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 Americas & Beyond | March 2008 
And Out Goes the Defending Champion
 Beach Soccer Worldwide
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It’s decided, Senegal vs. Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon vs. Egypt are the two semi finals of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2008 Qualifier DURBAN.
Tomorrow (March 28), the four semi finalists get the chance recharge their batteries to be back at the top of their game on Saturday to decide who will qualify for the global showpiece in Marseilles, France this July.
Amadou Diop’s boys beat yesterday’s heroes Mozambique with a thrashing 10-0 result and finish first in Group A. On Saturday, they will face Côte d’Ivoire to assure their participation to the World Cup for the second time in a row.
“We came to Durban to at least qualify for the semi finals and we’ve accomplished our goal by playing some beautiful Beach Soccer today. We had an off day against Egypt, but now we’re back on track and on our way to the World Cup”, commented a confident Senegal Coach Diop.
The Beach Elephants struggled their way to the semis as they lost to the Cape Verde Islands, who had nothing to lose on the last matchday, and managed to make history by winning their first game ever on a World Cup qualifying tournament after beating Côte d’Ivoire by penalties. Ivorian Bobou missed the first penalty, Cape Verde Islands Pú didn’t.
“Of Course I’m happy we’ve won, this had never happened before. We’ve won against a team that beat the defending champions on the opening day and I’m sure this will be a motivation for all of my team mates to come back next year and surprise the continent by qualifying for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup”, said Cape Verde Islands top scorer Pú, who was by far the best performer of his team.
Côte d’Ivoire will have to use the rest day wisely and recover their form of the clash against Nigeria on the opening day if they want to get past Senegal on Saturday.
The most exciting game of day 3 was Nigeria vs. Cameroon, the defending champions against the best performing team of the tournament so far. The Beach Eagles had to win to go through to the semi finals but bumped into a solid Cameroon team that obliged their opponents to decide the game on penalties, where the Beach Lions eventually took the upper hand.
“We all worked very hard to get where we are today, we’ve put our hearts and souls into getting the best possible result. I’m scoring a lot of goals, but that’s not important. Cameroon is in the semi finals and ready for whatever comes next”, commented Cameroon striker Batoum who is on his way to maybe become the best player of the African qualifier.
That also means that defending champion Nigeria are eliminated and return homewards empty handed.
More surprises today, as there was no sign of the inexperienced young Beach Bafana we’ve seen over the past few days. The South African National Beach Soccer team delivered an outstanding performance against Egypt(SA won 4-3), who until today were still unbeaten and will have to do a lot better in the semi finals where powerhouse Cameroon will be waiting for them.
Results and match schedule (GMT+2)
March 25 (Tuesday) – Matches
11:00am Cameroon 8 x 3 Cape Verde Islands
Followed by Egypt 8 x 3 Mozambique
Followed by Nigeria 4 x 5 Côte d’Ivoire
Followed by South Africa 4 x 8 Senegal
March 26 (Wednesday) – Matches
11:00am Côte d’Ivoire 6 x 8 Cameroon
Followed by Senegal 4 x 5 Egypt (ET)
Followed by Cape Verde Islands 2 x 12 Nigeria
Followed by Mozambique 3 x 2 South Africa
March 27 (Thursday) – Matches
11:00am Côte d’Ivoire (0)2 x 2(1) Cape Verde Islands (AP)
Followed by Senegal 10 x 0 Mozambique
Followed by Nigeria (2)3x3(3) Cameroon (AP)
Followed by South Africa 4 x 3 Egypt
March 28 (Friday) – Rest Day
March 29 (Saturday) - Matches
12:45pm (Semi-final 1): Cameroon vs. Egypt
Followed by (Semi-final 2): Senegal vs. Côte d'Ivoire
July 8 (Sunday) – Matches
12:45pm (Play-Off 3rd-4th): Loser M14 vs. Loser M15
Followed by (Final): Winner M14 vs. Winner M15
 Click HERE for the complete matchday report (PDF)
 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2008
Follow the competition from Durban, to Puerto Vallarta, Buenos Aires, Dubai, and Benidorm on the road leading up to the final championship matches in Marseille, France, the host country for the 2008 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. |
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