The women's beach soccer tournament at the 2019 World Beach Games in Doha, Qatar, the inaugural edition of the ANOC World Beach Games, took place over six days from 11–16 October. Along with the men's tournament, the two events comprised the beach soccer competition at this year's Games.
Organised by the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC), national associations of FIFA (beach soccer's governing body) from a territory with a National Olympic Committee (NOC) were invited to enter one team into preliminary qualification routes from which eight teams, representing four continental zones, advanced to the final competition; the hosts Qatar did not enter a team.
The tournament was a multi-stage competition, consisting of a round-robin group stage and followed by a single elimination knockout round, starting with the semi-finals and ending with the gold medal match, with all matches hosted on the Katara Beach.
The gold and silver medals were won by Spain and Great Britain respectively, with the former defeating the latter in the final 3–2. The bronze medal was claimed by Brazil who beat Russia in the deciding match.
Competition schedule The tournament began on 11 October, one day before the opening ceremony, and ended on the final day of the Games, 16 October.
Matches deciding medal winners took place exclusively on 16 October.
GGroup stageSFSemi-finalsBBronze medal matchFFinal / Gold medal match Fri 11 Sat 12 Sun 13 Mon 14 Tue 15 Wed 16G G G SF B F
Qualified teams
With the exception of UEFA, the six continental zones of FIFA were each originally allocated one berth at the Games. However, neither the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) nor Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) ultimately entered any teams (China were due to enter a team as the AFC representative but withdrew). Therefore, these two vacant berths were redistributed, with CONMEBOL and CONCACAF each receiving one extra berth.
The following teams qualified from their zones via regional preliminary tournaments or invitation (hosts Qatar were eligible to enter a team automatically however declined to enter): Means of qualificationRef.DatesVenueBerthsQualified2019 UEFA Qualifying Tournament 9–12 May 2019 Salou3[a]2019 African Beach Games 19–23 June 2019 Sal12019 CONCACAF Qualifying Tournament3–5 August 2019 San Salvador2Invitation (CONMEBOL teams)23 August 2019[b]–2Total 8
a. Competed in qualification as England. England does not have an independent NOC and is instead represented by Great Britain at Olympic events. b. The dates of teams who qualified via invitation refer to when they were publicly revealed by the qualification organisers.
Venues
The matches were held on the Katara Beach at the Beach Soccer Arena which consisted of two venues: the larger-capacity main stadium that hosted the majority of games and located adjacent, a smaller-capacity secondary stadium known as "Pitch 1" for all other matches which was only used during the group stage.
Squads Each team could enter a squad consisting of up to 10 players. A total of up to 80 athletes were expected to compete.
Draw The draw to split the eight teams into two groups of four took place at 10:00 AST (UTC+3) on 27 August 2019 at the Lusail Sports Arena in Doha, Qatar. Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW) vice-president Joan Cusco oversaw the draw.
For the purpose of the draw, the eight teams were split into two pots of four. Two teams from each pot were drawn into each group. Teams from the same confederation could not be drawn into the same group, except for UEFA nations for which one group was permitted to contain two. At the start of the draw, two teams from Pot 1 were automatically allocated to the groups – Spain (European ranking leaders), were assigned to position A1 and Great Britain, (European ranking deputy leaders (as England)), were assigned to position B1.
The composition of the pots is shown below: Pot 1Pot 2
Group stage Four of the eight nations, the winners and runners-up of each group, advance to the knockout stage.
All times are local, AST (UTC+3).
Group A
Group B
Knockout stage
Semi-finals
Bronze medal match
Gold medal match
Top goalscorers Players with at least three goals are listed
7 goals
Carmen Fresneda
6 goals
Sarah Kempson Alba Mellado
5 goals
Nayara Couto Natalie Barboza Carolina Gonzalez
4 goals
Marisol Luna Gemma Hillier Fanny Godoy Anna Cherniakova Wendy Martin Lorena Medeiros
3 goals
Jennifer Mora Esli Sanchez Vanda Delgado Graça Jasna Continentino Natalia Zaitseva Molly Clark Adriele Rocha Andrea Miron Jessica Miras
Source: BSRussia
Final standings RankTeamResult Gold Medal Silver Medal Bronze Medal4 Fourth place5 Eliminated in thegroup stage6 7 8
See also Beach soccer at the 2019 World Beach Games – Men's tournament
References
External links Beach Soccer , at ANOC World Beach Games Qatar (official website) World Beach Games 2019 , at Beach Soccer Worldwide World Beach Games – Women's tournament, at Beach Soccer Russia (in Russian)