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Friday, July 25, 2008

All European Final?


The semifinal lineup is finalized, Portugal to meet Brazil and Spain to Italy. For the first time in FIFA Beach Soccer World cup three European teams have entered the semifinal. Will this year be all European final after 2005? Spain is having a great year in sports. Will they go all the way here or Portugal will have the last laugh? Don't forget we have Brazil also.

The best quarterfinal was between Brazil and Russia. Russia twice taken the lead, 2-0, 3-2 but failed to keep them. Daniel was the hero for Brazil, scoring a hattrick in 6-4 win. Buru was shown the red card and will miss the semifinal. It is a bog blow to Brazil.

Portugal continued their good form against Uruguay. They won 6-3. Madjer scored his 50th goal. But the star of Portugal is Belchior. He is top scorer with 9 goals along with Madjer. Belchior is frontrunner for both golden ball and golden shoe. He will be the main threat against Brazil.

Spain played a very tactical game against Argentina in their 2-0 win. This is the fourth occasion in this world cup where a team failed to score. Nico scored two goals for Spain. Argentina again failed to break the jinx of the quarterfinal. Italy defeated the host, France, 5-2 to enter the semifinal for the first time. We have seen that most of the teams are defensively very strong. So we may have less number of goals. FIFA this year introducing a new award Golden glove for the best goalkeeper. Roberto Valeiro of Spain, Andrey Bukhlitskiy of Russia, Marcelo Salgueiro of Argentina and Luis Rodas of El Salvador are vying for the award.

Portugal and Spain should be in the final. Without Buru Brazil will be a weak team though Benjamin is playing well. Benjamin along with Belchior is the frontrunner for golden ball. Portugal is the last country to beat Brazil in world cup. Portugal so far scored 32 goals and Brazil 24 goals. Spain should win easily against Italy. For me Portugal and Spain are favorites.

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