Volksbank Cup 2017 – Day 3
Saturday 27th May, 2017

The final day was for the placement of the ten teams in the tournament with Spurs first up playing in the 9/10th play-off game.

         Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Galatasaray
            (White/Blue)       (Yellow/Red)
              4-1-4-1             4-3-3

Spurs(4-1-4-1):– Whiteman; Lock, Tsaroulla, Brown, Bennetts; Maghoma; Edwards(Griffiths 21), Roles(Reynolds 38), Shashoua(Loft 30), Georgiou; Harrison(C)

Scorers:– Georgiou 17, Loft 33

Galatasaray:– Cakir(Ozer 38); Tekin, Akyol, Cavdar, Korkut; Zeren, Isik(Esen 26), Baytar; Demiralay, Zulfikar, Kurt

Missed other subs.

Spurs finally won a game at the tournament by beating Turkish side Galatasaray in the play-off for ninth place. With Marsh on crutches it was good to see Paris Maghoma arrive in time for this match allowing them to play a back four. Spurs lined up with Whiteman behind Tsaroulla and Brown with Lock at right back and Bennetts on the left. Maghoma anchored the midfield with Roles and Shashoua ahead of him flanked by Edwards on the right and Georgiou on the left in supprt of Harrison up front. All the fit subs got on as the game neared its end and I was not able to keep track of who went off. I still don't know who Gonzalez-Valasco replaced

Spurs kicked off the first half and sought to get forward quickly with players getting caught offside early on. Baytar had the first effort from distance that went wide of the far post. Brown played in Harrison but his low drive hit the left post. Spurs went in front when Harrison headed on a long ball and Georgiou got to it on the edge of the area. As Cakir came out, he fumbled his attempt to collect leaving Georgiou with a simple finish.

Edwards was replaced at half-time by Griffiths as he was not doing well against a Galatasaray side that was not as physical as other teams faced. Korkut had a shot wide before Griffiths drew a save from Georgiou's cross. Loft came on for Shashoua going up front with Griffiths as the shape changed to 4-1-3-2. Harrison fired wide before Spurs got their second. It came from a Georgiou cross that Loft turned in at the near post. With the game won it led to a flurry of changes as both sides gave their players a chance to get on.

Keanan Bennetts was awarded man of the match which I think had more to do with his German background as I would have given it to Georgiou. Circumstances meant that Spurs came to this tournament without centre-backs. Marsh has played there often for Spurs and Omolabi had to fill in and his inexperience showed. How much this affected the outcome is conjecture as was the inability to handle the more physical side of U-19 football.It is all good experience and hopefully the players learned something as we are in the UEFA Youth Champions League again next season.

The winners of the tournament were Red Bull Brazil who beat Hamburg 6-5 on penalties after drawing 0-0. They also won the trophy last year to make it two in a row. FC Copenhagen beat Rodinghausen 2-0 to finish third. Liverpool finished sixth losing to Werder Bremen 3-2 having pulled it back to 2-2 in the second half.

Final table was:- 

          1    Red Bull Brazil
          2    Hamburg SV
          3    FC Copenhagen
          4    SV Rodinghausen
          5    SV Werder Bremen
          6    Liverpool
          7    VfB Stuttgart
          8    Muhlenkreis-Team
          9    Tottenham Hotspur
         10    Galatasaray

There was a firework display before the final with the two teams coming out to AC/DC. When the Brazilian national anthem was played the team turned their backs to the crowd as the only Brazilian flag was behind them.

Ray

· Volksbank Cup Day One
· Volksbank Cup Day Two

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