Shams wants Kuwait to go through

AFC - Hossein Shams expects Kuwait to follow Iran into the knockout stages of the AFC Futsal Championship despite inflicting a convincing 12-0 defeat on his former team.

Shams, who was the Kuwait coach for three years, watched his Iran side put in a devastating performance as they opened their bid for a ninth title in 10 years, but he insists Kuwait will bounce back and progress from Group D.

“We believe Kuwait will be the second team in this group,” he said.

Vahid Shamsaee, Mohammad Taheri and Majid Raeisi each netted twice while Mohammad Reza Heidarian, Ali Ashgar Hassanzadeh, Javad Ashgari Moghaddam, Mohammad Hashem Zadeh, Mohammad Keshavarz Nasrabadi and Ali Ashgar Navlinghe were all on target for Iran, but Shams is positive Kuwait are improving all the time.

“I always consider the Kuwait team as my own team after coaching them for three years,” he added.

“They are a good team, but I think they need some more tactics.

“Given some more time, they will be much better.”

Shams has more than 50 systems at his disposal to break down the opposition and he was pleased with his team's display.

“All the players are following the instructions, that is why you see the beauty of our play,” he added.

“It is not exactly what we wanted to do and we have reserved some of the tactics for other games.”

Kuwait failed to trouble Iran but coach Naief Al Otaibi, who paid tribute to Shams, is adamant his side will progress to the last eight.

“This coach (Shams), he is the teacher for Kuwait futsal,” said Al Otaibi. “He gave us futsal.

“But our team must now grow up for the future, to improve and have good results in the future.”

Kuwait meet Tajikistan on Monday in their second game of the tournament and defeat will result in an early exit.

But Al Otaibi, who had written off the Iran contest when the draw was made, anticipates a win.
“I have confidence in my team,” he said.

“When I saw this group, I didn't think we could win against Iran.

“However, I believe in my team.

“In this tournament you play day by day and in our next game I hope to see a good performance from my team.”

Iran meet China on day two and Al Otaibi hopes Iran can continue their devastating goalscoring form.
“We hope Iran can help us to reach the quarter-finals,” he said.