Tournament Day Three - 5 August 2008

It will be an all South American affair at Old Trafford tomorrow (Wednesday) when Fluminense face FC Atlas in the final of the Manchester United Premier Cup.

The match will be the culmination of the hopes and dreams of over 9,400 young teams who started their qualification matches a year ago in the competition sponsored by Nike, in a bid to find the best Under-15 team in the world.

Tuesday commenced with Quarter final playoffs at Carrington, and Eintracht Frankfurt moved closer towards the final after beating Paris Saint Germain, whilst Right to Dream lost out after early goals secured the win for Atlas. The German team held the Mexican Champions throughout normal time, only to lose out on sudden death penalties after both teams had attempts on goal frustrated by confident goal-keeping.

Mexico’s Coach Daniel Amed admitted: ‘We have been working towards this tournament since January and practise taking penalties during training. The standard of football here is the best I have ever seen. We’re going to be part of an all South American Final tomorrow which is really exciting. We feel so many emotions right now - but our aim is clear – we want to win’.
Fluminense battled their way through the quarter finals in a deceptively close fought match, eventually securing a 2-0 win over host team Manchester United to reach the semis where they stunned FC Basel 4-1.

Basel Coach Werner Mogg was circumspect: "We came to win of course, and we reached the Quarter Finals for the first time this year. But more important than that is that our boys have had a great opportunity here. Every team in Switzerland plays the same style of football, so to face different cultures on the pitch as well as off it has been an invaluable experience to help them develop their all-round skills.

With almost half of the day’s matches going to penalties, the drama was in no way limited to the play-offs, and the rest of the teams fought their way through the placement rounds with a number of surprise results.

There was a final flourish for New Zealand hopefuls Central United who defeated San Diego Surf 5-3 on penalties, and then went on to score a further three goals against Villa 2000.
Coach Paul Posa was incredibly happy with their performance and felt he ‘could not have scripted it better’. When asked what his team would take away from the tournament he replied, ‘We are an amateur side playing against professional clubs, and that really is the most incredible experience for the boys and we are also raising the bar for football in New Zealand. That is something to be proud of’.

The third/fourth place playoff will take place at 10am at Carrington tomorrow (Wednesday) before the final two teams follow in the footsteps of their heroes and play the Final at Old Trafford (5.30pm) as a curtain raiser to Manchester United –v- Juventus match, in their bid to become the 2008 MUPC Champions of the World.