Brazil storm into beach soccer final

Goals from Sidney Souto and Anderson Lima helped Brazil overcome hosts UAE 2-0 and march into the final of the Samsung Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup Dubai 2011 in a match played on Friday evening. Brazil will meet the winners of the second semifinal scheduled to be played later on Friday night between Russia and 2009 Dubai finalists Switzerland. The event is being played at the The Walk at the Jumeirah Beach Residence. “We tried our best and our boys never gave up till the last minute,” said UAE Coach Marcelo Mendes from Brazil. “Brazil were technically better than us, but our boys tried their best and I am happy. Now we will fight for the third place tomorrow,” added Mendes. Sidney put the four-time champions into the lead with a nice shot in the first period. However, it was the hosts who gave some anxious moments to their opponents with the Brazilian goalkeeper making two saves from Adel Ranjbar, the tiny UAE striker. In the last round robin match on Thursday night, world champions Russia beat UAE 7-0 to top Group A. UAE rested most of their main players thus allowing the world champions to score a facile win. Egor Shaykov (2), Yuri Krash (2) Ilya Leonov, Eqor Eremeev and Yuri Gorchinsky scored for the Russians.. Eight teams, divided in two groups of each, played a round-robin league with the top two advancing to the semifinals. Russia and UAE advanced from Group A while Brazil and Switzerland progressed from Group B. Mexico, Oman, Tahiti and Nigeria were the other teams in the championship.