15 Feb 2019
Doha, 15 February 2019. In Aspire Academy’s last appearance in the 2019 Al Kass International Cup, the young Qatari talents faced Kashiwa Reysol in the battle for 3rd place. In a thrilling game, the Japanese side turned out to be the more effective team with a keeper in great shape, which resulted in a 2-1 win over a hard fighting Aspire-team that never gave up.
The game started with a shock moment for the Qatari, when Aspire-keeper Yousef Balideh had to scratch a back pass from the goal-line in the first minute. On the other side, Fahad Al-Abdulla came close to the home team’s first goal, but a last second deflection by Kashiwa’s Toda was enough to prevent the ball from ending up in the goal (12’).
The first goal of the night should follow not soon afterwards. However, the built-up was quite random: After a free-kick from 36 meters, Naito Saito’s delivery found its way into Aspire’s box, bounced twice, before ending up in the back of the net, leaving the Academy’s defense startled and in disbelief (27’). Nonetheless, the Qataris put this setback away quite fast. Kashiwa’s keeper Sasaki showed great skills with a spectacular save after a Zidan-header (57’), but shortly after he was finally beaten by a screamer from Aspire-substitute Jassim Al-Najjar: After dribbling into the box, leaving two defenders behind, there was nothing to save for Sasaki and the Qataris celebrated the 1-1 (61’).
In the last 20 minutes of the game, both teams made it clear that none of them was interested in taking the game to a penalty shoot-out. Aspire kept pressing high, resulting in putting up Mekki Tombari alone in front of the keeper, but his shot from 11 meters did not find the back of the net (71’). That was a wake-up call for Kashiwa Reysol, who put Aspire’s defense under more pressure, first with a dangerous cross after a corner (74’), then with a shot from Fujimoto from short distance (77’).
Six minutes before the final whistle, a long ball coming from Kashiwa’s half, exposed Aspire’s backline and striker Hidetaka Maie kept a cool head in front of Aspire-keeper Balideh, who was without any chance against the perfect lop (84’). The Qatari put everything they had into the Japanese half, starting one attack after the other and in the very last second, Aspire’s keeper, who had made all the way into the opponent’s box, had the equalizer on his foot, but his shot missed the goal by a few centimeters.
Despite finishing fourth, Aspire Academy-head coach Fabio Cesar Montesin saw a number of positive aspects in his team’s performance this night and throughout the entire tournament: “The players showed great effort, they were not willing to give up and fought every game until the very end. This tournament was definitely a learning experience for them and games at this high level are very important for their future development.”
The winner of the 2019 edition of the "Al Kass International Cup" is Rangers FC. The Scottish team defeated AS Roma 9-8 on penalties after the game ended 1-1 in regular time.