Experts Say – Real Madrid vs Aspire Academy

Mark Tompkins – Al Kass Analyst

It was really impressive to watch Aspire Academy come out against Real Madrid today. It was
great to see them at the forefront; they had never reached this stage before.

Nine blue shirts were constantly up on defense against Real Madrid. It was only Abdulrasheed
who was going forward; he wasn’t getting enough service though. Real Madrid just needed the
slightest of openings; that’s when they can really come in, but Aspire Academy was not giving it
to them today.

It was under 3 minutes to go to half time, and it was still nil-nil. There were some brave efforts
from Shehab in the first half; he came out and punched the ball away a couple of times. It was a fairly balanced play at the half time whistle.

Aspire Academy were showing a lack of composure in the final third of the second half, and
Real Madrid were really making it really difficult for them. The deadlock was broken in the 80th
minute, with Marvin’s goal. Simal closed it down, as the ball rolled into the box. If that was a
scrappy goal, there was nothing scrappy about the second goal from Casas. What a wonderful
goal that was!

Nick Summerbee – Al Kass Analyst

The game kicked off to a lively start today. There was a wonderful crowd at the pitch, the
weather was perfect, and both teams were pushing on really hard. It was a confident start from Aspire Academy! They looked like they had good energy, as they kept the ball zipping around.

This was exactly the kind of final we were looking for!

It was great to see the local team pressing on with high hopes; they kept great pace and they
were not giving in at all. They just had to keep the pressure on, get the quality up, and whip the ball in there! Real Madrid seemed to be more organized in the last 20 minutes; they had all
their right players up, and it was starting to look a bit tough for the local team.

It was a more direct play from the Spanish team in the second half; they were coming in with
set pieces; we know that they are more effective that way. Aspire Academy sometimes seemed
too eager. They had to pace it up a bit, and take their time to pass the ball along. I really didn’t
want them to take Abdulrasheed away in the second half. I wanted to see what he could create
along with Yusuf.

It was a wonderful strike by Casas in the last few minutes, and that’s the goal that won the
tournament! There really was no way out for Aspire Academy after that. It was a top-top game
for Real Madrid!