19 Sep 2013

Sport: Big guns in action on day one of Beach Soccer World Cup

10:54 am on 19 September 2013

The Beach Soccer World Cup kicks off in Papeete on Wednesday local time with high hopes that the two Oceania representatives can make it past the first round.

Defending champions Russia and beaten finalists Brazil are both in action on day one against Japan and Iran.

Solomon Islands coach Gideon Omokirio expects them to again be among the title contenders.

"Brazil is always a threat - I'm sure they will come back very strong this time around. Netherlands and Argentina and El Salvador we are in the same pool and they are also good teams, that's why they qualified for the World Cup, so we will try our best against all of them. We proved that in the last World Cups, we beat El Salvador, but this time around we don't know maybe the way they play changes and they've improved a lot but we will take every teams very seriously."

The Solomons take on the Netherlands in their first match on Thursday local time following the Tahiti v UAE match.