21 November - December 1 Tournament Home on FIFA.com Tournament Winners & Statistics: BSW World Championship 1995 Brazil 1996 Brazil 1997 Brazil 1998 Brazil 1999 Brazil 2000 Brazil 2001 Portugal 2002 Brazil 2003 Brazil 2004 Brazil FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2005 France 2006 Brazil 2007 Brazil 2008 Brazil 2009 Brazil 2011 Russia 2013 Russia 2015 Portugal 2017 Brazil 2019 ??? Titles by Association 14 - Brazil 2 - Portugal 2 - Russia 1 - France Titles by Confederation 14 - CONMEBOL 5 - UEFA
Stayed up and watched Switzerland's opening match against the USA (a 8:6 Swiss win). Hosts Paraguay dropped their opener against Japan which means they are under quite a bit of pressure against Switzerland in Group A's second match-day.
Hmm... USA's defence a bit like Swiss cheese you could say.. full of holes... The Men's beach games was recently held here in Qatar last month with Brazil beating Russia in the final... Italy looked quite impressive, can't believe how good Russia / Belarus are given they aren't really beach destinations. No Iran in this tourney?
Just got around to watching the Paraguay-Switzerland match now. Talk about an intense game! We advance after two matches, not bad for a landlocked country without beaches period. Yes, Iran missing is surprising.
The UAE surprisingly beat Russia yesterday. I have to say, beach soccer can be quite unpredictable. Italy for example beat 2017 finalists Tahiti 12:4 in the first match only to then lose to Uruguay in the second.
Erm, maybe in the early stages but while maybe not always predictable, if I were a betting man, I know who I'd be putting my money on...
The quarterfinals are set: Brazil - Russia Senegal - Portugal Italy - Switzerland Japan - Uruguay Tough one for Switzerland. Hopefully the loss to Japan served as a wake-up call.
Awesome - but Russia + Portugal the two 2nd most successful teams with 2 world cups each, as opposed to Brazil's 14! ... so I guess the smart money would be on a Russia vs Portugal. Would like to see a new team win it this time... hey, why not Switzerland? The first ever landlocked team to win a beach soccer world cup? Talking about Switzerland, just realized I did see them last month vs Brazil.. they lost that match somewhat predictably I guess but did beat Morocco + UAE.
Sigh....I have been waiting for them to return to the WC final since 2009, when Switzerland lost to Brazil and I was in the stands in Dubai (that's when I started following the sport casually). Had a 3-1 lead over Italy but once again struggled to protect the lead. Italy won 5:4 with the ball crossing the line literally in the last second. No VAR in beach soccer so no way to make sure it crossed in time before the buzzer. Reminds me of Canada getting the equalizer (in hockey) at this year's World Championships quarterfinals with 0.4 seconds left on the clock and then winning it in overtime. We are Switzerland, clocks should love us. Semis: Italy - Russia Japan - Portugal
The 2019 title will definitely go to UEFA and Italy could be a a first-time winner: Final: Italy - Portugal 3rd: Russia - Japan
now that classes are over and that we are on exam schedules which are mostly at night, stayed up late and watched the semifinals last night... both semifinals were pretty intense.. would have been amazing to see a Japan vs Italy final so we'd be guaranteed a new champion. Japan were ozu-close but you could see they were less confident than the Portuguese going into penalties... not surprised to see Italy in the final. They looked really good at the beach games last month, especially the player Gori, who I think is unfortunately injured for the final. We'll see what happens but hoping for Italy to win...
In the end Portugal take their third title. One thing is for certain, Brazil no longer have a stranglehold over the sport. They only won one out of the last five. Updated Tournament Winners & Statistics: BSW World Championship 1995 Brazil 1996 Brazil 1997 Brazil 1998 Brazil 1999 Brazil 2000 Brazil 2001 Portugal 2002 Brazil 2003 Brazil 2004 Brazil FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2005 France 2006 Brazil 2007 Brazil 2008 Brazil 2009 Brazil 2011 Russia 2013 Russia 2015 Portugal 2017 Brazil 2019 Portugal Titles by Association 14 - Brazil 3 - Portugal 2 - Russia 1 - France Titles by Confederation 14 - CONMEBOL 6 - UEFA
Campeoes campeoes Good run by Portugal we have had some really talented beach soccer players of late.