The world’s top beach soccer teams make their final preparations as the sun sets on the Arabian coast
A milestone tenth edition of the Intercontinental Beach Soccer Cup is all set to begin tomorrow in Dubai .
Eight of the world’s top beach soccer teams have landed in Dubai and completed their official trainings ahead of the first matchday.
The 2021 Tecnotree Intercontinental Cup gets underway tomorrow at 4pm local time, and will be played over five days, culminating in the final on Saturday 6 November, where new champions will be crowned.
Day 1 will see the European champions take on the African champions, as Portugal meet Senegal, and hosts UAE welcome Spain in the day’s second match.
In Group B, we will be treated to a replay of the World Cup final that we saw just months ago, where Russia beat Japan by five goals to two. Meanwhile Iran, who have held the Intercontinental throne since 2018, will kick their title-defending campaign off against Paraguay.
A draw, held on 12 October at Dubai Sports Council HQ, split the teams into the following groups:
GROUP A
UAE
Portugal
Spain
Senegal
GROUP B
Russia
Iran
Japan
Paraguay
Iran have claimed three of the nine previous editions, while newly-crowned world champions Russia also have three, as well as Brazil. A fourth Intercontinental trophy for Iran or Russia (Brazil are not competing in this edition) would be a record-breaking achievement.
Russia haven’t won the competition for six years, but the only team (alongside hosts UAE) to have competed in every edition of the Intercontinental Cup go into this event as world champions – just as they did in 2015…
Portugal head back to Dubai for the first time since they reached the final in 2017, where they were narrowly downed by Brazil, and Spain, finalists of the previous edition in 2019, will also land on the Arabian sands to try and become only the fourth team to ever win the prestigious title.
However, they will have to contend with the menacing beach soccer force that is the Samurai Blue, who reached the final of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup this summer, not to mention fellow Asian superpower, hosts UAE, who’s third-place finish in the previous edition gave them high hopes for their next chance at the title on home sand.
Two extremely competitive teams complete the line-up: African champions Senegal will make their debut appearance in Dubai following an historic FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in which they became the first ever African to reach the last four, demonstrating that they are capable of upsetting any beach soccer team in the world.
Paraguay, who have been showing great beach soccer progress in recent years to become one of the main protagonists in the South American, complete a dazzling line-up.
For more information on the Tecnotree Intercontinental Beach Soccer Cup Dubai 2021, please visit beachsoccer.com.
