Glasgow Rangers Win Al Kass International Cup

Doha, February 16 (QNA) - Glasgow Rangers were crowned today as champions of the eighth edition of Al Kass International Cup, which took place at Aspire Academy, after they beat Roma in a penalty shootout in the final. The 90 minutes ended with a 1-1 draw. Mory Bamba opened the scoring in the 29th minute, with Ciaran Dickson equalizing in the 59th minute. Both teams showed a real desire to win and the draw was a fair reflection of the match. Rangers managed to win the penalties 10-9 to win the final and the cup. General Manager at Al Kass Sports Channels and head of the organizing committee Eissa Al Hitmi, Assistant Secretary General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy Nasser Al Khater crowned the winners. Chairman of FIFAs Refereeing Committee Pierluigi Collina and a number of officials attended the final and praised the high level of organization for the competition. Al Hitmi expressed his happiness with the success of the eighth edition of Al Kass International Cup, stressing that the final match showed strong competition between the two teams and ended with Rangers winning the title for the first time ever. He added that the goal of hosting this tournament was to help Aspire players gain more experience by playing against different European, African or Asian football schools. Al Khater meanwhile said that Al Kass International Cup has been a success year after year, with strong competition between the teams that serves as good training for the Aspire Academy players. He expressed his hope that the success of the tournament will continue in the future. He highlighted the strong attendance from fans this year, saying that it reflects the quality of organization. He also congratulated the winners and wished the rest luck in the future. In the match to determine third place, Aspire Academy faced Kashiwa Reysol. In a thrilling game, the Japanese side turned out to be the more effective team with a keeper in great shape, which resulted in a 2-1 win over a hard fighting Aspire-team that never gave up. The game started with a shock moment for the Qatari, when Aspire-keeper Yousef Balideh had to scratch a back pass from the goal-line in the first minute. On the other side, Fahad Al-Abdulla came close to the home teams first goal, but a last second deflection by Kashiwas Toda was enough to prevent the ball from ending up in the goal (12). The first goal of the night should follow not soon afterwards. However, the built-up was quite random: After a free-kick from 36 meters, Naito Saitos delivery found its way into Aspires box, bounced twice, before ending up in the back of the net, leaving the Academys defense startled and in disbelief (27). Nonetheless, the Qataris put this setback away quite fast. Kashiwas keeper Sasaki showed great skills with a spectacular save after a Zidan-header (57), but shortly after he was finally beaten by a screamer from Aspire-substitute Jassim Al-Najjar: After dribbling into the box, leaving two defenders behind, there was nothing to save for Sasaki and the Qataris celebrated the 1-1 (61). In the last 20 minutes of the game, both teams made it clear that none of them was interested in taking the game to a penalty shoot-out. Aspire kept pressing high, resulting in putting up Mekki Tombari alone in front of the keeper, but his shot from 11 meters did not find the back of the net (71). That was a wake-up call for Kashiwa Reysol, who put Aspires defense under more pressure, first with a dangerous cross after a corner (74), then with a shot from Fujimoto from short distance (77). Six minutes before the final whistle, a long ball coming from Kashiwas half, exposed Aspires backline and striker Hidetaka Maie kept a cool head in front of Aspire-keeper Balideh, who was without any chance against the perfect lop (84). The Qatari put everything they had into the Japanese half, starting one attack after the other and in the very last second, Aspires keeper, who had made all the way into the opponents box, had the equalizer on his foot, but his shot missed the goal by a few centimeters. (QNA)