Dolphins drown in FIFA beach soccer, come home dry

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Dolphins absorbed two stinging losses to bow out of the Asian qualifiers of the Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup 2013 at Katara Beach in Doha, Qatar.

The Dolphins rammed into an unstoppable Iran side at the start of Group D hostilities Tuesday night (Manila time) and suffered a woeful 0-20 mangling.

A day later, the Pinoy booters fell to China, 1-11, and kissed their bid goodbye in the continental qualifiers for the Sept. 18-28 World Cup in Papeete, Tahiti.

The Dolphins will seek a graceful exit as they cap their elims outing against Iraq. The Iraqis are also winless after two matches, yielding to China 3-8, and regional rival Iran, 3-10.

If it’s any consolation for the Pinoys, they avoided a shutout loss to the Chinese, bronze medalists in the last Asian Beach Games, especially coming off that massacre from the Iranians.

Veteran Roel Gener knocked in a brilliant overhead kick to put the Dolphins into the scoreboard after eight unanswered goals by the Chinese. Gener’s bicycle kick, according to the website beachsoccer.com, is “a certain contender for goal of the tournament.”

The Chinese bets unleashed three hat tricks against the Pinoys en route to the victory that put them into a share of the Group D lead with Iran. China and Iran will dispute the top spot and the lone semifinal berth at stake in the four-nation group.