Mongolia Bow out of 2018 AFC Futsal Championship Qualification
On Monday, 6 November Mongolia played its final match of qualification for the 2018 AFC Futsal Championship. Despite bowing out of the competition in the group stage, the team had a victory to celebrate on the final matchday.
In the team's first match of qualification, the players earned a 1-5 loss to Japan. Pagamsürengiin Altantulga, a former football international, scored the team's only goal in the 39th minute after already trailing by three goals. Japan would go on to add two more goals before the final whistle.
The following day the team took on a different opponent,Taiwan, but ultimately earned the same result. This time Mongolia posted two goals to their opponent's six. Temuujin Altansukh scored for Mongolia in the 23rd and 38th minute.
Mongolia was finally able to earn a result on the final matchday of qualification with a 6-2 victory over Macau. The result was the only the team's second victory in official futsal competitions with the only previous victory being an 8-3 win against Hong Kong during qualification for the 2016 edition of the tournament.
Mongolia finished third out of four teams in their group in both the 2016 and 2018 qualification campaigns. The team has only participated in the 2012, 2016, and 2018 qualification cylces. They finished third in a three-team group for 2012.