The International Beach Soccer Cup has started in Moscow

The Moscow International Beach Soccer Cup started in Moscow on July 31. Eight teams from Russia, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Iran and Saudi Arabia will compete for the victory. Russia is represented by two clubs and the national beach soccer team.

Last year's winner, Brazilian Corinthians, opened the first day of the competition with a match against their Iranian rivals. At the same time, the organizers of the tournament thought through everything to the smallest detail, even a sudden downpour could not interfere with the game.

"27 degrees, partly cloudy with no precipitation are ideal weather conditions, but the organizers took into account the meteorological anomalies of this summer in the capital and additionally equipped the site with a drainage system, that is, if it rains heavily, excess moisture will be drained from the field, the matches will continue, although it was at least unusual to watch beach soccer on wet sand."— Ilya Anikeev, a correspondent of Izvestia, shared.

Mikhail Likhachev, the head coach of the Russian national beach soccer team, expressed the hope that such participation would attract the attention of fans to this sport.

"Unfortunately, there are not many tournaments for our national team right now, and each of them is especially valuable for us right now. Therefore, we will try again here, as I have already said, to show our best side," Likhachev said.

In turn, the head coach of Saudi Arabia's Al-Mahmal club, Saud Bin Abdullah Al-Saif, said that participation in such competitions is especially important for the country. He added that beach sports are in demand and popular in Saudi Arabia. Beach soccer has also been actively developing over the past eight years due to the participation of the national team in tournaments inside and outside the country.

"We are very happy to participate and compete with such strong teams from, of course, Russia, Brazil, Iran. You are very strong teams on the world stage," he said.

The group stage matches will last until Saturday, and on Sunday, August 2, the final will be held to determine the new champion.

In July 2023, the Russian national beach soccer team beat the Iranian team 4-3 and won the Betsity Cup of Nations. Thus, the Iranian team took the second place, the football players from Senegal took the third, and the UAE players took the fourth.

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