FIFA Confederations Cup Wraps Up In Caspian, Germany Wins

The 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup, one of large-scale sporting events held in the Caspian region this summer, wrapped up in Saint Petersburg on Sunday in a dramatic final match where Germany’s national team beat Chile to 1-0.

The one and only goal in the game was scored by German striker Lars Stindl, giving Germany its first title win.

“The fact that these young players have won this trophy is a historic achievement. It’s unique in Germany history,” German national team head coach Joachim Löw said.

With its victory on Sunday, the German team has won the only international title that was missing from its list of accolades, which includes the UEFA European Championship (1996) and the highly coveted FIFA World Championship, or World Cup (2014). 

Sunday’s match between the reigning FIFA World Champion and Chile brought 57,268 football fans together, eclipsing the attendance record set during the June 24 match between New Zealand and Portugal, which saw a crowd of 56,290. 

On Saturday, Portugal clinched the bronze medal when it beat Mexico 2-1 in a full-swing 120 minute-long match, scoring its final goal in the 104th minute of the game.

The FIFA Confederations Cup is an international men’s football, or soccer, tournament held by FIFA once every four years and contested by eight teams: the holders of each of the six regional championships, plus the current FIFA World Cup holder and the host nation team. This year’s Confederations Cup saw Portugal (European champion), Chile (South American champion), Mexico (North and Central American champion), Cameroon (African champion), Australia (Asian champion) and New Zealand (Oceania champions) joined by Germany (World Champion) and Russia, which hosted the game, fighting for the title in what was a two-week tournament that began on June 17.

This year’s games have been the tenth in the world and the first in the Caspian region. The tournament is considered a dress rehearsal for the country that hosts the FIFA World Cup, which occurs one year after the Confederations games.

Russia, the largest country in the Caspian region, will host the next FIFA World Cup – a first for Russia and the Caspian. Twelve stadiums in eleven cities throughout Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara) will see football fans gathered from June 14 through July 15, 2018.

"The Confederations Cup and the World Cup are held in Russia for the first time in history. Every Russian wants to contribute to this amazing event,” 2018 FIFA World Cup Ambassador, Russian TV host and model Victoria Lopyreva said. “This is a great opportunity to travel around Russia, because our country is beautiful and big. The World Cup will be held in 11 cities, which are already waiting for the guests.”

This year’s Confederations Cup has for the first time used FIFA’s technological off-pitch novelty known as Video Assistant Referee (VAR), which relies on video camera technology to help head referees solve complex in-game situations. The match referee calls upon behind-the-scenes assistant referees when any incident during a game cannot be solved solely by his discretion. For its part, the VAR reviews video footage from a requested segment of a game and recommends his call to the head referee, who makes the final decision.

Two incidents during this year’s Confederations Cup were subjected to VAR analysis, which saw two goals scored by Portugal and Chile, in separate group stage games, annulled.