Afghanistan’s Beach Soccer Team arrived back in Kabul late Monday after being knocked-out of the 2017 AFC Beach Soccer Championship in Malaysia.
Afghanistan was in group A with Iran, Bahrain, China and Malaysia. The Afghans won their two matches against Malaysia and China but lost to Iran and Bahrain.
In the final match of the competition, Bahrain defeated Afghanistan 6-4. Bahrain grabbed their third straight win in the group and went through to next round of the competition against Iran.
The Afghan team has returned home after performing well in the competition. “The team showed a fresh face in the competition,” Rohullah Rastagar, head of Afghanistan’s Beach Soccer Federation said. He added the it was still the team’s goal to reach World Cup 2017.
“We defeated Malaysia, host of the Championship and China. Both were very powerful teams. Now all Afghans know that after this that Afghanistan is one of the strongest teams. It was a good experience for us, especially the match that we played against Iran,” Rastagar said.
Iran are champions of the competition after defeating the UAE 7-2 in the final of the championship.
Iran, UAE and Japan, the top three finishers at the AFC Beach Soccer Championship, have qualified for the 2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup which is scheduled to be held in in Nassau, Bahamas from April 27 to May 7.