May 5 – Nations from four different confederations will compete in the semi-finals of the Beach Soccer World Cup in the Bahamas on Saturday. A pulsating round of quarter-finals saw last gasp wins for Iran and Brazil, while Tahiti flew the flag vigorously for the world’s smallest nations and Italy put on the style for the bigger ones.
Tahiti’s hard-fought 6-4 win over Paraguay came at a cost though, with Portugal 2015 Golden Ball winner Heimanu Taiarui now going to miss the semi-finals due to yellow card suspension.
Tahiti have rapidly built up a Beach Soccer history having reached the last three World Cup semi-finals. The country hosted the seventh edition of the World Cup in 2013.
In their way to the final are Iran who won a thriller against Switzerland 4-3 in extra time.
Iran have made the quarter finals in the last two Beach Soccer World Cups but lost both times. They looked to be going out for a third time when with less than a minute on the clock, Ali Nazem scored to force the match into extra time. Iran then made history when Mohammed Mokhtari redirected Amir Akbari’s shot into the net to score the winning goal.
Battle of the giants
Having played each other seven times, Brazil vs Portugal is the most recurring match in Beach Soccer World Cup, and this encounter was a classic that was settled with a stunning overhead kick from Rodrigo in the dieing minutes of the game.
Rodrigo moved on to eight goals for the tournament and will come up against the competition top scorer Gabriele Gori from Italy in the semi-final.
Gori scored a hat-trick in a dominating performance by Italy against Senegal. This will be the second consecutive semi-final appearance for the Italians. Senegal had previously made the quarter finals in 2007 and 2011.
Whatever the outcome of the semi-finals, the finals will throw up a David vs Goliath encounter with the AFC’s Iran or the OFC’s Tahiti challenging the tradition power balance of Conmebol’s Brazil or UEFA’s Italy.
Brazil will go into the final rounds as favourites, especially after having beaten 2015 World Champions Portugal. Brazil won four consecutive World Cup between 2004 and 2009 – initially when FIFA absorbed Beach Soccer into its operations the World Champions was played annually – the first two of those wins were on the Copacabana Beach. For now the attention is focussed on the Nassau beach in the Bahamas.
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