UZBEKISTAN TRIP GOOD FOR EVALUATING PLAYERS - COACH

PETALING JAYA, May 19 (Bernama) -- A 10-day training stint in Uzbekistan is
expected to provide national futsal coach P. Balakrishnan to evaluate the
performances of his 20 charges before the Asean Futsal Championship that starts
in Vietnam on June 8.

Balakrishnan said during the training stint, the national squad will play a
match against the Uzbekistan national team and three other club teams.

"Such matches are important to give the players a feel of real matches as
training alone will not be enough to face a real match situation," he told
reporters here Monday.

He added that the set of players he had now was a combination of young and
senior players.

"I have a set of thinking players who can make decisions during the match
instead of relying on instructions from the coach.

"The national futsal squad has come a long way since being whipped 11-0 by
Thailand. Recently, though we lost to them, the margin was very small," he said.
-- BERNAMA