Team Kazakhstan made history in the finals of the Socca World Cup 2023, emerging as the world champions by defeating Ukraine in an incredible penalty shootout of 4:3, QazMonitor reports citing the International Socca Federation.
The 4th edition of the Socca World Cup was held this year in the German city of Essen from June 2-11. Despite the competition's short history, the Kazakhstan national team already had a competitive history with the World Cup. Last year in Budapest, our team was the runner-up but lost in the finals to Brazil with a score of 3:0.
The opening minutes witnessed a tight game as both sides probed for opportunities. However, it was Abay Yelemessov who broke the deadlock, putting Kazakhstan ahead. The team pressed their advantage, and Altynbek Murzabekov doubled the lead. However, Ukraine's Andriy Melnyk equalized the score to 2:2, and regular time ended in a tie.
The game went into a penalty shootout, which Kazakhstan won in dramatic fashion with a score of 2:1.
Socca is a variant of minifootball that differs in the number of players and field size. Matches are played in a 6v6 format, with two halves of 20 minutes each.