11 Jan 2012
Qatar National Team U-16 , formed 100% of ASPIRE football Student Athletes, has been crowned winner of the United Arab Emirates international football tournament. The Academy’s boys showed very good skills to defeat some of biggest nations in Asian football such as Iran, Japan and UAE. The team won all three games in the tournament.
On their way to the title, Qatar national team U-16 beat Japan National team 4-1 in their opening match, and then went on to defeat a very strong Iranian team 2-1, before beating the host nation team, UAE, 1-0 in their last game. The tournament was held in Abu Dhabi.
ASPIRE head football coach, Michael Browne commented on this achievement saying: ‘This was an outstanding result for the Qatar U16 team. Having said that our players created some good chances, showed good creativity and have scored 7 goals in this tournament with only two goals against.
At the beginning of this tournament, the Iranian team emerged as the top team due mainly to the huge physical advantage they possess, however In terms of developing players for the future, in five years’ time the best players that emerge from this tournament will undoubtedly be from Japan and Qatar’