04 Sep 2016
Doha, 4 September 2016: The 2016 edition of the biannual GCC U-19 Championship concluded on Friday 2nd September after the last round of matches played in the Aspire Dome. This year’s Championship served as a dress rehearsal for the upcoming AFC U19 Championship that is going to take place in Bahrain in October. Four of the five teams that played in the GCC Championship (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar) will be at the final tournament of the AFC U19 Championship. This year’s GCC U-19 Championship winners were Saudi Arabia, Oman finished in second place and UAE third.
The Qatar team counts 23 of its squad 24 players among current or former student-athletes of Aspire Academy. Qatar team manager Oscar Cano summed up his team’s overall outing after the Championship. “There are positives we have got from playing in the GCC Championship and the experience will come in handy for our final preparations before we go to Bahrain. We learnt more about ourselves in different situations against strong opponents and although we didn’t get the desired results we noted areas where we need to improve before October. Generally l was pleased that after a slow start we improved and played some good football in the last matches of this Championship and in final game against Saudi Arabia up until we went down to ten (10) men it was an even affair , so overally l am optimistic we will be competitive at the AFC U-19 Championship” said Oscar Cano.