Brazil want to temper ‘hype’ ahead of final against Iran at Beach Soccer Cup

The National – DUBAI, Gilberto da Costa, the Brazil coach, has promised to put up another “great show” for the fans in Saturday’s Intercontinental Cup final after wowing the galleries in a 7-0 win over defending champions Russia in the semis.

The 2014 Intercontinental Cup winners, Brazil will now face-off against the 2013 champions Iran, who edged Tahiti 8-6 in the nail-biting second semi-final.

“Iran are the best team in Asia,” said Da Costa, who had earlier worked with the UAE team as the physical coach in 2008-09. “I just hope we put up a great game of beach soccer for the supporters and for us. This is the most important thing.”

Brazil, of course, have done exactly that so far. They started with a 11-1 win over the UAE, beat Poland 5-2 and then drubbed Tahiti 10-4 in their final group game.

Against Russia, they started slowly with a solitary goal in the first period before shifting gears to leave the three-time Intercontinental Cup champions stunned. Despite the facile win, Da Costa dismissed suggestions his team could be the best in the world at the moment.

“For me, Russia and Portugal are the two best teams in the world,” he said. “Brazil are a work in progress. We are improving, but we need more time to train and to develop.

“There will be a lot of hype after this 7-0 win, but our job is not finished. We still have a final to play. So we have to forget about this win. Tomorrow will be another game and we will have to play with the same respect.”

The United States, meanwhile, will be looking for their first win in three Intercontinental Cups on Saturday after losing 6-3 against Poland in a classification game for the 5th to 8th spots. The US have played 12 matches in this tournament and lost them all. They will have a chance to break that disappointing run when they face UAE in the play-off for 7th place.

The UAE, hoping to finish fifth at least, disappointed once again, crashing to a 7-3 loss to Egypt, their fourth successive defeat of the tournament, and, win or lose against the US, this will be the worst finish for the home team in six years of the tournament. Their worst finish before this year was the 6th-place finish in 2014.

The Poles and Egypt will face-off for fifth place.

Results

*Classification 5th-8th
Poland 6 USA 3
UAE 3 Egypt 7

*Semi-finals
Brazil 7 Russia 0
Iran 8 Tahiti 6