The Rossoblue took the Betclic Beach Arena in Catania by storm with wins over Milano in the Supercoppa and Serie A Enel finales
Italy and beach soccer are synonymous with each other and have been for a long time but champion, Supercoppa, and Sambenedettese have not gone together until now. The Samb had to overcome the Italian powerhouse Milan in an exciting 4-3 up-and-down match in the Supercoppa on Thursday, July 1st. The victory could not have been predicted less than a week ago, as Happy Car finished the Italian Serie A Enel Regular Season in fourth place. However, in the span of four days, they won the Supercoppa and also the Scudetto. The hardware that the Samb earned is very important to the club and specifically the Supercoppa victory allowed them to hoist that specific silverware for the first time ever.
Milano won the league title in 2013 but were unable to replicate the magic they had last year. The rossoneri did everything they could to repeat as champions, but they faded late and could not capture the lead again after taking an early lead. The Milanese took the lead twice, with the help of two of their stars, Eudin and Zambelli, but Jordan from the Samb dug deep and scored the deciding goals. The Sambenedettese goalkeeper, William Carotenuto, won the best goalkeeper award while a consolation for Milan was that their star, Eudin, won the MVP award. The league’s leading scoring was Gori from Viareggio, who earned 3rd place over Anxur Trenza, and he scored 29 goals on the season. The hosts, Domusbet Catania, finished the event in 5th place after beating their rival Terracina.
The championship match for the league title was very similar and in fact, it pitted Milan and Sambenedettese against each other once again. The result was the same, as Milan could not maintain a lead and they fell 4-3 to the Rossoblue for the second time in four days.
Many of the Italian National Team players are stars in the Italian Serie A Enel and the national team is in the heart of their beach soccer season, so the end of the Italian league coincides perfectly with the upcoming Euro Beach Soccer League and FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Portugal 2015 qualifiers. Italy will play in Siófok this upcoming weekend, having already secured a place in the Superfinal in Torredembarra. The Superfinal has an added twist this season, as the top six teams will automatically qualify for the first ever European Olympic Games in Baku in 2015. Shortly after the EBSL finishes, the qualifiers for the World Cup begin.
