The Futsal World Cup starts today in Brazilian capital Brasilia and in Rio de Janeiro.
The sixth Futsal World Cup will see hosts Brazil hoping to reclaim the trophy they have won on three occasions from current holders Spain.
In this 20 team tournament, there are five groups of four teams. The top two in the group will go into a second group stage, leading to the semi-finals and the final scheduled for 19th October.
The Teams
Africa: Egypt and Libya
Asia: China, Iran, Japan, Thailand
Europe: Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Ukraine
North and Central America: Cuba, Guatemala, USA
Oceania: Solomon Islands
South America: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay
Favourites
Brazil are currently ranked number 1 in the world and were the winners of the competition the first three times it ran. But the world’s 2nd ranked team, Spain have knocked the Brazilians out of the last two tournaments, whilst going on to win the Futsal Wolrd Cup in 2000 and 2004.
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September 30th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
So what exactly is Futsal ?
September 30th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Futsal is played between two teams of five players, one of whom is the goalkeeper. In addition each team may have seven substitutes. Unlike some other forms of indoor football, the court is delimited by lines, and not walls or boards that players can use to rebound the ball. Futsal is played with a smaller ball with less bounce than a football. The emphasis is on improvisation, creativity and technique as well as ball control and passing in small spaces.