‘Unfancied’ Jordanian team makes it to final eight in Futsal tournament

The Jordanian community in Qatar is making their presence felt in the ongoing National Sport Day Futsal Tournament.
Teaming up with Copacabana, a Brazilian restaurant in Al Wakrah Souq, the underdog team has been able to make it to last eight of the tournament, much to the delight of their fans.
The tournament features 40 teams from all over the country. The idea was to give amateur players a chance and so professional players were not allowed to enter. Teams from schools, banks, companies, ministries and sports clubs are participating in the tournament.
“We won four matches in our group to reach the last 16 and have also won our first knockout match there to qualify for the quarter-finals. I think our team has done really well to come this far and we hope to go on and finish strong,” Zaid Eideh, the goalkeeper and Sporting Director of Copacabana team told Community. “Nobody had expected this team to get this far as we were kind of underdogs in this tournament.”
Most members of the team are from Jordan and the team has been representing the country in multiple tournaments around the country.
“Last week, our team won a football tournament and we won another Futsal tournament that ended in January. We also won the Nations Cup last year and the Asian Nations Cup [last year],” said Eideh.
In the ongoing Futsal tournament, the group has entered two teams. Some of the players have even been national players back in Jordan, according to Eideh.
“They have come here and are working in different capacities as coaches or trainers besides playing with our community team. We are not just playing football, we are also training young players,” said Eideh.
Futsal is different from football in that each team has five players and the ball has less bounce, is a little heavier, and smaller in size. The ball is thus easier to control, but harder to keep because of the extra pressure it puts on the foot. Futsal trains players to play in smaller areas under pressure, said the Copacabana team manager.
“And that is why many players like Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Maradona, Messi and many others started in Futsal. This sport is very exciting and many countries like in England they use it to train and groom younger players,” he added.
Eideh said their team has always received a lot of support from the Jordanian community living in Qatar; for instance, in the embassies’ tournament where they represented the Jordanian embassy.
“The ambassador of Jordan himself was present, it was a huge tournament and we ended up runners-up, losing to United Arab Emirates. We were the better team but you know this is football. You can’t win all the time,” said the manager.
“We have a good fanbase here and they follow us to many tournaments, watch and participate in whatever we do. We are also very active on social media and other social aspects of the society and we are generally always ready to come forward to participate in social activities,” said Eideh.
He praised the facilities available in Qatar, saying, “The facilities that you find here, you would not find in most countries — it is as simple as that.”