THE DAY REPLAYED – While Brazil were not at their very best in Bucaramanga, that did not stop them from serving up a festival of goals against luckless Australia, who stayed in the game for seven minutes before being reduced to the role of spectators. Mozambique excelled themselves in the other match in Group D, causing Ukraine plenty of problems, to the delight of the fans, before going down to a 4-2 defeat.
After beating Guatemala on their Futsal World Cup debut, Vietnam were brought straight back down to earth by a pacy and direct Paraguay side at Cali’s Coliseo Pueblo de Cali, the venue for Italy’s comfortable defeat of the Guatemalans earlier in the day. In control from start to finish, the Italians were tactically, physically and technically superior to their hard-pressed opponents and embellished an impressive display with some audacious skills.
FIFA.com rounds up matchday five of the FIFA Futsal World Cup Colombia 2016, which saw Brazil join Russia in the last 16.
Results Group C Guatemala 1-5 Italy Paraguay 7-1 Vietnam
Group D Australia 1-11 Brazil Ukraine 4-2 Mozambique
Memorable moments* Falcao steals the show* In marking his 32nd world finals appearance with a hat-trick, Falcao moved to within one goal of former Brazil legend Manoel Tobias’ all-time tournament scoring record. As if that were not enough, the 39-year-old star delighted the fans with a dazzling array of tricks and flicks.
We all fall down The goals took something of a pounding in Bucaramanga and Cali on Wednesday, toppling to the ground several times and occasionally taking players with them. Calo’s equaliser for Mozambique against Ukraine was a case in point, with keeper Ievgen Ivanyak and one of his defenders both crashing into the back of the net in a bid to stop the ball crossing the line and knocking the goal to the floor.
An extra in the limelight One of the stars of the show in Bucaramanga was a young volunteer charged with mopping up moisture from the court during breaks in play. Making several appearances in both matches, he earned the applause of the crowd with his flamboyant sweeping routines, though the adulation perhaps distracted the young sweeper from his task. In the day’s second game, a Ukraine player slid to the floor in an area the enthusiastic youngster had just cleaned, though we can forgive our intrepid mopper for any momentary loss of focus.
The stat 50 - Brazil’s Futsal World Cup matches invariably have a happy ending for them. Of the 58 games they have now played in the world finals, they have won 50, with five ending in draws and a mere three in defeat.
The words “We wanted to control the pace of the game so we could stay in contention for as long as possible, but we made two mistakes and that changed everything. We gave away goals too easily. We played well when our goalkeeper pushed up into attack.” Guatemala coach Tomas de Dios
“If we can show the same kind of ability we did against Brazil in the match against Ukraine, then there’s no reason why we can’t believe. We’re not going to park the bus in an effort to stop conceding.” Australia coach Robert Varela
Next matchday Thursday 15 September (all times local)
Group E Costa Rica-Kazakhstan (18:00, Bucaramanga) Argentina-Solomon Islands (20:00, Bucaramanga)**
Group F Azerbaijan-Spain (18:00, Medellin) Iran-Morocco (20:00, Medellin)