Think this will help every club truly see their talents and maybe promote them rather than waste an awful lot of cash on purchases.

 

City have pulled out of the reserves league just so that they can focus on this competition. That's one club that will be taking it seriously.

Most likely.

 

I just hope we don't make a goal to win the competition. Just keep playing our football and trying to develop talents.

Also, this might improve level of other clubs' academies as well. I don't want them to catch up La Masia, but I guess if we participate, it will also be beneficial to us.

 

How did they determine league allocations for this tournament? Four English teams, two dutch and only one each from Spain, Italy and Germany. A Norwegian side. WTF?

 

The inaugural line-up has been determined by invitation and recommendation, influenced by the quality of each club’s academy.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...2006488/Champions-League-style-tournament-launched-Under-19s.html#ixzz1Qq6LGc1g

 

Obviously this isn't a "champions league". It is just another youth tournament that is arranged by either the FA or some English teams?

to really make this into that you need to qualify by having the best youth team in your own country and the allocation should be more evenly matched out between countries.

As for Italy. Inters primavera didn't even reach the play-off last season. Think it was Roma that won the play-off. And for the youth group under the primavera Milan was champions. Inter have had a good youth team as seen over a longer period though.

Anyway, quite interesting tournament.

 

Starts this week (Wednesday).

Liverpool are playing Sporting Lisbon at Anfield.

@Johan- this is a privately funded competition by some rich Arabs, invite only. If it ever goes under the umbrella of UEFA, no doubt there will be a more competitive way of allocating a spot to teams.

 

The Next Gen Series 2011/12, started today, a tournament that may very well be the seed of a future European Champions League of Under 19 players.

The organisers invited 16 top European clubs to participate in a tournament that will be played between now and January 2012. The 16 sides were divided in 4 groups of 4 from where the top 2 sides of each group will advance to the knockout stages.

These are the 4 groups:

GROUP 1
Olympique Marseille (FRA)
Celtic FC Glasgow (SCO)
FC Barcelona (ESP)
Manchester City (ENG)

GROUP 2
Sporting CP (POR)
Liverpool FC (ENG)
Wolfsburg (GER)
Molde BK (NOR)

GROUP 3
Ajax FC Amsterdam (HOL)
Aston Villa (ENG)
Fenerbahçe (TUR)
Rosenborg (NOR)

GROUP 4
FC Basel (SWI)
Tottenham Hotspur (ENG)
PSV Eindhoven (HOL)
Inter Milan (ITA)

 

Sporting Lisbon beat Liverpool at Anfield 3-0.

By all accounts, SL were brilliant in the first half. Second half Liverpool improved and should have scored a few but for poor finishing.

Great result for SL.

 

Yes, we were great tonight. I saw the game (thanks to the nice live coverage of LFCTV) and it's true that we gave a show in the first half. Liverpool improved with the substitutions in the second half but the best team won in the end. Hope both teams go through at the end of the group stage. :thumbsup:

 

Scores of the first matches played today:

GROUP 1
Ol. Marseille (FRA) 1-0 Celtic FC (SCO)
(Maman 6')

GROUP 2
Liverpool FC (ENG) 0-3 Sporting CP (POR)
(João Carlos 26', Betinho 37', Farley Rosa 86')

GROUP 3
Ajax FC (HOL) 2-0 Aston Villa (ENG)
(Nick de Bondt 17', Viktor Fischer 49')

GROUP 4
FC Basel (SWI) 2-2 Tottenham Hotspur (ENG)
(Pak 6', Maroufi 8'; Kane 15' pen., Coulthirst 49')

 

Scores of the first matches played today:

GROUP 1
Ol. Marseille (FRA) 1-0 Celtic FC (SCO)
(Maman 6')

Proud of my mum roud:.

Marseille is not actually the good team to breed and let youths a chance, btw.

 

It was definitely a lesson in football for the Liverpool kids.

For the past year and half they've been facing teams which they've battered with ease so facing a quality team like SL was a real shock for them.

But i suppose that's the point of this competition. Get the kids playing against different styles and today that's what happened.

 

The second match of Group 2 was played yesterday:

Molde FK (NOR) 3-1 Wolfsburg (GER)
(A. Hollingen 58', Bjerkaas 90'+1', Tripic 90'+4'; G. Millemaci 50')

Current standings after Round 1:

GROUP 2
1 Sporting CP (POR) ...1G 1W 0D 0L 3-0 3P
2 Molde FK (NOR) .......1G 1W 0D 0L 3-1 3P
3 Wolfsburg (GER) .......1G 0W 0D 1L 1-3 0P
4 Liverpool FC (ENG) .....1G 0W 0D 1L 0-3 0P

 

I'm surprised you didn't correct Ryfa, most Sportinguistas I know take exception to being called Sporting Lisbon (SL)n rather than Sporting Clube de Portugal, or SCP for short.

 

I don't care about that to be honest, I think Ryfa was just being lazy. In many countries we are called Sporting Lisbon which I don't mind because that is in fact where the club is based. It would be as if interistas would care if people call them Inter Milan when the name of the club is FC Internazionale.

 

The NextGen Series had another round of matches today and here are the scores with the respective group tables:

GROUP 1

Celtic Park, Glasgow (SCO)
Celtic FC Glasgow 1-3 FC Barcelona
(Anthony Watt 23'; Eduard Campabadal 5', Patricio Gabarron 36', Jean-Marie Dongou 47')

Current Standings
1 FC Barcelona ......1G 1W 0D 0L 3-1 3P
2 Ol. Marseille .........1G 1W 0D 0L 1-0 3P
3 Manchester City ....0G 0W 0D 0L 0-0 0P
4 Celtic FC Glasgow ...2G 0W 0D 2L 1-4 0P

***

GROUP 2

Estádio José Alvalade, Lisbon (POR)
Sporting CP 2-1 Wolfsburg
(Betinho 45', Chaby 60'; Maximilian Arnold 55')

Current Standings
1 Sporting CP ........2G 2W 0D 0L 5-1 6P
2 Molde FK ..........1G 1W 0D 0L 3-1 3P
3 Liverpool FC .....1G 0W 0D 1L 0-3 0P
4 Wolfsburg ......2G 0W 0D 2L 2-5 0P

***

GROUP 4

Rankhof Stadion, Basel (SWI)
FC Basel 1-0 PSV Eindhoven
(Valmir Nafiu 20')

Leyton Orient, London (ENG)
Tottenham Hotspur 7-1 Inter Milan
(Alex Pritchard 7', 67', Souleymane Coulibaly 12', 29', Tomislav Gomelt 14', 23', 37'; Daniel Bessa 39' pen.)

Current Standings
1 Tottenham Hotspur .........2G 1W 1D 0L 9-3 4P
2 FC Basel ......................2G 1W 1D 0L 3-2 4P
3 PSV Eindhoven ............1G 0W 0D 1L 0-1 0P
4 Inter Milan ................1G 0W 0D 1L 1-7 0P


​

 

7-1 this isn't good. Are these matches televised by any chance?

 

You have to look for streams like any other game. I have watched the first Sporting match against Liverpool online and today there were streams to follow the Celtic vs Barça game.

 

And here are the coming fixtures:

GROUP 1

15.09.2011 - Ewen Fields, Manchester (ENG)
Manchester City vs FC Barcelona

28.09.2011 - Mini Estadi, Barcelona (CAT)
FC Barcelona vs Olympique Marseille

***

GROUP 2

07.09.2011 - Aker Stadion, Molde (NOR)
Molde FK vs Liverpool FC

14.09.2011 - Liverpool (ENG)
Liverpool FC vs Wolfsburg

15.09.2011 - Estádio José Alvalade, Lisbon (POR)
Sporting CP vs Molde FK

***

GROUP 3

07.09.2011 - De Toekomst, Amsterdam (HOL)
Ajax FC vs Fenerbahçe

28.09.2011 - Villa Park, Birmingham (ENG)
Aston Villa vs Fenerbahçe

**

GROUP 4

14.09.2011 - Stadio Grazia Deledda, Milan (ITA)
Inter Milan vs PSV Eindhoven

28.09.2011 - Stadio Grazia Deledda, Milan (ITA)
Inter Milan vs FC Basel

28.09.2011 - De Herdgang, Eindhoven (HOL)
PSV Eindhoven vs Tottenham Hotspur


​

 

From what I gather it was pretty much our 2nd-3rd string Primavera lineup, still pretty depressing.

On the other hand Coulibaly is making immidiet impact @ Tottenhamroud:

 

Match report of that game for those interested...

Tottenham Hotspur 7-1 Inter Milan

On a dry but overcast afternoon, Spurs entertained Inter Milan in their 2nd game of the Next Gen Series. After a bright opening 5 minutes by Inter, Spurs took control and within 15 minutes were 3-0 up. Continued good play from Spurs and poor positional defending from Milan resulted in Spurs going 5-0 up after 28 minutes.

On 35 mins, the Spurs winger Gomelt completed his hat trick to make it 6-0 with another crisp finish but two minutes later was back in the box defending and tripped one of the Milan forwards. The referee rightly awarded a penalty and then sent off Gomelt.

Bessa took the kick and sent the Spurs keeper the wrong way.

The second half was a much more even affair with Milan seeing more of the ball and having a number of attempts on goal and the Spurs keeper made a couple of smart saves. But with 20 minutes left Spurs’ Pritchard scored from a direct free kick, having opened the scoring on 8 minutes, from the edge of the box and Spurs’ 10 men were able to quite easily contain Inter’s forwards and the game finally ended with a 7-1 convincing scoreline.

One can only speculate what the score would have been had Spurs not played some 50 minutes with only 10 men.

Leyton Orient, London
Referee: Warren Atkin

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR: 1. Jonathan Miles, 2. Jack Barthram, 3. Daniel Day, 4. Massimo Luongo (77'), 5. Milos Vejkovic; 6. Jake Nicholson (45'), 7. Alex Pritchard, 8. Kevin Stewart (75'); 9. Souleymane Coulibaly, 10. Laste Dombaxe, 11. Tomislav Gomelt.

Subs: 12. Cristian Ceballos (45'), 13. Billy Granger, 14. Ronnie Hawkins (77'), 15. Horacio Cristian Olaya (75'), 16. Jack Munns.


INTER MILAN: 1. Matteo Cincilla, 2. Eugenio Giannetti, 3. Gianmarco Falasca, 4. Lukas Spendlhofer (45'), 5. Matteo Bianchetti; 6. Simone Pecorini, 7. Roberto Candido 8. Andrea Romano (C); 9. Giovanni Terrani (45'), 10. Daniel Bessa, 11. Joseph Duncan.

Subs: 12. Riccardo Melgrati, 13. Marek Kisela (45'), 14. Marco Benassi, 15. Rodrigo Alborno, 16. Diego Mella, 17. Jacopo Galimberi, 18. Jakub Vojtus (45').


Booked: Roberto Candido (Inter)
Sent Off: Tomislav Gomelt (Spurs) 38'

 

And to think that our only goal comes from a penalty kick. There are alot of names in the Inter's squad list that I don't recognize, but the score is a harsh one and I hope the kids learn from this match.

Thanks for the report btw.

 

Barça defeated Celtic 3-1.

Match report from dailymail..


Scottish angst, Catalan culture and the youth of today: they met at Celtic Park on Wednesday night in the second instalment of the new NextGen Series, a sort of Champions League for teenagers.

Barcelona, as might have been expected, defeated Celtic but it was a decent contest that should have eroded some of the pessimism eating into Scottish football.

In losing 3-1 Celtic certainly had more to console themselves with than Inter Milan. They lost 7-1 at Tottenham on Wednesday.

That was in Group Four of the new 16-team European tournament that moves to a knockout stage after November and which, like everything nowadays it seems, will end in Abu Dhabi.

Whether 16-18 boys' football should be about winning is a debate, and the level of exposure some of the teenagers receive is likely to concern plenty of coaches.

But it was easy to believe that boys on both sides at Parkhead on Wednesday night will have gone home having learned something.
Simply playing a night match in a 60,000-capacity stadium is a lesson as well as a thrill.

It will come as unsurprising news that Barca's young players are schooled in tiki-taka, fluid football.

They did not outclass Celtic, particularly in the first half, but there was a degree of comfort about the victory.

In patches Celtic showed they know how to play too and should Scotland's seniors do well in Saturday's European qualifier against the Czech Republic at Hampden Park, there may even be a sliver of optimism.

Given the continental exits of Rangers and Hearts last week - and still possibly Celtic depending on the UEFA investigation into FC Sion - on a technicality, this young Celtic XI could be described as Scotland's last team in Europe.

They lost their first match in this competition, 1-0 in Marseille a fortnight ago, but if education is one of the principal aims of the NextGen Series, then following that opener with a home game against as famed a youth club as Barcelona seemed sure to add to these young Celts' enlightenment.

For Barcelona it was their debut in the tournament. It is billed as Under 19, with another aim being to raise the consistency of quality opposition for boys who have left the traditional youth teams aged Under 16 but who have not yet established themselves in the reserves of their club.

That said there were players here born in 1995, though in the main it was before that. Barcelona's 'cantera' is so productive it cannot be easy to make it there. If a boy does, it is a sign that he is one of the best footballers on the planet. It is a globalised club. There is also the pressure in Catalonia of 'the New'.

Comparisons are as inevitable as a Real Madrid red card in a clasico.
Barca have a young Korean called Park Sheung-ho who at 12 was captain of South Korea's Under 14s. He is so good he is being hailed as the New Messi.

Up front Barca had a 16-year-old called Jean Marie Dongou.

Because he is a striker, because he is from Cameroon and because he wears the red and blue, Dongou will be the 'new Samuel Eto'o'.

This is their world.

In front of around 5,000 at Parkhead, it got under way in traditional Celtic fashion.

After the playing of the Barcelona anthem came the Celtic huddle.

In Glasgow's East End there is also a passing heritage to emulate.

The visitors scored first in the 16th minute via Eduard Campadal Claros - a 'Puyolish' defender - but the hosts had been their pass-and-move equals until then and it was 1-1 eight minutes later.

Celtic's name is known across the world too, of course, and their No 10 was a talented Czech called Filip Twardzik.

The equaliser, however, came from Anthony Watt, a boy signed from Airdrie, where he made the first team at 16. The striker from the Airdrie cantera worked his goal well.

By half-time, though, Barca were back in front. Like the first it was no classic but Patricio Gabarron is unlikely to ever forget the night he scored at Parkhead.

Barely a minute after the interval that lad Dongou displayed composure and cool finishing to make it 3-1.

Thereafter, Barcelona did what they are taught to do: they kept the ball.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...6/Barcelona-youngster-Park-Sheung-ho-hailed-Lionel-Messi.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

 

Barça is playing in this tournament with the Juvenil A team, coached by Oscar Garcia (our former player in the 90s, some of you may remember him.) The Juvenil A is using the 4-3-3 formation
The lineup for last night's game was: Bañuz; Campabadal, Bagnack, Ayala, Oliván; Patric, Samper, Calvet; Ernesto, Dongou and Sáinz-Maza. Subs appearances by Quintillá, Herrera, and Moreno.

 

Is the Juvenil A team made up of U17s or something?

 

City's match with Barca clashes with the seniors playing against Napoli. I'm gutted I can't go.

 

Celtic - Barca
noZafmPttN8

 

I really want to watch these matches, but I think I can only watch it after work at night. Don't know if I can find replays...

 

footytube.com might have some highlights