Japan’s Nagoya Oceans Defeat Qatar’s Al Rayyan SC to Win Third Place at AFC Futsal Club Championship

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Japanese champions Nagoya Oceans defeated Qatar’s Al Rayyan 4-1 to win the third place play-off of the AFC Futsal Club Championship 2012 held at Yarmouk Indoor Stadium on Friday.

The member association of the play-off winners will have the luxury of getting a direct berth in next year’s finals. Al Rayyan, who were defeated in the semi-final and went on to miss the third-place last year, had the same fate again and next year’s Qatari champions will have to feature in the qualifiers to make it into the tournament proper.

Rafael Henmi scored a brace while Wataru Kitahara and Shuta Mori also notched a goal apiece for the Japanese. The only Rayyan goal came from Antonio Vadillo.

Both sides started the match with free-flow futsal but it was Oceans who drew the first blood in the 9th minute after Al Rayyan goalie Abdullah Badi committed a horrible mistake in front of goal.

Badi failed to gather a cross from Tomoki Yoshikawa and the ball went straight into the feet of Rafael Henmi as the 2012 AFC Futsal Championship MVP did not make any mistake to put the Japanese 1-0 in front.

Oceans goalkeeper Hisamitsu Kawahara also committed a silly mistake allowing Al Rayyan to get back into the match. Kawahara fumbled collecting an Antonio Vadillo shot in the 13th minute as referee Mohammed Al Haddad allowed the goal to stand for Al Rayyan.

“We tried hard but we were up against a quality side, so the boys could not keep up the tempo later,” coach Juan Antonio of Al Rayyan said.

“Overall, we had a good tournament and hopefully next year we get a chance to participate and come back strong,” he added.

Wataru Kitahara scored one of the best goals of the tournament after he collected a sublime pass from Yuichi Kitajima and buried a powerful left-footer giving no chance to Rayyan goalkeeper Badi to prevent the 2-1 lead in the 14th minute.

Despite missing key players Rafael Yoshio Sakai, Kogure Kenichiro and Tomoaki Watanabe, Oceans controlled the second half with captain Shuta Mori scoring one and setting up Henmi’s double as they sealed a comfortable 4-1 victory over the Qataris.

“We had injuries to our players and not been playing with full strength so to come over those problems and at least take back something from the tournament is satisfactory,” Nagoya’s Portuguese coach Jose Amarante said. “The whole squad including myself are very happy to finish third of this competitive tournament,” he added.