It’s been a busy year for international football. Following Euro 2008, the FIFA Beach World Cup and the Beijing Olympic football tournament, we now have the FIFA Futsal World Cup. Today was the opening day of the five-per-team soccer tournament featuring 20 nations.
Spain is looking to win its third straight title and has combined with Brazil to capture all five titles since FIFA began organizing the event in 1989.
The competition, with venues in Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia, is played in two 20-minute periods on a surface about the size of a basketball court.
The teams are divided into four groups of five, with the top two advancing to the next stage with two groups of four teams. The top two in those groups move on to the semifinals.
Here are the offical squad lists in PDF. Highlights are available on the FIFA website at this link. These are the current Round 1 standings from the tournament.
Live online coverage of the tournament is available at FIFA TV the following countries:
Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, FYR Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom.
Live coverage in the USA is available at espn360.com if you are a subscriber of their service. Some games wil also be shown on Galavision and ESPN Deportes.
Here’s a summary of the opening day’s games:
Rampant Brazil cruise to victory
Brazil thrilled their own fans and overwhelmed Japan en route to a 12-1 victory in their FIFA Futsal World Cup curtain-raiser. Lenisio, Falcao, Ari and Schumacher scored two apiece, and Marquinho, Wilde, Betao and Cico were also on the scoresheet for the tournament hosts.
Paraguay hand US a lesson
The USA came out looking to take the game to Paraguay in Rio. But after Matthew Stewart hit the woodwork early on, the rhythm of the game settled squarely with the South Americans.
José Luis Santander scored first and Fabio Alcaraz added a second before Robson Fernández made it 3-0 with the last kick of the first half. The Paraguayans then went on to kill off the game early in the second period with a goal from Carlos Chilavert and another courtesy of Rene Villalba, who had set up the fourth, to make it 5-0.
The result was an impressive one for the Paraguayans, even if it came against an obviously outgunned USA who were never quite up for the test.
Cuba rule in island duel
The Solomon Islands – the youngest team at these futsal finals in Brazil – looked to be on their way to a special day when Elliot Ragomo opened the scoring inside the first minute. Unfortunately for the Oceania men, their early joy only served to aggravate the Cubans.
Yulier Olivera, Carlos Madrigal, Olivera, Boris Saname and Eduardo Morales all scored for the Cubans to make it 5-1 at the interval. In the 27th minute, the Solomons’ defeat was fairly well complete, with Morales scoring two more goals and and Johnnet Martinez adding one of his own.
Italy claim narrow win
Italy were made to work hard for the three points they gained over a resolute Thailand side in the opening match of Group B at the Maracanazinho in Rio de Janeiro today.
Despite taking the initiative by alternating lively strikers Sandro Zanetti and Adriano Foglia up front, the Azzurri found it difficult to turn the possession they had into chances, being frustrated time and time again by a tight Thai defence and some excellent goalkeeping from Surapong Tompa.
Indeed, the East Asians had the first real chance of the game, hitting the post following a counterattack.
The only goal of the game came five minutes before half-time, Grana keeping his cool to dispatch the ball into the net. However, Thailand responded well and Prasert Innui had three wonderful chances to equalize in the first half, but squandered them all.
The pick of these came from the penalty spot, which he cannoned off the post.
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