News
Lima 2019 blind football competition kicks off later today
Date: August 24, 2019
Category: Football
The stage is set at the Villa María del Triunfo Sports Complex in the Peruvian capital for another exciting blind football tournament.
Peru will be the capital of the blind football world for the next seven days as six of the top teams from the Americas region take the field at the Lima 2019 Parapanamerican Games.
The competition kicks off later today at 15:00 local time when Costa Rica, making its debut at the Parapans, faces 2015 silver medallists Argentina. Reigning champions Brazil and Colombia will meet at 17:30, and the final match of the day will see Mexico take on hosts Peru, another country making its debut at the Parapanamerican Games, at 20:00.
Matches continue in the first, round-robin stage until Thursday 29th August. Finals day on Friday 30th August will pit the third and fourth placed teams against each other in the bronze medal match, then the top two ranked teams will go for gold in the final.
Caption: full match schedul in JPG format. See below for accessible format.
Full match schedule (all times local)
Saturday 24th August
15:00 Argentina vs Costa Rica
17:30 Colombia vs Brazil
20:00 Mexico vs Peru
Sunday 25th August
15:00 Argentina vs Brazil
17:30 Colombia vs Mexico
20:00 Costa Rica vs Peru
Monday 26th August
15:00 Brazil vs Mexico
17:30 Argentina vs Peru
20:00 Costa Rica vs Colombia
Tuesday 27th August
Rest day
Wednesday 28th August
15:00 Argentina vs Mexico
17:30 Brazil vs Costa Rica
20:00 Peru vs Colombia
Thursday 29th August
15:00 Mexico vs Costa Rica
17:30 Peru vs Brazil
20:00 Argentina vs Colombia
Friday 30th August
14:30 Bronze medal match (3rd-4th place play-off)
17:00 Gold medal match (final)
Brazil will be looking to defend the title it won at the 2015 Parapans in Toronto, Canada, and maintain its clean sweep of Parapan gold medals since blind football was added to the programme in Rio de Janeiro in 2007. Brazil's Raimundo Alves Mendes was top scorer in Canada.
All the matches will be streamed live – click here to follow the action from Lima.
Caption: image of the new transparent boards which will feature at Lima 2019 for the first time.
Lima 2019 will see a new development in blind football: for the very first time in an official international tournament, transparent sideboards will be used to improve the view for spectators both in the stand and watching on-line. It is hoped the new boards will make the sport more accessible and exciting to watch for everyone.
The Lima 2019 Football 5-a-side competition begins after a spectacular opening ceremony yesterday evening at the National Stadium, with dance, music and fireworks delighting the 30 000 spectators who filled the stadium.
Caption: fireworks explode over the National Stadium in Lima during the opening ceremony as the Lima 2019 games are opened.