The group stage of the 2013 Asia Beach Soccer World Cup Qualifiers, concluded on Thursday with four teams securing their semifinals spots.
UAE, Australia, Japan and Iran are all through to the knockout stage which will be played today at Katara Beach in Doha. The rest of the 16 teams will also be in action today as they will play placement matches for the positions from fifth till last. The placement matches will kick off at 14:00.
UAE will face Iran at 19:00 local time (GMT+3) in the first semifinal, while Japan will face Australia at 20:15.Fans who will attend the semifinal matches today will get a chance of winning official FC Barcelona shirts signed by Lionel Messi and the rest of the Catalan club’s players.
Two time champions UAE have a very experienced team with a number of players who were among the 2007 and 2008 winning teams, like Rami Mal Messabi and Qambar Mohamed. These players also have the experience of playing in three FIFA Beach Soccer world cups.The same can be said about their opponents Iran, who might be considered the continent’s best team at the moment. Last summer they clinched the gold medal at the 2012 Asian Beach Games in Haiyang, China. They also made regular appearances in the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup mostly through finishing third in the qualifiers.
Their squad in Doha includes a number of experienced players who can be a threat to any defense in this tournament, like AhmadZadeh, Moslem Mesigar and Ali Naderi.In the other semifinal, Japan will be the favorite to make it through to the final as they will be looking for a third straight title. Guided by arguably Asia’s best coach, Ruy Ramos and a number of brilliant players that include Makino, Suzuki and Osmar, the Beach Samurais are a hard team to stop.
But during this tournament they showed a sort of weakness in defense conceding five goals against the brave Lebanese side, and that could be crucial in the knockout stage.
Their opponents Australia proved to be the dark horses of this tournament.
With only one appearance in 2009 in which they were knocked out from the group stage, the Beach Socceroos were not expected to get past the group that included the 2006 Asian Champions and World Cup quarterfinalists Bahrain.But, as we have seen over the past decade, many Beach Soccer teams were able to improve dramatically in very short periods.
The Aussie squad showed a lot of maturity in this tournament, and with their star striker Pagnaiotis Nikas in an incredible form, they are now one step away from their first ever appearance in the FIFA World Cup finals.
Full crowds are expected in the final two days of the tournament as they will coincide with the weekend in Qatar. The first few days saw a good number of crowds with foreign communities in Doha supporting their teams.
The Qatar 2022 Supreme Organizing Committee and Qatar Football Association, made huge efforts to bring the continental tournament to Doha for the first time since its inception in 2006 and it saw a record participation of 16 teams.