Last weekend saw blind football action in a number of countries worldwide. Here’s a round-up of news from events in three different countries:
 

1 Argentina

Estudiantes de La Plata, Rosell de San Isidro, Unión Del Viso and River Plate qualified for the second phase of the Argentinean Blind Football Championships, taking the first four spots in the Southern Zone regional qualifier.

Estudiantes came top of the league table at the seven-team tournament, finishing on 16 points.

All four teams move forward to the second stage, which brings together 12 teams from the three regions in the country. This stage involves three groups of four, with six teams qualifying for the final stage and the title.

Top scorers at the Southern Zone championships were David Peralta (Estudiantes) with 8, Froilán Padilla (Unión) on 7 and Claudio Franzotti (Rosell) with 4 goals.

The Argentinean Blind Football Championships are organised by the Argentine Blind Sports Federation.

Argentina’s blind football national team, affectionately known as Los Murciélagos (The Bats), will take part in the IBSA Blind Football World Championships 2014 in Japan in November.

Click here to follow The Bats on Facebook.

2 Germany

Germany and England played two friendly international matches at the Inselcup, an international youth football tournament. Saturday’s game finished 1-1, while England won the second game 0-1 thanks to a Williams goal.

Germany has qualified for the IBSA World Championships for the first time this year and the blind football team will be looking to emulate their sighted peers in Japan. Click here to follow the Blindenfußball-Nationalmannschaft on Facebook.

3 Ireland

Last weekend was a historic one for blind football development in Ireland as the newly-formed team welcomed visitors from abroad for the very first time for three friendly games over two days.

Avoy MU Brno from the Czech Republic were the visitors for the games, held in Ballymun in Dublin.

On Saturday Avoy took the first game 1-0 and won the second 2-0, thanks to three goals by Jan Mrazek. The third and final game was a 1-1 draw, with Brno winning 4-0 on penalties.

The Irish team will make their first trip abroad to play in the Cup for Central European Cities in Prague in September.

Blind Football Ireland web site.

Blind Football Ireland on Facebook.

IBSA Blind Football page on Facebook.