Fadhil Yunus
Brunei Darussalam national futsal team ended their campaign in the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Futsal Championship 2022 with a heavy 10-0 defeat to Malaysia at the Huamark Indoor Stadium in Bangkok yesterday.
The national team finished the competition with one point to their name in four matches.
The double-digit defeat to Malaysia was the Wasps’ third in the group stage following a 13-0 loss to Thailand and 12-0 loss to Indonesia in their opening two matches.
The already-eliminated Brunei earned a solitary point following a 2-2 draw against Cambodia in their penultimate group stage after recovering from two goals down.
The Bruneians kept their more favoured opponents from scoring a flurry of goals in the first half with efforts from team captain Mohd Khairul Effendy and own goal from Jumatatul Aleshahrezan Metali separating the two sides.
There were further unwanted statistics that the Brunei camp would be in a hurry to forget as an own goal from midfielder Jumatatul Aleshahrezan was the country’s fifth in the competition.
After containing the Malaysia attacking endeavours before the break, the second half reignited painful memories against Indonesia and Thailand as the Malayan Tigers ran riot.
Malaysia forward Mohamad Sufri Shamil bagged a double in succession to put Malaysia 4-0 up and inspired his team to add more woes to Brunei.
It took 10 minutes for Malaysia to continue their assault as Muhammad Farhan Khairul Anuar and Abu Hannifa bin Hasan joined in the act before Mohd Khairul Effendy added his second of the game.
Malaysia forward Joshua Lee added his name in the score-sheet with a double before Muhammad Aidil Shahril bin Rosli completed the scoring two minutes from time.
Meanwhile, the other Group ‘A’ fixture saw an entertaining 2-2 draw between Thailand and Indonesia in a later kick-off.
The result enabled both unbeaten teams to be in pole position for qualifying to the knock-out stage.
