# 2019 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup

The 2019 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup was the ninth edition of the Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup, an annual international beach soccer tournament contested by men's national teams. Held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates since its inception, this year's event occurs between 5 and 9 November. The tournament was organised by the Dubai Sports Council (DSC) and Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW). Unlike in previous editions, there was no lead sponsor this year.
The Intercontinental Cup is typically seen as the biggest tournament in the current international beach soccer calendar after the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. Similar in nature to that of the FIFA Confederations Cup, eight nations took part.
The tournament started with a round robin group stage. The winners and runners-up from each group advanced to the knockout stage, a series of single-elimination matches, beginning with the semi-finals and ending with the final. Consolation matches were also played to determine other final rankings.
The season-ending Beach Soccer Stars awards were also presented in Dubai as a conclusion to the tournament.
Iran were the defending champions and successfully retained their title, winning a third Intercontinental Cup crown by beating Spain 6–3 in the final. Hosts UAE matched their best previous performance of third place for the first time since 2013.

## Participating teams

The following eight teams took part.
Overall, Europe and Asia were represented by three nations; Africa and North America, one nation each. Oceania, and for the first time, South America, did not enter any teams.
| Team | Confederation | Recent achievements | Participation |
| United Arab Emirates | AFC | Hosts | 9th |
| Iran | AFC | 2018 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup winners | 7th |
| Japan | AFC | 2019 AFC Beach Soccer Championship winners | 3rd |
| Egypt | CAF | 2018 Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations third place | 5th |
| Mexico | CONCACAF | 2019 CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship winners | 5th |
| Russia | UEFA | 2019 Euro Beach Soccer League runners-up | 9th |
| Spain | UEFA | 2019 Euro Beach Soccer League third place | 2nd |
| Italy | UEFA | 2019 Euro Beach Soccer League fourth place | 2nd |
    1. Qualified as hosts, but also achieved a 2019 AFC Beach Soccer Championship runners-up finish

## Venue

The tournament took place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; this edition was held at a purpose-built arena on Kite Beach, Jumeirah 3, for the second consecutive year with a capacity of 2,500.

## Sponsors

The following were the official sponsors of the tournament:

## Draw

The draw to split the eight teams into two groups of four took place on 9 October at the Dubai Sports Council headquarters at 11:00 GST (UTC+4) and was conducted by former Real Madrid defender, Míchel Salgado.
For the purposes of the draw, the nations were divided into two pots, shown in the table below; the teams were split based on their BSWW World Ranking – the top three teams plus the hosts were placed into Pot 1 whilst the lowest four teams of the ranking were placed in Pot 2. As each was drawn, the placement of the teams alternated back and forth between Groups A and B. The hosts, the United Arab Emirates, were automatically allocated to position A1.
The composition of the pots is shown below:
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 |
| United Arab Emirates (13; hosts) Russia (3) Italy (4) Iran (5) | Spain (7) Mexico (10) Japan (12) Egypt (19) |
* ↑ Assigned to A1
    Note: The numbers in parentheses show the world ranking of the teams at the time of the draw.

## Group stage

Matches are listed as local time in Dubai, GST (UTC+4)

### Group A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | W+ | WP | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Spain | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 12 | 0 | 4 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | United Arab Emirates (H) | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 7 | +2 | 3 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | Japan | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 8 | +1 | 3 | 5th–8th place play-offs |
| 4 | Italy | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 16 | 19 | −3 | 3 | 5th–8th place play-offs |

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | W+ | WP | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Iran | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 15 | 10 | +5 | 7 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Russia | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 7 | +4 | 6 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | Egypt | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 11 | −1 | 3 | 5th–8th place play-offs |
| 4 | Mexico | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 14 | −8 | 0 | 5th–8th place play-offs |

## 5th–8th place play-offs

The teams finishing in third and fourth place are knocked out of title-winning contention, receding to play in consolation matches to determine 5th through 8th place in the final standings.
| 5th–8th place semi-finals | 5th–8th place semi-finals | Fifth place play-off | Fifth place play-off |
| 8 November | 8 November |
| Egypt | 4 |
| Egypt | 4 | 9 November | 9 November |
| Italy | 3 | 9 November | 9 November |
| Italy | 3 | Egypt | 2 |
| 8 November | 8 November | | Egypt | 2 |
| 8 November | 8 November | Japan | 7 |
| Japan | 5 | Japan | 7 |
| Mexico | 4 | | |
| Mexico | 4 | Seventh place play-off | Seventh place play-off |
| | | 9 November | 9 November |
| | | Italy | 3 |
| | | Mexico | 2 |

### Fifth place play-off
## Knockout stage

The group winners and runners-up progress to the knockout stage to continue to compete for the title.
| Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Final | Final |
| 8 November | 8 November |
| Spain | 4 |
| Spain | 4 | 9 November | 9 November |
| Russia | 2 | 9 November | 9 November |
| Russia | 2 | Spain | 3 |
| 8 November | 8 November | | Spain | 3 |
| 8 November | 8 November | Iran | 6 |
| Iran (p) | 1 (4) | Iran | 6 |
| United Arab Emirates | 1 (3) | | |
| United Arab Emirates | 1 (3) | Third place play-off | Third place play-off |
| | | 9 November | 9 November |
| | | Russia | 1 |
| | | United Arab Emirates (a.e.t.) | 2 |

### Final
## Awards
### Winners trophy

* 2019 Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup champions
* Iran Third title

### Individual awards

* Top scorer
* Amir Akbari
* 6 goals
* Best player
* Waleed Beshr
* Best goalkeeper
* Mohamad Al Jasmi

## Statistics
### Goalscorers
#### 6 goals

* Amir Akbari

#### 5 goals

* Gabriele Gori
* Takaaki Oba

#### 4 goals

* Eduard Suarez
* Nestor Martinez
* Boris Nikonorov

#### 3 goals

* Jose Cintas
* Javi Torres
* Salvador "Chiky" Ardil
* Mohammadali Mokhtari
* Mohammad Ahmadzadeh
* Mohammad Masoumizadeh
* Ramon Maldonado
* Ahmed Beshr
* Dario Ramacciotti
* Emmanuele Zurlo
* Marcello Percia Montani
* Keisuke Matsuda
* Ozu Moreira
* Abdelrahman Hassan
* Mohamed Abdelnaby
* Moustafa Shaaban
* Vladimir Raskin
* Masanori Okuyama

#### 2 goals

* Llorenç Gomez
* David Adril
* Mostafa Kiani
* Hamid Behzadpour
* Waleed Beshr
* Ali Mohammadi
* Walid Mohammadi
* Josep Junior
* Marco Giordani
* Naoya Matsuo
* Shusei Yamauchi
* Ahmed Elshahat
* Mostafa Samir
* Jose Vizcarra
* Adrian Frutos
* Alessio Frainetti
* Viktor Kryshanov

#### 1 goal

* Elhusseini Taha Rashed
* Ali Mirshekari
* Saeid Piramoun
* Kamal Ali Sulaiman
* Abbas Ali
* Andrea Carpita
* Paolo Palmacci
* Takuya Akaguma
* Masayuki Komaki
* Moustafa Aly Mohamed
* Hassane Mohamed Hassane
* Diego Villasenor
* Daniel Macias
* Maxim Chuzhkov
* Andrey Novikov
* Alexey Pavlenko
* Ostap Fedorov
* Vladislav Zharikov

#### Own goals

* Keisuke Matsuda (vs. UAE)
* Hassane Mohamed Hassane (vs. Mexico)
* Viktor Kryshanov (vs. Iran (group stage))
Source: BSRussia

### Final standings

| Pos | Grp | Team | Pld | W | W+ | WP | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Final result |
| 1 | B | Iran | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 22 | 14 | +8 | 11 | Champions |
| 2 | A | Spain | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 19 | 20 | −1 | 7 | Runners-up |
| 3 | A | United Arab Emirates | 5 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 9 | +3 | 5 | Third place |
| 4 | B | Russia | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 14 | 13 | +1 | 6 | |
| 5 | A | Japan | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 21 | 14 | +7 | 9 | Eliminated in Group stage |
| 6 | B | Egypt | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 16 | 21 | −5 | 6 | Eliminated in Group stage |
| 7 | A | Italy | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 22 | 25 | −3 | 6 | Eliminated in Group stage |
| 8 | B | Mexico | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 12 | 22 | −10 | 0 | Eliminated in Group stage |