MEDIA RELEASE
END OF THE ROAD FOR HOSTS MALAYSIA IN KL WORLD 5s
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| Holland Dick Hulshorst (No.5 in white) - Malaysia Mohd Ruzaley Abdul Aziz (No.8 in black and yellow) |
“Malaysia should not take this defeat in a bad way because the truth is that if they do not have a proper Futsal league, then they will always struggle against teams which have them,” said Hermans.
“Even in Holland, we had just started a Futsal league and we are nowhere near the top teams like Spain or Italy. We have put some semblance of organisation in place and we will only reap the rewards probably in ten years time.
“If we don’t win this game (against Malaysia) I will feel very bad although I must say that I’m not too happy with the performance of some of the players who are already thinking of playing against Iran tomorrow.”
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| Holland Calvin Blankendal (No.9 in white) - Malaysia Mohd Faizul Abdul Gaffar (No.3 in black and yellow) |
Neijari nailed his hat-trick with goals in the third, 11th and 24th minute, before an own goal from Malaysia’s Muizzudin Haris four minutes after the restart compounded the misery for his team.
A solo effort from Adil Salih completed the win for Holland as they look forward to playing against the winner of the Iran-Indonesa tie for the Plate title.
“We managed to keep the score low in the first half, but it was always going to be difficult to play without Jamhuri,” added P. Balakrishnan, the head coach for Malaysia.
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| Holland Calvin Blankendal (No.9 in white) - Malaysia Mohd Ruzaley Abdul Aziz (No.8 in black and yellow) - Malaysian keeper D. Supramanium |
“But generally, we have had a good tournament where we had the opportunity to play against some tough teams, and this should go well for our AFC Futsal Championship preparation.”
FIXTURES and RESULTS (2nd Feb, 2008)
| 12am: Malaysia vs Holland | (5-0) |
| 2pm: Iran vs Indonesia | |
| Semifinals | |
| 5pm: Argentina vs Thailand | |
| 7pm: Brazil vs Australia |
CURRENT STANDINGS
| Group A | |||||||
| P | W | D | L | F | A | PTS | |
| ARGENTINA | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 28 | 5 | 10 |
| AUSTRALIA | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 21 | 5 | 10 |
| MALAYSIA | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 18 | 6 |
| INDONESIA | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 16 | 3 |
| ENGLAND | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 31 | 0 |
| Group B | |||||||
| P | W | D | L | F | A | PTS | |
| BRAZIL | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 12 |
| IRAN | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 6 | 6 |
| THAILAND | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 8 | 3 |
| HOLLAND | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 4 |
| CHINA | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 18 | 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