Too many soccer games end with one, maybe two goals scored. Sometimes it’s even worse: zero goals in the 90 minutes of total play-time. All of that watching, eyes frantically scanning across the field, for no pay-off at all! It sparks the question: Is this all soccer can be?
Beach soccer arises as a refreshing alternative to soccer. The relatively unknown sport boasts a field less than half the size of a standard soccer field, making games with eight – or more! – goals scored the norm rather than the exception. And it all happens within the mere 36 minutes of allotted playtime! Each team can also only have five players on the field and are allowed to rotate in substitutes an unlimited number of times. But despite these differences, the sport is essentially the same old soccer many know and love – kick the ball into the goal, score. Just without all that pesky turf or grass and instead gritty, lovely sand.
On February 25, Brazil beat Italy 6-4 in the FIFA Men’s Beach Soccer World Cup final. Marking Brazil’s sixth World Cup title, the win signifies the country’s re-emergence in the sport. From 1995 to 2004, Brazil dominated the then-called Beach Soccer World Championships; out of the ten annual championships, they took home the victory all but one time. Luckily, it wasn’t a very long distance to travel back to: all the games were located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – likely due to Brazil’s widespread interest in the sport stretching back to the 1940s. This semi-tradition of hosting games in Brazil continued for the first three years of the World Cup, but the sport truly became international in 2008 when the games were held in Marseille, France. Afterwards, Brazil won a far less impressive two out of seven World Cups. To rub salt into the wound, over the same period of time, Russia won three. In turn, this year’s victory comes as a much-desired win for Brazil.
The United States has been influential in the creation of beach soccer as it is today. The official rules of the sport were created in Los Angeles back in 1992, and the first professional competition was held at Miami Beach in 1993. Even still, the U.S. has consistently performed poorly in the World Cup; the country has never made it past the group stage and is ranked 23rd out of the 41 teams – below even land-locked countries like Switzerland and Belarus – who have participated in the World Cup. While the U.S. got off to a strong start this year in qualifying with six straight wins, this dominance came to a quick end in the group stage as they lost all the three games they played.
Next year, the U.S. men’s team will get a chance to redeem themselves in the upcoming 2025 World Cup held in Victoria, Seychelles.
Wait a minute… What about women’s beach soccer? Although there is not yet a Women’s Beach Soccer World Cup, athletes and fans can still enjoy a variety of smaller tournaments including the Acapulco Cup in Mexico and the Women’s Mundialito Tournament in Spain.
