Ready, steady?

Colombia, Chile, Peru and hosts Argentina give the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2013 ? CONMEBOL Qualifier the starting signal

The training session held today at the Parque Deportivo set one thing absolutely clear: The nine contenders in the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2013 ? CONMEBOL Qualifier kicking off tomorrow arrived in Merlo fully concentrated, and in an excellent shape.

Every player and every coach know how difficult it is to get a ticket to the World Cup in such a hard-fought territory as South America, and reckon that any chance they might have necessarily entails a high level of performance. None of the teams will let any little mistake remain unpunished, and the opportunities to get amongst the best four are limited.

Defending champions, Brazil, might be seen as the main favourites to reedit a trophy they have always won, but no one should lost sight of hosts Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela or Colombia, without forgetting, of course, the winners of last Juegos Bolivarianos de Playa, Paraguay, or other teams such as Chile, Peru or Ecuador.

Four teams were today specially focused, as their road to the Papeete begins tomorrow, whereas the rest will be hitting the sand on Monday. Colombia, who surprised everyone making it to semifinals in their first ever CONMEBOL Qualifier in 2011, and Chile will be opening the competition in some hours, with hosts Argentina taking on Peru in the second game.

The full schedule for the competition goes as follows:

Sunday, 10th of February, 2013   
13:00 ? Colombia vs Chile   
14:15 ? Peru vs Argentina   

Monday, 11th of February, 2013   
13:00 ? Venezuela vs Uruguay   
14:15 ? Chile vs Peru
15:30 ? Colombia vs Paraguay   
16:45 ? Ecuador vs Brazil   

Tuesday, 12th of February, 2013   
13:00 ? Venezuela vs Ecuador   
14:15 ? Paraguay vs Peru   
15:30 ? Brazil vs Uruguay   
16:45 ? Argentina vs Chile   

Wednesday, 13th of February, 2013   
13:00 ? Uruguay vs Ecuador   
14:15 ? Colombia vs Peru   
15:30 ? Brazil vs Venezuela   
16:45 ? Argentina vs Paraguay   

Thursday, 14th of February, 2013   
15:30 ? Paraguay vs Chile   
16:45 ? Argentina vs Colombia   

Friday, 15th of February, 2013   
11:00 ? 4th Group A vs 4th Group B (Play-off for the 7th place)   

Saturday, 16th of February, 2013   
10:00 ? 4th Group B vs 5th Group A (Play-off for the 7th place)
11:15 ? 3rd Group A vs 3rd Grupo B (Play-off for the 5th place)
13:00 ? 1st Group B vs 2nd Group A (Semifinal 1)
14:15 ? 1st Group A vs 2nd Group B (Semifinal 2)

Sunday, 16th of February, 2013   
11:15 ? 5th Group A vs 4th Group A (Play-off for the 7th place )
13:00 ? Loser Semifinal 1 vs Loser Semifinal 2 (Play-off for the 3rd place)
14:15 ? Winner Semifinal 1 vs Winner Semifinal (FINAL)