A "catastrophic" opening defeat at the Beach Soccer World Cup proved to much to overcome, according to Tahiti head coach Naea Bennet.
The Tiki Toa beat Uruguay 6-4 in their final group match yesterday but missed out on a spot in the quarter finals on goal differential.
Tahiti missed out on the knockout rounds at the Beach Soccer World Cup. Photo: FIFA/Twitter
The Oceania champions, who reached the last two World Cup finals, needed to win by three or more goals in Luque, Paraguay to leapfrog the South Americans into second place in Group B, but conceded a goal three minutes from time to deny them a fourth consecutive trip to the knockout rounds.
Naea Bennett admitted it was a "hard" way to be eliminated.
"You win a game but you're not qualified so it was very strange to see what was happening on the pitch but that's the sport, we have to have to accept this," he said.
"We have two wins [against Mexico and Uruguay] and one loss but the first loss against Italy [was] catastrophic for us - we had too much difference goal in the first game. We did the best to come back and everything was played with only one goal difference, so it's very sad for us."
Tahiti were beaten 12 - 4 by Italy in the opening match of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Paraguay. Photo: FIFA/Getty Images
Tahiti won the OFC Beach Soccer Nations Cup in June to confirm their place in a fifth consecutive World Cup tournament but Bennett, who was a key player during Tahiti's four previous campaigns, believes the Tiki Toa could have arrived in Paraguay better prepared.
"Even if you are this World Champion you need to have a good preparation," he said.
"I don't want to say that we didn't have the Tahitian Federation help us a lot but we needed to be more prepared physically...we are not professional but we need to have a better preparation, longer before [the tournament] to be ready for a World Cup."
Tahiti coach Naea Bennett. Photo: OFC via Phototek
The next World Cup will be held in Russia in 2021 and Bennett is hopeful the Oceania Football Confederation will confirm the qualifying process early so they begin preparations as soon as possible.
