From August 26-29 Portugal will once again be the host of the EBSL Superfinal, the tournament where Europe’s finest (Division A) will battle to conquer the much-vaunted EBSL title, and where the leading Division B teams will seek promotion to next year’s Division A contest. The Santa Maria de Belém neighborhood in Lisbon, with the stadium placed on the beach next to the Museu da Electricidade, will witness the continental most exciting and decisive beach soccer tournament, where biggest emotions are more than granted.
Regular season leaders Russia will try to defend the title in Group A, where they are to face hosts Portugal. The Lusitanian, in turn, reach the competition willing to get rid of the bitter taste in their mouths after last week defeat to Brazil in the Mundialito by achieving their fourth EBSL Cup so far. Romania, after the incredible comeback that gave them the tickets in the very last second of the very last game in The Hague will try to make things difficult to the a priori group favourites.
Group B will confront again Switzerland and the tournament’s most awarded team, Spain, with 5 Cups on their record. New Italy, now with Esposito’s in command, will try to get back to their best shape after their dubitative performance in last World Cup Qualifier.
France, to save face in the Promotion final
The Division B Promotion final sees the Division B Champions of each preliminary round, the best overall ranked second and the last ranked team of Division A travel to Portugal to try and sneak into next year’s leading competition. This is going to be a tough battle this year between France, who ended in the 8th position in Division A, and Israel, Azerbaijan, Hungary, Turkey* and England**.
Cantona’s lads, then, will need to do their bests not to miss a single chance if they want to stay in the Beach Soccer top-flight European Division, since this is a valuable price all of their opponents will leave everything on the sand for.
*Turkey qualified in their double-leg clash for the last Division B stage against Norway. These matches took place last July in Bibione (Italy).
** Finally, England took the place of the Czech Republic, who will not be able to come to Portugal due to several impediments.
Match Schedule
Date Match Time (local) Matches
Thu 26.08.10 1 13:15 ISRAEL vs. TURKEY
2 14:30 FRANCE vs. ENGLAND
3 15:45 RUSSIA vs. ROMANIA
4 17:15 SWITZERLAND vs. ITALY
Fri 27.08.10 5 13:15 AZERBAIJAN vs. TURKEY
6 14:30 HUNGARY vs. ENGLAND
7 15:45 SPAIN vs. ITALY
8 17:15 PORTUGAL vs. ROMANIA
Sat 28.08.10 9 13:15 ISRAEL vs. AZERBAIJAN
10 14:30 FRANCE vs. HUNGARY
11 15:45 SWITZERLAND vs. SPAIN
12 17:00 RUSSIA vs. PORTUGAL
Sun 29.08.10 13 10:00 Promotion Final 5th & 6th Place Match
14 11:30 Superfinal 5th & 6th Place Match
15 13:00 PROMOTION FINAL
16 14:30 Promotion Final 3rd & 4th Place Match
17 15:45 Superfinal 3rd & 4th Place Match
18 17:00 SUPERFINAL
