Bahamas boost morale with USA win

The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup hosts picked up an impressive victory.

The Bahamas were rewarded for their intense European training excursion on Saturday as they picked up a 5-4 win over United States in Switzerland. 

Angelo Schirinzi’s side have spent the last few weeks in Europe playing a series of friendlies against more established nations as they prepare for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, which will be held in Nassau next year.

Having played the likes of Tahiti, Estonia and Switzerland in recent weeks, the Bahamas squared up against an American team ranked 32 places above them in the world rankings and showcased their improvement.

Having fallen behind to goals from Jason Santos and Alessandro Canale, they roared back to lead through Lesley St Fleur’s brace and Hanna Ehren. 

St Fleur scored again in between efforts from Aldo Balsano and Canale – setting up a tense finale – but St Fleur had the final say, scoring the winner a minute from time much to the delight of captain Gavin Christie.

“Words can’t describe how we’re feeling,” he told Bahamas Local

“USA is a strong competitor and we’ve played against them several times but were unsuccessful in defeating them. They were ranked significantly higher than us, so this win shows that Team Bahamas is on the right track.”

The U.S were beaten again a day later in Spiez, going down 10-6 to hosts Switzerland on a weekend that saw the country’s domestic action draw to a close.

Noel Ott scored four times while Moritz Jaeggy (2), Valentin Jaeggy, Dejan Stankovic (2), Nicholas Werder were also on target.

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