Futsal World Cup 2008 Preview

The 2008 FIFA (yep, them again) Futsal World Cup kicks off in Brazil today, running from September 30th to October 19th.

If you’re not familiar with futsal, then all you need to know is this: it’s brilliant. It’s basically five a side football, on a small, hard-surface court with a smaller, heavier ball that has a very low bounce.

The result is a game that’s all about possession, passing and tricks, as you can see in FIFA’s eye-catching promotional video here:

The big name to watch at the 2008 tournament is Brazil’s legendary Falcao. He’s widely recognized as the best futsal player in the world, but has yet to win the Futsal World Cup. The 31 year old Falcao will apparently retire from futsal after the World Cup, so this is his last shot to win the tournament with Brazil. So what better way to go out than winning the World Cup on home soil? (or should that be home plastic?)

Here’s a montage of the #12 in action:

Not too shabby, eh?

Brazil’s biggest threat will be holders Spain, who beat them in both the 2000 and 2004 Futsal World Cup final.

Here are the 20 teams qualified for the 2008 Futsal World Cup, drawn into four groups of five:

Group A: Brazil, Russia, Japan, Cuba, Solomon Islands
Group B: Italy, Portugal, Thailand, Paraguay, USA
Group C: Argentina, Ukraine, China, Guatemala, Egypt
Group D: Spain, Czech Republic, Iran, Uruguay, Libya

After a round robin, the top two teams from each group go through to the second group stage: where the eight remaining teams are drawn into two group of four (wouldn’t quarter-finals be easier?)

The top two from those two groups then progress to the semi-finals, and it’s straight knockout from there.

You can watch the games live via the FIFA website, but only in certain countries (UK: yes, US: no, Australia: no)

Good news if you live in a country not on FIFA’s good list: looks like every game will be streamed live online by your friendly neighbourhood internet pirates.

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