TEHRAN (Tasnim) While they may have fallen short of retaining their AFC Womens Futsal Asian Cup title, Iran was still able to achieve its goal of qualification for the inaugural FIFA Futsal Womens World Cup after their third-place playoff win on Saturday.

A gritty 3-1 victory against China allowed the Central Asians to claim the final berth on offer in Hohhot and head coach Forouzan Soleimani hailed the achievement as something that is built on the collective efforts of the womens futsal community back home.

This World Cup qualification is a credit to all of womens futsal in Iran and is invaluable for them, she said. It is a huge community full of girls and women who love futsal, all across Iran and in provinces far away from the cities, and they play with passion and love.

They support us every day and give us strength, and we do what we do for them, she added.

The 55-year-old added that Irans status as traditional powerhouses can be attributed to establishing womens futsal earlier than most other countries in Asia, starting around 20 years ago, which has since flourished into a network of around 100 teams across three divisions.

All 32 provinces have their own leagues, and each team is led by experienced female coaches, Soleimani stated.

Soleimani also paid tribute to her charges for bouncing back from the disappointment of defeat in the last four to Japan and looked ahead to their debut in the Philippines come November.

Our aim was to defend our title, so we were mentally down after the semi-final defeat, she said. What we did was to talk to them and motivate them, including the mental aspect.

We knew how China would play and we asked our players to play powerfully and with high pressure; the match was very hard, but we were more experienced and created more opportunities, which led to our victory.

Our players compete regularly in domestic leagues and we also have frequent training camps, so this is also what we will continue to do to prepare for the World Cup, Soleimani concluded.