WATCH: Futsal Whites succumb to strong-finishing Afghanistan

New Zealand have lost their third game at the Continental Futsal Championship tournament in Thailand, beaten 5-1 by Afghanistan.

The Futsal Whites started promisingly, taking a first-half lead when Art Twigg set up Logan Wisnewski to score.

Main photo: Art Twigg passes to an unmarked Logan Wisnewski to score New Zealand’s goal.

Afghanistan levelled to make it 1-1 at the break, and then powered home with four second-half goals.

Afghanistan are rated #30 in the FIFA men’s world rankings.

New Zealand, who are ranked #19, and three of their opponents at the tournament, are using the event to prepare for the FIFA Men’s Futsal World Cup which starts on September 14, 2024, in Uzbekistan.

Other teams at the Thailand tournament are Guatemala (#40), Kuwait (#35) and hosts Thailand (#9).

Only Kuwait are not playing at the World Cup.

Watch the match

The game was streamed by Futsal Thailand. Watch it here:

Result

Game played on Wednesday September 4, 2024

New Zealand 1 (Logan Wisnewski)
Afghanistan 5 (Farzad Mohammadi, Mehran Gholami, Mohammad Hosseini, Amid Ghanbari 2)

Fixture

Game to be played on Friday September 6, 2024

New Zealand v Kuwait
Nonthaburi Provincial Stadium, Thailand 9.30pm (NZT)

World Cup draw

The FIFA Futsal World Cup takes place between September 14 and October 6, 2024, in three host cities in Uzbekistan: Andijan, Bukhara and Tashkent.

The six group winners, six runners-up and the four best third-placed teams will go into a Round of 16 knockout stage.

The winners go forward to quarter-finals, before sudden death semi-finals and the final.

# indicates current rating in latest FIFA world rankings

This story was first published on September 1, 2024.

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