Photo from FIFA Twitter
Hattrick from Jordan and a brace from Leo Martins steered Portugal to their third Beach Soccer World Cup title in Asuncion. The Portuguese side in elevating their level of play at key moments during the final defeated Italy 6-4 in the final.
They had beaten Tahiti for the crown four years ago at home and were winners over France in 2001, before the tournament came under FIFA sanction.
Jordan and Leo Martins were the Iberians’ best players in the showpiece match, combining for five of their side’s six goals.
The Italians, meanwhile, were forced to collect runners-up medals for the second time in their history, mirroring their performance at Dubai 2008.
It was the Italians, who took the lead in the match through a Emmanuele Zurlo (5:33) strike. But they were unable to shackle the Portuguese side with Leo Martins (7:03, 27:05), Jordan (17:19, 25:16) and Andre Lourence (17:49) pummeling in the goals, to give Portugal a comfortable 5-1 lead.
The Italians began linking up effectively again late in the third quarter but a double from Dario Ramaccioti (30:11,35:48) and Josep Junior Gentlin (30:50) proved a little too late.
Jordan claimed his hattrick (34:02) to seal the title for Portugal and a perfect retirement gift for their captain Madjer, who had indicated that the final would be his swansong.
He’s a true beach soccer legend, and he played his last #BeachSoccerWC at Paraguay 2019, finishing his story perfectly ?
— #BeachSoccerWC ??? (@FIFAcom) December 2, 2019
Thank you for all of the memories, ?? Madjer ??? pic.twitter.com/W1GpOZ4fXt
Former champions Russia, who had earlier come back from two goals down to beat Japan 5-4, finished third. Forward Fedor Zemskov scored a fine hat-trick (7:42, 22:56, 28:03) while Andre Novikov (7:56) and Alexey Makarov (25:18) notched up one goal each fro Russia.
Japan, who had taken 2-0 lead through Takuya Akaguma (3:35,7:59) also had captain Ozu Moreira (11:02) and Takaaki Oba (22:40) on the scoresheet.
Despite, failing to help his side to a medal, Ozu was named as the best player of the tournament, taking the Golden Ball Award. The skipper was a defensive rock while simultaneously posing a serious attacking threat to any team he faced. He started his tournament off with a bang, hitting a rocket of a free kick from almost the entire length of the pitch, and he never looked back.
The #BeachSoccerWC Paraguay 2019 adidas Golden Ball winner is ?? Japan captain Ozu Moreira ?
— #BeachSoccerWC ??? (@FIFAcom) December 1, 2019
おめでとうございます – congratulations! pic.twitter.com/Ene4S0SoQe
Jordan, who scored the hattrick in the final, was the winner of the Silver Ball Award. He finished the tournament with seven goals. Teammate Be Martins, was picked for the Bronze Ball Award.
Although Gabriele Gori was unable to propel Italy to World Cup glory, he won his second consecutive Golden Scorer Award. The only player to previously achieve such a feat was Madjer, in 2005 and 2006.
Gori, ran away with the honour by scoring an impressive 16 goals – six more than the next highest scorers, team-mate Emmanuele Zurlo and Russia’s Fedor Zemskov. Gori won the same award two years ago at Bahamas 2017 when he scored 17 goals.
Portuguese goalkeeper Andrade picked up the Golden Glove Award while Senegal were awarded the Fair Play Trophy.
Presenting the #BeachSoccerWC Paraguay 2019 champions…
— #BeachSoccerWC ??? (@FIFAcom) December 1, 2019
PORTUGAL! ??? pic.twitter.com/O1tn7VaedR
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