Mediterranean International Cup Day 1: Scouting the top Academies

The Giants Smash the Minnows
3/27/13

Day 1 of the MIC allowed for the Giants of the soccer world, Manchester United, FC Barcelona, Ajax and Villareal, to showcase their class against local inferior teams. These clubs are able to attract talent from across the globe and are consistently producing the next soccer superstar.

Villareal

Villareal started off by playing Rebelles de L’Est from Canada. Villareal showed their technical talent by keeping possession of the ball and consistently playing out of the back. The halftime score was only 2-0 but the canadian team offered very little competition with the final score 9-0. Tenga!

Manchester United

In the next game Manchester United found themselves in a familiar position against Grescena from Japan. The club that produced many talented players such as Ryan Giggs and David Beckham, seemed to have similar type of youngsters following in their footsteps. With athletic attacking players and individual superior talent, Man U led 3-0 at half with the Japanese never taking a shot on goal. Like the Villareal game, Man U was just warming up. The second half found the english team punishing their opponents at will. The final score 8-0. Tenga!

FC Barcelona

The game that followed was FC Barcelona versus Cherry Orchard from Ireland. A perfect opportunity to see our future opponents in action from group F. As predicted, Barca dominated the game and showcased their individual talent and their style of play. The theme of the day was to be leading at halftime by a few goals, only to unleash the wrath in the second half. Barca finished the game 9-0. Ansu and Take (Ta-que) Fuso, Barca’s key players, were good but not under enough pressure from their sluggish looking opposition. The good news was, they showed some weaknesses that could be exploited in the Super Clasico (against us tomorrow).

Ajax

The last game of the night featured Ajax against the local team, L’Escala. The whole town came out to fill their home stadium that made for a tremendous atmosphere. The locals were so excited to play such a Giant of the soccer world, they hadn’t thought about how the game would play out. But like many local small teams, the fans continued to show support for their boys and stood behind them for the entire match. Even after the Ajax notched two goals in the first two minutes. And continued to notch goals in the 5, 10, 14, and 25th minute of the first half. The game would end 9-0.

These Giants might not have played against a team of the same quality but they showed the talent gap that exists between the bottom and the top.

FC Barcelona plays our team next

It will be a serious test of our level.