR Cricket.
On the ground, the ESPN STAR Sports Event Management Group manages and promotes premier sporting events around Asia. ESPN STAR Sports aims to reach consumers at any time, any place and through all new media platforms, both internet and mobile. The multi-lingual, online platforms, espnstar.com, espnstar.com.cn and espnstar.com.tw and footballcrazy.tv interact with millions of users providing them with in-depth sports news, results and competitions. Developed for the sports fan that is constantly on the move, mobileESPN and STAR Sports Mobile delivers differentiated mobile content targeted at its various audiences. mobileESPN enables the serious sports fan to follow their favourite sports more closely than ever before with a combination of specially produced video news clips, in-depth news coverage and analysis. STAR Sports Mobile aims to provide interactive and entertaining opportunities to engage with sports, delivering exclusive video excerpts from leading football clubs Arsenal and Liverpool as well as highlights from STAR Sports original programmes covering opinions, instructional tips and the latest online game reviews.
For more information, please contact:
Abdul Rahman (Twenty Four Seven Sdn Bhd)
Tel: 012-6637454
abdulrahman@media247.com.my
Elgen Kua (ESPN STAR Sports)
DID: +65 6216 6034
kuae@espnstar.com