MIAMI, Florida – Mexico began their Group D campaign in the 2024 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in the United Arab Emirates with an 8-2 defeat to Portugal on Friday at the Dubai Design District Stadium in Dubai.
It was a rough first period for El Tricolor, as a Pabel Montes red card midway through the period, combined with five goals for Portugal, had Mexico staring at a 5-0 deficit at the first interval.
The Mexico defense was able to firm things up, yielding just a single goal in the second period, but still resulting in a 6-0 lead for Portugal.
Mexico continued battling and were able to pull a goal back, doing so in spectacular fashion through Hector Acevedo, who fired in a bicycle kick from midfield to cut the gap to 6-1.
Portugal’s Leo Martins tacked on another two goals, giving him five on the day, to stretch the Portugal lead to 8-1, but the final goal of the day belonged to Mexico, as Ramon Maldonado got low to head a cross over the line to complete the 8-2 scoreline.
¡Final del juego en Dubai! Portugal 🇵🇹 se impuso con autoridad a México 🇲🇽 en el debut de ambos seleccionados.#BeachSoccerWC 🏖️ pic.twitter.com/GmwZYqn8oP
— Copa Mundial FIFA 🏆 (@fifaworldcup_es) February 16, 2024
USA vs. UAE
The U.S. return to action on Saturday in their second match in Group A when they take on host nation UAE.
The U.S. suffered a 3-1 defeat in their opening match against Italy, but did have some positive moments, including a Conner Rezende goal. The U.S. will try to build off of that against the tournament hosts.
The UAE are appearing in their eighth Beach Soccer World Cup and emerged with a 2-1 victory against Egypt in their opening match on Thursday.
