Courtesy: FIFA.com


Kazakhstan, forged in Almaty

16 Sep 2016

Watching Kazakhstan make their debut at the FIFA Futsal World Cup in Colombia, it’s fair to say they look nothing like your stereotypical debutant. Over-awed? Inexperienced? Disjointed? Not even a shred.

But then having got on the podium at UEFA Futsal EURO 2016 as debutants, that is perhaps not a surprise. They’ve been in this position before and thrived. This all didn’t happen overnight, though.

After coming narrowly unstuck in their opening game against Argentina, having more than worried the eight-time participants in a slender 1-0 defeat, they got off the mark in terms of points and goals, with defender Leo delighted to see his name amongst the scorers in their 3-1 win over Costa Rica.

“It’s great to have got such a beautiful goal at a World Cup,” he told FIFA.com, having scored a cheeky back-heeled flick immediately after half time. “And for it to have contributed to our first ever win at the finals too makes it even better. I couldn’t be happier.”

The key to their fluidity is not hard to find. If you’re diligent enough to take a glance at the team sheet, you would probably work it out, as two words are stamped all over it. Kairat Almaty. Seven times. Make it eight if you excuse Leo’s recent loan move to Sporting CP and add another – and arguably most importantly – as Kazakhstan coach Ricardo Sobral also holds the reins at club level.

“It has made a huge difference as more than half of us played there and it means we have been able to really perfect some major parts of our game,” the Brazilian-born Leo explained. “We spent two months focussing purely on getting ready to come to Colombia.”

It’d be no surprise if those preparations led to his goal itself. Drifting clear of his marker in Los Ticos’ area, a simple pass from Douglas – one of his Almaty compatriots – picked out Leo to apply his deft touch. “We’ve been able to push ourselves so much further because of this connection.

“It’s allowed us improve ourselves in all areas of the pitch, from dead balls to defending, as what we do with Kazakhstan, we also have been doing with Almaty. It’s meant we’ve been able to grow us a team more and more as time’s gone by.”

This seamless unit has taken time to forge, dating back to when the 29-year-old moved from his native Santa Catarina in 2009. But that time has borne fruit in the process. “When I first joined the team, we were still really unknown, but over time we managed to build, grow and improve, as did I, which enabled us to climb up and eventually with two UEFA Futsal Cups.”

Having battled the cold – “it gets to minus 30 there and I had never seen snow before!” – the language, and, hardest of all, the 15,000km from his family – “you can’t replace your family, I only get to them once a year, it’s very tough on me” – Leo is back in South America, flying the flag of Kazakhstan.

Now here, he is out to get to the top, but he knows there is a tough hurdle ahead. The same shaped hurdle that kept them from the Futsal EURO final. “We’re going give our all, and having beaten Costa Rica we are probably looking at a meeting with Spain, but even so we’re going to try our hardest and even if we lose, we’re going to do everything we can to leave the name of Kazakhstan as high as we can.”



Courtesy: FIFA.com


Sweet 16 for Spain and Argentina

16 Sep 2016

THE DAY REPLAYED – Spain and Argentina got the job done by beating Azerbaijan and Solomon Islands respectively to book their places in the Round of 16 at the FIFA Futsal World Cup Colombia 2016.

La Roja were made to work hard to assert themselves in the first Group F game of the day. It was not until the second half that they took control of a scrappy, keenly contested encounter, but their class eventually shone through as they wrapped up progress from the first round of the tournament for the seventh straight edition.

In the other fixture in this section, Iran got back to winning ways at Morocco's expense, taking their competition record to 15 victories in 30 matches.

Argentina, meanwhile, eased past Solomon Islands, although their performance was less impressive than the somewhat flattering scoreline might suggest. Albiceleste winger Cristian Borruto was the star of the show with a hat-trick.

Also in Group E, Kazakhstan not only scored their first-ever goal at a Futsal World Cup, through Douglas 58 seconds into their meeting with Costa Rica, but they also recorded their first win. In the process, they put themselves very much in the hunt for a berth in the last 16.


Results

Group E
Costa Rica 1-3 Kazakhstan
Argentina 7-3 Solomon Islands

Group F
Azerbaijan 2-4 Spain
Iran 5-3 Morocco

Memorable moments

Lights out
Spain did not look to be at their brightest in their victory over Azerbaijan. Perhaps the reason for that can be traced back to their warm-up drills, during one of which Aicardo smashed a shot so powerfully and high over the bar that it shattered some of the floodlights. Given this, we can only imagine how much Rovshan Huseynli's hands must have been stinging after he saved two venomous strikes from the Spain defender during the match.

A heartfelt tribute
After the forward Hossein Tayebi had scored Iran's first goal, his team celebrated by holding up the No8 shirt belonging to Ghodrat Bahadori, who broke a toe in his country's opener and will miss the rest of the tournament. Bahadori was following the action from the stands and will surely have been moved by the gesture.

On song despite defeat
Following their loss to Argentina, the Solomon Islands players gathered in the middle of the court and sang a song which captivated the crowd. Afterwards they let out a cry of 'Solomon, Solomon, Solomon' in the manner of three cheers and those in attendance at Bucaramanga's Coliseo Bicentenario duly responded with a standing ovation.

The stat
3 – For just the third time in the competition's 332-match history, a player notched up two own goals in the same game. Azerbaijan's Vassoura was the man who had the dubious honour of following in the footsteps of Argentinian Alberto Carfagna (Hong Kong 1992) and Iranian Amir Farashi (Guatemala 2000).

The words
"I'm really happy with the team's reaction when the opposition opened the scoring. It's important for me to see how they react in these sorts of adverse situations. We wanted to play more expansively, but Azerbaijan focused their energies on stopping us rather than on making things happen themselves."
Spain coach Venancio Lopez

"It's not such a difficult defeat to swallow, even though we felt we were much stronger than them in the second half. We came really close against one of the best sides in the world."
Morocco goalkeeper Rabie Zaari

"Today not only did we score our first goal at a World Cup, but we got our first victory, so the people of Kazakhstan will be proud of us."
Kazakhstan defender Leo

"My first World Cup goal is dedicated to my five-month-old baby. My family sent me some photos of them watching the match in Spain. I'm pleased to be finding my feet in this team and adapting to the style of play."
Argentina forward Alan Brandi


Next matchday

Friday 16 September

Group A
Panama-Colombia (20:00, Cali)
Portugal-Uzbekistan (20:00, Medellin)

Group B
Russia-Cuba (18:00, Cali)
Egypt-Thailand (18:00, Medellin)

All times local



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