Courtesy: The Bleacher Report


FIFA Futsal World Cup Brazil 2008: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

October 11, 2008

The Good: World champs Spain were on fire as they demolished Russia coming from behind. The 5-2 routing had a little of everything including a goal coming from a cross court effort from the Spanish goalie Amado. After a bit of a slow start the Italians were eventually able to apply a 4-0 hammering on their Eastern neighbours Ukraine. Patrick Nora scored twice for the Azzuri.

The Bad: Paraguay who currently lead in the World Cup qualification for 2010 (field) and are rapidly asserting themselves as yet another South American powerhouse, were unable to convert an early 2-0 lead against the seasoned Argentinians. The match ended in a dramatic 3-3 draw. This result does very little for both teams as only two will qualify from this group which includes world champs Spain.

The Ugly: The only team in the big eight, which entered the court displaying an ultra defensive posture would have to be weak Asian representatives, Iran. "Even when they were 1-0 down they still sat back in their area! But the most important thing is the win, not putting on a show," - Betao, Brazilian player.

The score read 1-0 only 2 minutes into this match and 1-0 it stayed as Iran put every man behind the ball relying mainly on their goalie Nazari to pull off miracle after miracle and praying for it to end. Brazil had 27 shots at goal.

Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com