Israel national team booked today the first ticket of Division B for European Beach Soccer league Superfinal, after defeating Germany for 6-3. Despite a very equalized first period, with a final result of 2-3 for Israelis, the victory never seemed to be at risk. Captain Miloz managed to lead the way (again, as happened yesterday) for his mates scored three of the six goals for his squad.
This was the first match for Germany in the season, and couldn’t begin worse. One match, one defeat and no option to qualify for Superfinal. Stolli was the best of the match for the Germans, managing to score twice… but luck wasn’t on their side today. 4 posts in the first half prevented center Europeans to go ahead in the scoreboard… and Olli scored an own goal in the beginning of the second third, finalizing German hope.
It was the turn for Italy and Romania to play in the first match of today of Division A… And as already witnessed yesterday in the Italian game, amazing match. The azzurri managed to secure the 3 points winning in a tight 8-7 game in the last minute, with the second consecutive hat trick from captain Pasquali. It was a tense match, with the score constantly moving from one side to the other of the scoreboard… But finally the Italian experience managed to secure the victory. From Italian side we had a hat trick by their captain, two goals from Carotenuto, one from defender Leguissa and, surprisingly, one goal from each goalkeeper. This is only possible in this sport! From Romanian side, Dobre and Croitoru, with two goals each, managed to give the match some emotion but let’s remember this is the first time this team faces Division A teams, so it seemed a bit predictable. Lack of experience can be definitive in this sport… but you never know. They lost for only one goal to World Cup 2008 runner-up. Let’s see tomorrow.
In a fully crowded stadium, host Russia played Poland in the closing match of the day. Russians did not deceive the 4,000 fans and secured a relaxed 7-2 victory against Polish team, despite needing to wait at the end of the first period to score the first goal. Russians used their experience and their physical game to wear the Polish down and it was in the last third when they could secure a comfortable advantage. Crowd really enjoyed some spectacular goals from their home team, including one of their goalkeeper, Bukhlitskiy, to finish with a 5 goal difference win.
Now Russia lead Group A with two wins in regular time, so 6 points. Italy are just behind with 5 (two wins but one in extra time) and Poland and Romania are at the back of the classification with 2 defeats. Tomorrow we’ll see which teams secures the victory in Division A: host Russians or Pasquali’s mates. It will definitely not be a match to lose!
Results and match schedule:
Friday, May 28th:
Greece 5 vs. 9 Israel (Division B)
Italy 7vs. 6 (a.e.t.) Poland (Division A)
Romania 3 vs. 9 Russia (Division A)
Saturday, May 29th:
Germany 3 vs. 6 Israel (Division B)
Italy 8 vs. 7 Romania (Division A)
Russia vs. Poland (Division A)
Sunday, May 30th:
14h00: Greece vs. Germany (Division B)
15h15: Poland vs. Romania (Division A)
16h30: Russia vs. Italy (Division A)
European Beach Soccer League
As it was already done last year, the League is divided in two divisions: Division A (whose participants play in 2 of the 4 events of European League Regular Phase), which includes top 8 teams in Europe, and division B, with the ones ranked from 9th on. 4 of Division A teams are participating in this event in Moscow: Italy, Poland, Romania and Russia. They will all play against each other in a Round Robin format, two matches a day during three days. Each winning team will get 3 points for the League (2 if the win is in overtime or penalty shootout) and 0 if they are defeated. The team with more points will win the event in Moscow but, the team with more points after the 4 events of the League will automatically qualify to the Superfinal in Portugal (26-29 August). Only 6 of the 8 teams of Division A will make it through to the Superfinal, while 8th team will need to battle against Division B winners to maintain his category.
In Division B, the winner of each tournament plus the best second team will qualify to the Superfinal (each team participates in just one event of the Regular Phase), and only the winner in Portugal will have the honor to raise category in the 2011 League and became a Division A team, as Romania did last year.
Euro Beach Soccer League calendar:
Euro Beach Soccer League stage 1 – Moscow, Russia: May 28-30
Euro Beach Soccer League stage 2 – Marseille, France: June 25-27
Euro Beach Soccer League stage 3 – Lignano, Italy: July 2-4
Euro Beach Soccer League stage 4 – Castellon, Spain: July 30-August 1
Euro Beach Soccer League Superfinal – Portugal: August 26-29
