09 Oct 2011
Sunday, October 9th ,2011, Doha, Qatar: Two ASPIRE Academy For Sports Excellence teams - ASPIRE 98 and ASPIRE 95, received excellent match experience when they played English premier league side of Wolverhampton Wanderers FC in Doha.
The Wolves youth teams were in ASPIRE as a part of the visiting teams schedule which includes many other European, African and Latin American youth teams and clubs who are invited every year to play friendly games against the Academy’s different age group teams. ASPIRE 95 team had the upper hand on their Wolverhampton 95 guests in both games and claimed 2-1 and 2-0 victories.
The two games were played with some good quality being shown by both sides, and the result could have gone either way but for the very good finishing from the ASPIRE forwards. Commenting on the matches, ASPIRE Football Head Coach, Michael Browne said: ‘These type of games are just what our players need to enhance their development. The games were very keenly contested and played at a pace that our players do not experience too often.” “One or two years ago we would certainly have lost these games due to the intensity and physical dominance of the opposition.
Our players are now at the stage whereby they are able to cope with this and still produce very good quality football which enables them to end up winning these type of games”, Mr. Browne concluded. The ASPIRE 98 team split their results, starting with a 2-1 win over Wolves 98 but then suffering a 4-1 defeat in the second match. “Overall the two games were a good experience for our players, the same pattern will emerge with this age group as with all of our other sides that have been through Aspire. They find it difficult to cope with European sides of the same age in their first couple of years at Aspire.
By the end of the third or fourth year with us they overcome this and prove that not only can they cope but that quite often they have moved ahead of their European counterparts,” said Michael Browne. Kevin Thelwell, the Wolves Academy Manager and head coach, said to be very impressed by the overall atmosphere during the week-long stay in ASPIRE Academy was thankful to the ASPIRE management and staff for the hospitality and professionalism
. He was very satisfied with the level of play shown by his players in both teams and positively impressed by ASPIRE’s football level and individual performance. He commented that he saw a lot of progress and development in the ASPIRE players as compared to last year.