Courtesy: Fox News Latino


Kazakhstan gets key win in Futsal World Cup; Argentina reaches knockout phase

September 16, 2016

BUCARAMANGA – Kazakhstan defeated Costa Rica 3-1 in an entertaining match at the FIFA Futsal World Cup that saw both teams display a willingness to attack.

The Kazakhs got off to an auspicious start with a goal by Douglas Jr. in the very first minute of Thursday night's Group E match at Coliseo Bicentenario in this northern Colombia city.

The Central Asian squad then responded quickly after Costa Rica's Alejandro Paniagua got the equalizer in the 15th minute, with Pavel Taku scoring a minute later and Brazilian-born Leo Jaragua tacking on one more goal just after the start of the second half.

Defense was the story the rest of the way, as both teams went scoreless over the final 19 minutes of the game.

Kazakhstan now has a strong chance of qualifying for the 16-team knockout phase with one round-robin match remaining.

In the late match Thursday night in Bucaramanga, Argentina handily defeated the Solomon Islands 7-3 to become the first squad to qualify for the knockout phase out of Group E.

Argentina dominated all facets of the contest, also played at the Coliseo Bicentenario stadium.

Cristian Borruto scored a hat trick for the Albiceleste, while Santiago Basile added two scores and Alan Brandi and Pablo Taborda put one ball each into the back of the net.

The South American team took a 5-2 lead into halftime of the match, in which defensive blunders on both sides made for an entertaining - albeit sloppy - contest.

Argentina leads Group E with six points after completing its second of three matches, followed by Kazakhstan and Costa Rica with three points each (the Kazakhs have a slight lead in goal differential) and the Solomon Islands with zero.

Play in that round-robin group will conclude on Sunday when Kazakhstan takes on the Solomon Islands in the northwestern city of Medellin and Argentina faces Costa Rica in Bucaramanga.

In Group F action Thursday night, Spain defeated Azerbaijan 4-2 to become the first team from its foursome to advance to the knockout stage. The Iberian nation - winner of this competition in 2000 and 2004 - is the only country other than five-time champion Brazil to capture a Futsal World Cup, which was first played in 1989.

Also playing in Group F, Iran defeated Morocco 5-3 in Medellin.

Spain is on top of that group with six points, followed by Azerbaijan and Iran with three points each and Morocco with none.

In the final matches of that round-robin foursome, Spain will play Morocco and Azerbajian will face Iran.


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