Courtesy: Latin America Herald Tribune


Argentina Fends Off Russia to Take Futsal World Cup

CALI, Colombia – Argentina was crowned Saturday for the first time as World Futsal Champion after downing a solid Russian squad, which in the final seconds almost tied up the game.

The big Argentine stars were goalkeeper Nicolas Sarmiento and Alan Brandi, who scored twice in the match contested at Cali’s El Pueblo Coliseum.

Backing the efforts of Sarmiento and Brandi were Argentina’s Vaporaki, Alamiro and Constantino with one goal each.

The World Cup trophy was accepted by team captain Fernando Wilhelm from FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

So intense was the contest that after 10 minutes the two squads had three fouls each, which forced the coaches to put a little order in the proceedings so as not to reach the warning limit.

Russian was first on the scoreboard with a bullseye by Eder Lima, but just seconds later Alamiro Vaporaki tied it up.

Argentina trotted off the field at the half ahead 2-1 thanks to a goal by Leandro Cuzzolino, and a possible victory was in the air for Diego Giustozzi’s team.

Russia, knowing there would be no other chance, redoubled its efforts in the second half, when Eder Lima soon tied the match. But on the very next play, Argentina powered downfield and Alan Brandi put his squad in the lead once more, 3-2.

But Brandi was on a roll and slammed the ball into the net once more to make it 4-2, and Argentina was already looking like the champs.

Constantino Vaporaki then made it 5-2 – could anything go wrong?

Almost. Goals by Dmytry Lyskov and Eder Lima had Russia closing in at 5-4 – but Argentina fought off some fierce attacks to hang onto the lead and take home its first Futsal World Cup.

In the previous game, Iran took third place in the tourney after defeating Portugal in the penalty shootout. The match’s regular time ended in a 2-2 tie in a game that Portugal led at one time by 2-0.


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