The coach of the Russian national futsal team called the sudden cancellation of the match with New Zealand

The Russian national futsal team learned about the cancellation of the game with New Zealand three hours before the kickoff. The head coach of the team Beso Zoidze told Izvestia about this.

"Of course, it was a big blow. The situation itself is surprising, because the tournament was planned in advance and was registered according to all the rules, all federations confirmed their consent to participate in it," he said.

The coach added that the team reacted to the incident as professionally as possible. The athletes will spend their free time on improving individual components of the game.

"Instead of the match, today we will hold a training session focused on the next opponent, the Afghan national team. <...> Of course, no amount of training can replace the rhythm of a game — it's resistance, martial arts, and speed of decision-making. In this regard, we may lose our game tone a little," Zoidze shared.

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The meeting within the framework of the Continental Futsal Championship tournament in Bangkok was scheduled to begin at 14:00 Moscow time. The reasons for the New Zealand side's refusal to host the game were not specified. After the opponent's refusal to participate in the match, the Russian national team was awarded a technical victory. The next match of the Russian athletes will be held on August 5.