# 2023 AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup

The 2023 AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup was the tenth edition (3rd official) of the AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup (previously the AFC Beach Soccer Championship, before rebranding in 2021), the premier beach soccer tournament contested by Asian men's national teams, organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
The tournament took place in Pattaya, Thailand. The championship also acted as the qualification tournament for Asian teams for the 2023 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, to be held in the United Arab Emirates. The top three teams qualified for the World Cup, including the United Arab Emirates who automatically qualified as the host.
Japan were the defending champions, but lost to Iran in the final.

## Teams

A total of 16 teams entered the tournament.
| Team | Appearance | Previous best performance |
| Afghanistan | 4th | Group stage (2013, 2017, 2019) |
| Bahrain | 9th | Champions (2006) |
| China | 10th | 4th place (2006, 2008) |
| Iran | 10th | Champions (2013, 2017) |
| Indonesia | 2nd | Group stage (2011) |
| Japan | 10th | Champions (2009, 2011, 2019) |
| Kuwait | 4th | Group stage (2011, 2015, 2019) |
| Kyrgyzstan | 2nd | Group stage (2019) |
| Lebanon | 5th | 4th place (2015, 2017) |
| Malaysia | 3rd | Quarter-finals (2019) |
| Oman | 7th | Champions (2015) |
| Palestine | 3rd | 4th place (2019) |
| Saudi Arabia | 2nd | Group stage (2013) |
| Thailand (hosts) | 5th | Group stage (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019) |
| United Arab Emirates | 9th | Champions (2007, 2008) |
| Uzbekistan | 6th | Quarter-finals (2011, 2015) |

## Draw

The draw of the tournament was held on 19 January 2023 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2019 AFC Beach Soccer Championship final tournament, with the hosts Thailand automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw.
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
| Thailand (hosts) Japan United Arab Emirates Oman | Palestine Lebanon Iran Bahrain | Malaysia China Kuwait Afghanistan | Kyrgyzstan Indonesia Saudi Arabia Uzbekistan |

## Group stage
### Group A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | W+ | WP | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Thailand (H) | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 7 | +2 | 6 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Bahrain | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 7 | +1 | 6 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | Saudi Arabia | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 4 | |
| 4 | Afghanistan | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 13 | −3 | 0 | |

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | W+ | WP | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Iran | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 32 | 9 | +23 | 9 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | United Arab Emirates | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 10 | +1 | 6 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | Uzbekistan | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 17 | −9 | 3 | |
| 4 | Malaysia | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 25 | −15 | 0 | |

### Group C

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | W+ | WP | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Japan | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 4 | +18 | 9 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | China | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 11 | −1 | 6 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | Lebanon | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 16 | 13 | +3 | 3 | |
| 4 | Indonesia | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 24 | −20 | 0 | |

### Group D

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | W+ | WP | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Oman | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 2 | +15 | 9 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Kuwait | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 9 | +1 | 4 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | Palestine | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 12 | −8 | 3 | |
| 4 | Kyrgyzstan | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 14 | −8 | 0 | |

## Knockout stage
### Bracket

| Quarter-finals | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | | Final | Final |
| 22 March | 22 March | | | |
| Thailand | 2 | | | |
| Thailand | 2 | 25 March | 25 March | | |
| United Arab Emirates | 4 | 25 March | 25 March | |
| United Arab Emirates | 4 | United Arab Emirates | 1 | |
| 23 March | 23 March | | United Arab Emirates | 1 | |
| 23 March | 23 March | Japan | 5 | |
| Japan | 8 | Japan | 5 | |
| Japan | 8 | | | | 26 March | 26 March |
| Kuwait | 0 | | | | 26 March | 26 March |
| Kuwait | 0 | | | | Japan | 0 |
| 22 March | 22 March | | | | | Japan | 0 |
| 22 March | 22 March | | | | Iran | 6 |
| Iran | 10 | | | | Iran | 6 |
| Iran | 10 | 25 March | 25 March | | | |
| Bahrain | 0 | 25 March | 25 March | | | |
| Bahrain | 0 | Iran | 6 | | | |
| 23 March | 23 March | | Iran | 6 | | | |
| 23 March | 23 March | Oman | 3 | | Third place | Third place |
| Oman | 11 | Oman | 3 | | Third place | Third place |
| Oman | 11 | | | | 26 March | 26 March |
| China | 0 | | | | 26 March | 26 March |
| China | 0 | | | | United Arab Emirates | 2 |
| | | | | | Oman | 4 |

### Final
## Goalscorers

There were 249 goals scored in 32 matches, for an average of 7.78 goals per match.
11 goals
* Takuya Akaguma
9 goals
* Ali Mirshekari
* Mohammadali Mokhtari
8 goals
* Sami Al Bulushi
7 goals
* Moslem Mesigar
6 goals
* Movahed Baltork
5 goals
* Mahdi Shirmohammadi
* Ozu Moreira
* Khalid Al Oraimi
* Ali Mohammadi
4 goals
* Abbas Rezaei
* Takaaki Oba
* Majed Al-Enezi
* Yahya Al Muraiki
* Abdullah Al Sauti
* Komkrit Nanan
3 goals
* Tamim Haidari
* Mohamed Yaqoob
* Liu Haoran
* Amir Akbari
* Seyedmahdi Mirjajili
* Mohammad Moradi
* Yuki Kibune
* Shinya Shibamoto
* Takahito Yamada
* Mohamad Haidar
* Mohamad Merhi
* Mohammad Al Saleh
* Mushel Al Araimi
* Al Yaqdhan Al Hindasi
* Ahmed Al Owaisi
* Mohammed Al-Shammari
* Ahmed Beshr
* Rashed Yaqoub
* Jamshid Rasulov
2 goals
* Rashad Jamal
* Bai Fan
* Cai Weiming
* Han Xuegeng
* Junius Bate
* Reza Amiri
* Shusei Yamauchi
* Mohammad Darweesh
* Omar Al-Rouqi
* Ahmed Grada
* Hasrol Ali
* Norazman Bakar
* Qushairie Asaari
* Mandhar Al Araimi
* Younis Al Owaisi
* Belal Bawdah
* Ahmed Al-Hamami
* Suriya Boridet
* Tanandon Praracha
* Waleed Beshr
* Abdulla Al-Blooshi
* Walid Mohammadi
* Mamasharif Khalimov
* Ilyos Mallaev
1 goal
* Ramez Farooq
* Abdul Nafi Himat
* Omid Homauni
* Murtaza Jafari
* Sami Ullah Mohammadi
* Ahmad Rabani
* Ahmed Abdulrasool
* Mohamed Ashoor
* Salman Al-Yaqoobi
* Li Yueming
* Dewa Dwipayudha
* Nyoman Widnyana
* Javad Khosravi
* Ryunosuke Ito
* Naoya Matsuo
* Takumi Uesato
* Faisal Al-Manaye
* Mohammad Al-Shafei
* Erzhan Dordoshev
* Almaz Dzhailoobaev
* Keldibek Mukaev
* Beksultan Omorov
* Roman Sodaliev
* Beksultan Usenbaev
* Hussein Abdullah
* Ahmad El Khatib
* Mechleb Matar
* Michlib Matar
* Faisal Saharudin
* Hafizam Rahman
* Ridhwan Zainal
* Zulhairi Ismail
* Alaa Atiya
* Mohammed Hassan
* Fady Jaber
* Mohammed Al-Qaddi
* Al-Waleed Safhi
* Naif Yakl
* Waleed Al-Youbi
* Natee Jeepon
* Ratthaphong Nadee
* Watchara Lepaijit
* Farhod Kodirov
1 own goal
* Abdulla Al-Abdulla (against Iran)
* Junius Bate (against Lebanon)
* Agus Dwipayana (against Japan)
* Moslem Mesigar (against Oman)
* Takumi Uesato (against Iran)
* Chalermchai Saelim (against Afghanistan)
* Atus Thongdee (against the United Arab Emirates)
Source: AFC

## Qualified teams for FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

The following teams qualified for the world cup.
| Team | Qualified on | Previous appearances in FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup only FIFA era (since 2005) |
| United Arab Emirates | 16 December 2022 | 7 (2007, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2019, 2021) |
| Iran | 22 March 2023 | 7 (2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017) |
| Japan | 23 March 2023 | 11 (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021) |
| Oman | 23 March 2023 | 4 (2011, 2015, 2019, 2021) |
    • Bold indicates champions for that year. •• Italic indicates hosts for that year.