2019 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup Explained

Tourney Name:Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup
Year:2019
Size:175px
Country:United Arab Emirates
City:Dubai
Dates:5–9 November
Num Teams:8
Confederations:4
Venues:1
Cities:1
Count:3
Matches:20
Goals:138
Player: Waleed Beshr
Goalkeeper: Mohamad Al Jasmi
Prevseason:2018
Nextseason:2021

The 2019 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup was the ninth edition of the Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup, an annual international beach soccer tournament contested by men's national teams. Held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates since its inception, this year's event occurs between 5 and 9 November.[1] The tournament was organised by the Dubai Sports Council (DSC) and Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW). Unlike in previous editions, there was no lead sponsor this year.

The Intercontinental Cup is typically seen as the biggest tournament in the current international beach soccer calendar after the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.[2] Similar in nature to that of the FIFA Confederations Cup,[3] eight nations took part.

The tournament started with a round robin group stage. The winners and runners-up from each group advanced to the knockout stage, a series of single-elimination matches, beginning with the semi-finals and ending with the final. Consolation matches were also played to determine other final rankings.

The season-ending Beach Soccer Stars awards were also presented in Dubai as a conclusion to the tournament.[4]

Iran were the defending champions and successfully retained their title, winning a third Intercontinental Cup crown by beating Spain 6–3 in the final.[5] Hosts UAE matched their best previous performance of third place for the first time since 2013.[6]

Participating teams

The following eight teams took part.

Overall, Europe and Asia were represented by three nations; Africa and North America, one nation each. Oceania, and for the first time, South America, did not enter any teams.[7]

TeamConfederationRecent achievementsParticipation
AFCHosts19th
AFC2018 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup winners7th
AFC2019 AFC Beach Soccer Championship winners3rd
CAF2018 Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations third place5th
CONCACAF2019 CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship winners5th
UEFA2019 Euro Beach Soccer League runners-up9th
UEFA2019 Euro Beach Soccer League third place2nd
UEFA2019 Euro Beach Soccer League fourth place2nd

1. Qualified as hosts, but also achieved a 2019 AFC Beach Soccer Championship runners-up finish

Venue

The tournament took place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; this edition was held at a purpose-built arena on Kite Beach, Jumeirah 3, for the second consecutive year with a capacity of 2,500.[8]

Sponsors

The following were the official sponsors of the tournament:[9]

Draw

The draw to split the eight teams into two groups of four took place on 9 October at the Dubai Sports Council headquarters at 11:00 GST (UTC+4)[10] [11] and was conducted by former Real Madrid defender, Míchel Salgado.[4]

For the purposes of the draw, the nations were divided into two pots, shown in the table below; the teams were split based on their BSWW World Ranking – the top three teams plus the hosts were placed into Pot 1 whilst the lowest four teams of the ranking were placed in Pot 2. As each was drawn, the placement of the teams alternated back and forth between Groups A and B. The hosts, the United Arab Emirates, were automatically allocated to position A1.

The composition of the pots is shown below:[12]

width=250Pot 1width=250Pot 2
valign=topvalign=top

Note: The numbers in parentheses show the world ranking of the teams at the time of the draw.[13]

Group stage

Matches are listed as local time in Dubai, GST (UTC+4)

Group A

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Group B

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5th–8th place play-offs

The teams finishing in third and fourth place are knocked out of title-winning contention, receding to play in consolation matches to determine 5th through 8th place in the final standings.

Fifth place play-off

Knockout stage

The group winners and runners-up progress to the knockout stage to continue to compete for the title.

Final

Awards

Individual awards

width=300Top scorer
Amir Akbari
6 goals
Best player
Waleed Beshr
Best goalkeeper
Mohamad Al Jasmi

Statistics

Goalscorers

6 goals
5 goals
4 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
Own goals

Source: BSRussia

Final standings

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: The Intercontinental Beach Soccer Cup 2019, ready for take-off . Beach Soccer Worldwide. 4 November 2019 . 5 November 2019.
  2. Web site: Intercontinental Cup Dubai agreement extended . Beach Soccer Worldwide . 2 November 2017 . 2 October 2018.
  3. Web site: У стен Башни Халифа. Россия хочет покорить сердце Дубая . Beach Soccer Russia . 30 October 2017 . 2 October 2018 . Russian . https://web.archive.org/web/20181003061846/http://bsrussia.com/info/item/7983?type=2 . 3 October 2018 . dead .
  4. Web site: Dubai, ready to sublimate beach soccer once again . Beach Soccer Worldwide. 9 October 2019 . 5 November 2019.
  5. Web site: Иранцы победили Испанию в финале Межконтинентального кубка-2019 . Beach Soccer Russia. 9 November 2019 . 9 November 2019 . Russian.
  6. Web site: Iran lift a record-matching third Intercontinental Cup! . Beach Soccer Worldwide. 9 November 2019 . 9 November 2019 .
  7. Web site: Титул как предчувствие. Кто выиграет особенный Межконтинентальный кубок? . Beach Soccer Russia. 3 November 2019 . 5 November 2019.
  8. Web site: The playground "Beach continents" ready .. Special offer from "Karim" . Emara . 3 November 2019 . 5 November 2019.
  9. Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup Dubai 2019 promotional poster . 4 November 2019 . 8 November 2019 . Image . Beach Soccer Worldwide.
  10. Web site: UAE drawn alongside heavyweights Italy, Spain and Japan at Intercontinental Beach Soccer Cup Dubai 2019 . . 9 October 2019 . 5 November 2019.
  11. Web site: Everything is ready for the official draw of the Intercontinental #BeachSoccer Cup Dubai 2019! . Beach Soccer Worldwide Twitter . 9 October 2019 . 5 November 2019.
  12. Web site: Official Draw Image 6 of 11 . Beach Soccer Worldwide . 9 October 2019 . 5 November 2019.
  13. Web site: World Ranking September 2019 . Beach Soccer Russia . 5 November 2019 .