en 2019 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup

2019 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup
Tournament details
Host country	United Arab Emirates
City	Dubai
Dates	5–9 November
Teams	8 (from 4 confederations)
Venue(s)	1 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	Iran (3rd title)
Runners-up	Spain
Third place	United Arab Emirates
Fourth place	Russia
Tournament statistics
Matches played	20
Goals scored	138 (6.9 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Amir Hossein Akbari (6 goals)
Best player(s)	Waleed Beshr
Best goalkeeper	Mohamad Al Jasmi
	← 2018 2021 →

The 2019 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup was the ninth edition of the Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup, an annual international beach soccer tournament contested by men's national teams. Held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates since its inception, this year's event occurs between 5 and 9 November.^[1] The tournament was organised by the Dubai Sports Council (DSC) and Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW).^[2] Unlike in previous editions, there was no lead sponsor this year.

The Intercontinental Cup is typically seen as the biggest tournament in the current international beach soccer calendar after the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.^[2] Similar in nature to that of the FIFA Confederations Cup,^[3] eight nations took part.

The tournament started with a round robin group stage. The winners and runners-up from each group advanced to the knockout stage, a series of single-elimination matches, beginning with the semi-finals and ending with the final. Consolation matches were also played to determine other final rankings.

The season-ending Beach Soccer Stars awards were also presented in Dubai as a conclusion to the tournament.^[4]

Iran were the defending champions and successfully retained their title, winning a third Intercontinental Cup crown by beating Spain 6–3 in the final.^[5] Hosts UAE matched their best previous performance of third place for the first time since 2013.^[6]

Participating teams

The following eight teams took part.

Overall, Europe and Asia were represented by three nations; Africa and North America, one nation each. Oceania, and for the first time, South America, did not enter any teams.^[7]

Team	Confederation	Recent achievements	Participation
United Arab Emirates	AFC	Hosts¹	9th
Iran	AFC	2018 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup winners	7th
Japan	AFC	2019 AFC Beach Soccer Championship winners	3rd
Egypt	CAF	2018 Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations third place	5th
Mexico	CONCACAF	2019 CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship winners	5th
Russia	UEFA	2019 Euro Beach Soccer League runners-up	9th
Spain	UEFA	2019 Euro Beach Soccer League third place	2nd
Italy	UEFA	2019 Euro Beach Soccer League fourth place	2nd

1. Qualified as hosts, but also achieved a 2019 AFC Beach Soccer Championship runners-up finish

Venue

The tournament took place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; this edition was held at a purpose-built arena on Kite Beach, Jumeirah 3, for the second consecutive year with a capacity of 2,500.

Draw

The draw to split the eight teams into two groups of four took place on 9 October at the Dubai Sports Council headquarters at 11:00 GST (UTC+4)^[9]^[10] and was conducted by former Real Madrid defender, Míchel Salgado.^[4]

For the purposes of the draw, the nations were divided into two pots, shown in the table below; the teams were split based on their BSWW World Ranking – the top three teams plus the hosts were placed into Pot 1 whilst the lowest four teams of the ranking were placed in Pot 2. As each was drawn, the placement of the teams alternated back and forth between Groups A and B. The hosts, the United Arab Emirates, were automatically allocated to position A1.

The composition of the pots is shown below:^[11]

Pot 1	Pot 2
United Arab Emirates (13; hosts)^[A] Russia (3) Italy (4) Iran (5)	Spain (7) Mexico (10) Japan (12) Egypt (19)

^ Assigned to A1

Note: The numbers in parentheses show the world ranking of the teams at the time of the draw.^[12]

Group stage

Matches are listed as local time in Dubai, GST (UTC+4)

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	W+	WP	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Spain	3	1	0	1	1	12	12	0	4	Knockout stage
2	United Arab Emirates (H)	3	0	1	1	1	9	7	+2	3	Knockout stage
3	Japan	3	1	0	0	2	9	8	+1	3	5th–8th place play-offs
4	Italy	3	1	0	0	2	16	19	−3	3	5th–8th place play-offs

Source: BSWW
(H) Host

5 November 2019

16:15

Japan	6–4	Italy
Okuyama 12', 33' Oba 20' Akaguma 25', 30' Yamauchi 35'	Report(ru)	9', 33' Gori 12' Zurlo 35' Ramacciotti

Referee: Oezcan Sultanolu (Turkey)

5 November 2019

17:30

Spain	2–2 (a.e.t.)	United Arab Emirates
Chiky 11' Javi Torres 33'	Report(ru)	18' A. Ali 30' A. Bashr
Penalties
Chiky Suarez Llorenç	2–1	Almuntaser A. Ali W. Beshr

Referee: Vladimir Tashkov (Bulgaria)

6 November 2019

16:15

Japan	2–3	Spain
Matsuda 2' Oba 36'	Report(ru)	11' Chiky 26' Javi Torres 31' Adril

Referee: Antonio Pereira (Portugal)

6 November 2019

17:30

United Arab Emirates	6–4 (a.e.t.)	Italy
A. Beshr 11', 38' Walid 12' Kamal 15' A. Mohammadi 22', 39'	Report(ru)	17' Ramacciotti 19' Giordani 34', 34' Montani

Referee: Jurijs Ivusins (Latvia)

7 November 2019

16:15

Italy	8–7	Spain
Gori 6' (pen.), 8', 17' Frainetti 13', 27' (pen.) Carpita 15' Josep Jr. 16' Ramacciotti 33'	Report(ru)	5', 15', 20' Suarez 9', 21', 23' Cintas 17' Frutos

Referee: Yuichi Hatano (Japan)

7 November 2019

18:45

United Arab Emirates	1–1 (a.e.t.)	Japan
Matsuda 36' (o.g.)	Report(ru)	26' (pen.) Oba
Penalties
A. Ali Kamal W. Beshr	2–1	Ozu Okuyama Oba

Referee: Oezcan Sultanolu (Turkey)

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	WP	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Iran	3	2	1	0	15	10	+5	7	Knockout stage
2	Russia	3	2	0	1	11	7	+4	6	Knockout stage
3	Egypt	3	1	0	2	10	11	−1	3	5th–8th place play-offs
4	Mexico	3	0	0	3	6	14	−8	0	5th–8th place play-offs

Source: BSWW

5 November 2019