Emotional Alfakeer praises players

Tehran: Syria coach Muhannad Alfakeer has urged his players to keep their head high despite the bitter 2-1 defeat at the hands of AFC U-16 Championship 2006 champions Japan. Muhannad’s boys were able to keep the Japanese threat at bay till the 80th minute as Japan scored two late goals and conceded one in one of the nail-biters of the tournament.

Earlier, Syria squandered a great opportunity to go ahead after Ahmad Ashqar missed a penalty awarded to them by Australian referee Strebre Delovski when the score was 0-0 with half an hour remaining.

“I am very sad because we failed in our mission but at the same time I am happy with the efforts and commitment my boys showed in the match against a very good Japanese side,” a visibly dejected coach Alfakeer said.

“The worry for me was our players’ lack of experiences in a big occasion and that’s what we saw in the match as those two goals Japan scored was the result of lapse of concentration.
 
“The turning point of the match was the miss penalty, we could have scored that one to open up more spaces,” he added.

“These boys have great future and I am sure they will continue developing.”

Japanese coach Yoshitake Hirofumi also hailed the Syrians and admitted that at time they Syrians made it difficult for his side to play.

“They had a strategy of breaking up our play and to some extent they were successful, it was a very hard-fought win against a very good, organized and physical side,” he said.

“I have used all the players of the squad in this tournament and at the end of day we are in the World Cup which is a great opportunity for these boys to continue. Now the World Cup concern is over, now the next thing is how to win this trophy,” he quipped.