The Lithuanian World Cup, which starts Today and ends on October 3, it will be the ninth in history and the third to be held in Europe, after the editions of the Netherlands (the inaugural one, in 1988) and the one of Spain (in 1996), an appointment that marked a before and after in the fans for this sport in our country. Matches will be played at three venues: Kaunas, Vilnius and Klaipeda. 24 teams participate, divided into six groups of four. The first two and the four best third parties go to the eighth.
Although the host is Lithuania, the tournament will be opened by RFU (Russia plays as neutral athletes of the Russian Football Union due to WADA anti-doping sanction) and Egypt (15:00), while the locals will be measured later (19 : 00) with Venezuela. It will be a duel of two debutant teams in a World Cup, and that will bring to 51 the number of countries that have participated in this tournament throughout history, since Angola also makes its debut.
Total, There are three teams that decorate their shield with stars for having won at least one World Cup: Brazil (1989, 1992, 1996, 2008 and 2012), Spain (2000 and 2004) and Argentina (2016). The albiceleste is the current champion, a crown that has already accumulated five years since the tournament, scheduled for these dates in 2020, was postponed due to the health crisis. In that 2016 edition, that of Colombia, futsal proved the rise of emerging countries, since neither Spain nor Brazil, the great dominators, reached the semifinals.
Now, both come with the lesson learned … but it is that the level of the rivals is equal to or greater than then. The professionalization and the greater economic investment in different countries caused that, in this five-year cycle, equality prevails. Teams such as Portugal (current European champion), Russia (arrives as covered), Argentina (defends title), Iran, Kazakhstan … they will have things to say in an increasingly globalized sport.
“The one on one is less and less decisive,” Adri, the Spanish wing, told AS in the previous days. That is why Fede Vidal, the coach, He focused his work on defense (clean sheet as a point guard) and on set pieces. Spain will debut on Tuesday against Paraguay (17:00, GOAL). There is a debate about whether futsal is now less attractive due to these new patterns, but what it will surely be is more fair: there will be VAR, here known as video support, for the first time. Spain dreams of its third star in the most open World Cup. Let the ball roll.