POSTED: Friday November 6th 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

QANTAS AUSTRALIAN MEN'S BEACH SOCCER TEAM READY TO FACE IRAN IN OPENING MATCH OF ASIAN QUALIFIERS

Coach Andrioli confident in his players

The Qantas Australian Men’s Beach Football Team are looking forward to face Iran this Saturday in their opening match of FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2009 Asian Qualifiers (3:00pm local, 10:00pm AEDT).
 
Head Coach Airton Andrioli has had two friendly matches against the African Beach Soccer Champions Nigeria and fellow Asian Nation Bahrain to fine tune his squad since arriving in the Middle East on Monday.
 
Although the Qantas Australian Men’s Beach Football Team were narrowly defeated in each match 3-5 and 3-4 respectively, Andrioli believes that his team is ready for the tournament.
 
“Before we arrived here (in Dubai) we hadn’t played a competitive or friendly game together as a team.
 
“Since arriving we have played two matches against quality opposition and did quite well in each.
 
“Of course we made mistakes, but each time we have learnt from those mistakes and have improved accordingly.
 
“Our confidence has also increased as a result and the players are now ready for the start of the tournament.
 
“We will be looking to continue to do the things that we do well for our opening match against Iran on Saturday and get off to a good start”, concluded Andrioli.
 
The Qantas Australian Men’s Beach Football Team will have their final training session at the match venue this afternoon (local time) and will play their opening group match of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2009 Asian Qualifiers against Iran on Saturday, followed by China PR on Sunday and Oman on Monday (All kick-off times 3:00pm local, 10:00pm AEDT).
 
The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2009 Asian Qualifiers will be played in Dubai from 7 to 11 November 2009, with the top two teams from each group progressing to the semi-finals phase, with the winners of the semi-finals  advancing to the final and will also qualify for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2009.
 
The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2009 will be played in Dubai from 16 to 22 November 2009 and involves 16 nations including United Arab Emirates, Portugal, Uruguay, Solomon Islands, Spain, Côte d’Ivoire, El Salvador, Russia, Costa Rica, Argentina, Italy, Brazil, Nigeria and Switzerland.
 
FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2009 Asian Qualifiers Jumeirah Beach, Dubai, United Arab Emirates7-11 November 2009
 
Group A          Group B
Japan                Iran
Bahrain             China
Uzbekistan        Oman
*UAE/France     Australia

* UAE and France will play friendly matches against the Group A team who will not play
 
For more information regarding the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2009 Asian Qualifiers please visit www.beachsoccer.com
 

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Keywords · FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup · Qantas Australia

Name: Bonita Mersiades
Organization: FFA Football Federation Australia
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