Beach Boys Bow Out Of World Cup

The Australian Beach Soccer team has, as expected, bowed out of the inaugural FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, after losing its two games against France and Argentina.

The Australian Beach Soccer team has, as expected, bowed out of the inaugural FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, after losing its two games against France and Argentina.

However despite this being the first time an Australian team has been put together in a beach soccer tournament, the team performed with distinction only losing 5-1 to France and 3-1 to Argentina. Both opponents are considered chances of taking out the tournament.

The first match on Sunday saw Australia take on France, who is led by former Manchester United star Eric Cantona. The gulf in class was evident with France, a seasoned campaigner on the world stage and considered one of the teams that could beat favourites Brazil.

Steve Karavatakis had the honour of scoring Australia-s first ever beach soccer goal when he capitalised on some confusion in the French defence, to bring the score back to 3-1. The French though rarely got out of second gear and Cantona did not take part in the match, saving himself for the crunch match with Argentina.

Australia-s next game against Argentina yesterday saw the team perform way beyond many people's expectations to hold the highly regarded Argentineans to a 3-1 scoreline.

Coach Adrian Santrac told FIFA.com “My boys were really quick to learn their lessons from the France match. Our biggest problem tonight was getting into the flow of the game.

“On the whole, though, I-m very happy with our performance.”

Australia made it difficult in the initial stages of the match for their more illustrious opponents, but the killer blow came just before the end of the first period when Argentina scored. Soon after the break they added a second and some were saying by how many.

However Australia refused to give in and pulled a goal back through nippy striker John Buonavoglia and give Argentina a few nervous moments.

A shot that deflected wickedly off the sand put the game out of Australia-s reach; out of the tournament, but by no means disgraced.