14 Feb 2016
Doha, 14 February 2016. In their last game of the tournament, Aspire Academy lost to Estudiantes de la Plata 4-2 in a penalty shootout to finish in eighth place in the ‘Al Kass International Cup’ rankings, following an even contest lit up by a stunning individual goal from Aspire Academy’s Khaled Mansour - that ended 1-1 in normal time.
Aspire had started the tournament with a hugely impressive 6-1 thrashing of Shanghai Greenland, ensuring that they had already qualified for the knockout stage before suffering a 3-0 reverse to Inter Milan. However, the local side fell short in the quarter-finals against a highly accomplished Red Bull Salzburg, before going down 4-2 to Kashiwa Reysol.
After Estudiantes took the lead in their final match on Sunday afternoon, Khaled Mansour equalized for Aspire Academy by notching one of the goals of the tournament in the 39th minute. Picking up the ball 10 yards inside the opposition half, he sprinted forward, evading two tough challenges before executing a superb chip from the right of the penalty area that nestled in the far corner.
With a score of 1-1 after 90 minutes the game went on to penalties: The first two spot kicks were scored before Aspire’s Ahmad Sebaie’s powerful effort cannoned back off the crossbar, handing Estudiantes an advantage that increased when Abdulaziz Al-Hasia saw his poor effort saved. With the shootout score at 3-2 to Estudiantes, Pablo Corroto had the chance to win it for the Argentines. He did so with aplomb, executing an impish ‘Panenka’ kick to consign Aspire Academy to eight place.
“We need games like the one we played against Estudiantes in order to learn, which is essentially why we are here. Our boys put in a very good effort in this tournament and we are really proud of them. We are in the initial stages of building this team and we always gain a lot from this tournament. Most importantly we need to be patient and focus on the process, while continuing to work hard and persevere in order to get to the top. We have once again gained a lot of insight from our participation in Al Kass this year and know that we need to improve on defence, offense and tactics,” said Aspire Academy Head Coach Ibrahim Al-Shafie.