Cambodia’s Ruos Syratha tries to control the ball under challenge from a player of Brunei during their third round match in Group A of AFF Futsal Championship on Monday. FFC
The national futsal team – already knocked out of contention in Group A of the 2022 AFF Futsal Championship – faces a difficult path to salvaging some pride from their winless tournament, with their remaining pool match scheduled against Indonesia, one of the strongest teams in the competition.
Unable to hold their lead over Brunei in Monday’s game, they were only able to manage a 2-2 draw.
After losing to Malaysia in a close 7-6 opening Group A match last Saturday, the Cambodian team were humiliated in a 16-0 drubbing to home side Thailand on Sunday.
They had been expected to claim a comfortable win against Brunei – whose ranking is lower than Cambodia – and who it was hoped had their spirits broken by two thrashings earlier in the week, going down 13-0 and 12-0 to Thailand and Indonesia respectively.
In Monday’s match, Cambodia looked off to a flying start as they took an easy lead, with a goal to Aokchan Sereyvong in just the 4th minute, and an own goal by Brunei’s Khalil Saab in the 9th.
However, in the last minute of the 20 minute first half, Zailrul Hazmin Saifuddin clawed one back for Brunei to see them go into the break just one goal down.
Cambodia’s lead was cancelled in the 34th minute, thanks to Duk Sophat – having a day he will want to forget – finding the back of his own net to equalise for the opposition.
The 2-2 draw means that both Cambodia and Brunei, who have both lost two of their three matches and drawn one, automatically dropped out of Group A contention despite having a game in hand.
The match between Cambodia and Indonesia is expected to be a tough challenge for the Cambodian team, as the Indonesians are considered on par with the Thai team who pasted them so convincingly. Malaysia, a tough team that Cambodia challenged, went down to the Indonesians 5-1.
In the last 16 AFF Championships, Indonesia has won the championship once in 2010, with Thailand taking the other 15. Cambodia’s best placing has been fourth, which it achieved in 2003 in Malaysia and 2006 in Thailand.
Indonesia have finished runner up on three occasions and placed third at five tournaments. They have a strong record against the Kingdom, with 7-5 and 5-3 results in 2003 and 2006. These results do not compare to their most recent meeting, when they crushed Cambodia 13-0 on its home soil in 2018. They will be looking to score as many goals as possible to ensure a strong Group A goal difference with fifteen time champions Thailand.
