Phil Airey's goal wasn't enoughA draw against Lecce for the Newcastle United youngsters proves not to be enough to qualify for the last 16 of the Torneo di Viareggio.
I have been reporting the Newcastle youth team’s exploits in the Torneo di Viareggio since our first game last week, so I may as well wrap it up with a brief report on our 1-1 draw with Lecce.
After losing our first match to Fiorentina we had to win the last two matches to be sure of qualification. Unfortunately we only drew with Club Nacional, which meant we’d have to win our final match against Lecce and other results would have to go our way in order to qualify for the last 16.
Alas it wasn’t to be and we only managed a 1-1 draw with Lecce.
Apparently we passed the ball well but simply did not create enough chances and eventually found ourselves one down. We managed to level things up via a free kick from Phil Airey and continued to press forward, having a lot of possession, but we simply couldn’t get a winning goal.
We had to settle for third in the table in the end and, as Fiorentina won, we wouldn’t have qualified even if we’d won too. (more…)
Scorer Michael RichardsonNewcastle United’s youth team will struggle to qualify for the next round of the Torneo di Viareggio after a draw with Club Nacional
I sometimes think I’m the only person interested in this competition, so I’ll keep it brief!
Having lost the first game in our pool to Fiorentina, we needed to win the last two to be sure of qualifying for the last 16.
Unfortunately the wheels have come off a bit as we only managed a draw with Club Nacional in our second match, leaving us third in pool 8.
The pool 8 table now looks like this after 2 games each:
Edmundsson - consolation goalNewcastle United’s youngsters suffer 3-1 defeat in their first game of the Torneo di Viareggio.
Our youngsters had a bad start to the Torneo di Viareggio, losing 3-1 to Fiorentina in their opening game in Group 8. However, the other two teams in the group – Lecce and Club Nacional – drew and that means winning our games against them means we’d still get through to the next round.
You can read the full match report on the official NUFC site, but it seems we went 3-0 down before getting a consolation goal from Faroe Islands international Joan Edmundsson.
Pedro thinks we can still qualify though and said:
“What we did say as a group was that we knew we’d probably have to win two games to qualify.
“We still think we can win two games. We’ve got a chance and hopefully that’ll be the case because we’ve come here to stay for as long as we can.
“Willie’s just said, in the nicest way possible, that he hopes he’s away from his family for another two weeks, because if we reached the final that would mean getting home two weeks today. In an ideal world, that would be perfect.(more…)
Pedro leads youngsters to tournamentNewcastle United’s youngsters arrive in Italy for two week youth tournament.
The Viareggio Cup World Football Tournament Coppa Carnevale – also called the Torneo di Viareggio – features 48 teams from 16 countries and is kind of a youth club world cup, although apparently Newcastle are the only club sending a team from England this year.
This Viagra Tournament is no Mickey Mouse affair though and is officially recognised by the likes of FIFA and UEFA, lending some prestige to the whole thing.
It has been totally dominated by the Italians for most of its history. Fiorentina and AC Milan have won it 8 times each and Juventus have won it 7 times. In fact 9 out of the top 10 all-time winners have been Italian, with Dukla Prague having won it 6 times to spoil the Italian top 10 clean sweep.
The only success for an English club in the tournament was in 1981 and 1982 when Ipswich Town were runners up. (more…)
