BlueStars 2008

PS18

Coming up in just over a week's time on April 30/May 1 in Zurich, for players born after January 1 1988. Will be interesting to see how strong a squad we take out there.

More details here, including our group opponents (Villarreal, Partizan Belgrade, Grasshoppers Zurich and FC Basel for the lazy among us). Some great pictures of participating United teams of the past on there as well.

Escobar

I went to the tournament in the last couple of years, will be interesting to see who they take with. Saw Rossi a couple of yers ago.

Last year, we were poor I think, as far as I remember.

weso26

Who will we have that will be playing?

oskarutd

Corry Evans, Richard Eckersley, Craig Cathcart, Ron-Robert Zieler, Ben Amos, James Chester, Sam Hewson, Tom Cleverley

Magnus Eikrem, James Derbyshire, Daniel Galbraith, Chris Fagan, Conor McCormack, Febian Brandy, Antonio Bryan, Daniel Drinkwater

link.

Elliott

Those are the ones we took last year, innit?

oskarutd

maybe, but they are on the link for this year commpition and fall uinto the age group.

Ivor Ballokov

Isn't Brandy still at swansea?

PS18

that was last year's squad, yeah. they could all still play but i think it's safe to say there'll be several changes.

Mr. MUJAC

We didn't go last year.....a number of reasons

1. The squad was very young
2. We had a full season reaching the FAYC Final
3. We had committed to playing in the Malaysian Youth Cup

The season before we took a young team and did not fare too well...

Pique was captain when we won it in 2005 with Rossi, Bardsley, Eagles, Martin et al

oskarutd

It starts today

15:40 against Grasshoppers
18:10 Villareal

Elliott

We beat Grasshoppers 4-0. Macheda, Galbraith, Hewson(pen) and King.

Team: Zieler; Chester, Cathcart, Eckersley; Gray, Possebon, Cleverley, Hewson; Macheda, Galbraith.

Not sure about substitutions.

PS18

playing with only ten men seems a bit arrogant but it clearly worked!

Elliott

Hehe. I just c&p'd from

http://www.youthcup.ch/youthcup2008/...-30.html#mangc

Guess the odd man out would be Josh King.

Mr. MUJAC

Any idea of the numbers 1-11?

Elliott

No idea, mr. M. Lost 1-0 to Villareal in our second game of the day.

Team:Amos; Gray, Chester, Cathcart, Eckersley; Eikrem, Cleverley, Possebon, Galbraith; Hewson, Macheda.

Villareal won 6-0 in their first match so they seem quite solid. Edit: They lost 6-0, and I look like a complete dick.

oskarutd

The official site said Villareal lost 6-0 !
It´seems that Drinkwater played the first game as well and Macheda got an yellow card.

Elliott

Feck me, yes they did! How on earth did we lose to them!!???

oskarutd

youth football. One good game and you can be terrible in the next, maybe belivied they would be easy.
Not the same players in both game.

Elliott

Our results today:

United-Basel 0-3

Team:Zieler; Evans, Chester, Cathcart, Eckersley; Gray, Hewson (30. Norwood), James, Stewart (35. King); Cleverley, Macheda.

United-Partizan 2-0 Goals: Hewson, Galbraith.

Team:Manchester: Amos; Gray, Chester, Cathcart, Eckersley; Eikrem, Cleverley, Possebon, Hewson; Macheda, Galbraith.

We're playing Hamburg in the bronze final tomorrow having ended up 2nd in our group, behind Basel.

Elliott

Really strange results in this cup. Seems most teams played one good and one poor match both yesterday and today. Guess that makes sense as there wasn't much time between the 2 daily games, even if each game was only 2 x 20 mins.

Elliott

http://www.youthcup.ch/youthcup2008/...cke/index.html

Photos from yesterday.

Edit: They've added today's pics as well.

PS18

the 3rd/4th game was played this afternoon, we beat Hamburg 1-0 with a Joshua King goal.

Team: Zieler; Gray, Chester, Cathcart, Cleverley; Eikrem (35. King), Evans, Possebon (21. Norwood), Hewson, Galbraith; Macheda.

PS18

they seemed to have removed yesterday's pics when adding today's, annoyingly. although i'm probably just missing them.

Elliott

http://www.youthcup.ch/youthcup2008/.../IMG_0502.html

United squad photo. The guy to Rodrigo's right is King, right? Doesn't really look like him but it must be. I guess all in all we did okay. It's an u20 tournament so we were probably on average a year or so younger than our opponents. Very pleased for King. 2 goals ain't too shabby for a lad more than 4 years the junior of some of the players he came up against.

PS18

yeah, that's King. would be nice to see the proper picture of that (i.e. the one being taken by the photographers in shot). as far as i can make out, it goes:

Back (l-r): James, Eikrem, Cathcart, Chester, King, Rodrigo, Hewson, Macheda, Amos
Front (l-r): Cleverley, Norwood, Stewart, Zieler, Evans, Gray, Galbraith, Eckersley

assuming there are no other players being obscured, looks like coaching/medical staff.

PS18

the photos seem to pretty much make numbers clear as well:

1. Zieler
2. Gray
3. Eckersley
4. Chester
5. Cathcart
6. Hewson
7. Cleverley
8. Rodrigo
9. Macheda
11. Galbraith
12. Stewart
14. James
15. King
17. Corry Evans

only debatable ones are 10, 13 and 16. 16 appears in a couple of photos from the Hamburg game from behind, either Eikrem or Norwood, hard to say. looks quite slight, Eikrem i'd imagine. Amos will surely be 13, leaving 10 for Norwood.

PS18

ronnie dazzler

That was a pretty good side

Mr. MUJAC

Final round up from Blue Stars from the official stat sheet.

The tournament was played on the bumpy pitch at the Buchlern Sports Ground in Zurich as the normal stadium has been undergoing renovations in time for the European Championship being held in the summer.

United took a 18-man party to the tournament but Danny Drinkwater took ill and did not play in any games.

The official website has really good statistical information but has a couple of errors and missed some substitutions.

Squad numbers were as follows:

1. Zieler
2. Gray
3. Eckersley
4. Chester
5. Cathcart
6. Hewson - capt
7. Cleverley
8. Possebon
9. Macheda
10. Drinkwater
11. Galbraith
12. Stewart
13. Amos
14. James
15. King
16. Eikrem
17. C. Evans
18. Norwood

Wednesday April 30

15:40 Game 1 v Grasshoppers 4-0 (3-0 at HT)

Team: Zieler, Gray, Chester, Cathcart, Eckersley, Eikrem, Cleverley, Possebon, Hewson, Macheda and Galbraith

Subs: King (9), James (6), Evans (8)

Scorers: Macheda (2), Hewson (p) (6), Galbraith (20), King (35)

Summary:

Macheda scored our first after just two minutes when he hit the net from close range after a cross from the right from David Gray. The second came four minutes later when the referee adjudged a defender had pulled at Macheda's shirt. It was a harsh decision but Hewson duly put the penalty away with a shot straight down the middle. Just before half-time Eikrem played a great through ball which Galbraith ran onto and shot across the keeper to give the Reds a 3-0 half-time lead.

In the second half, Gray was alleged to have pushed a Grasshoppers player in the box....again a very harsh decision....but Zieler made a fine save diving to his right. King rounded off the scoring after a defensive mix-up in the box and knocked the ball past the keeper from about 12 yards.

18:10 Game 2 v Villrreal 0-1 (0-1 at HT)

Team: Amos, Gray, Chester, Cathcart, Eckersley, Eikrem, Cleverley, Possebon, Hewson, Macheda and Galbraith

Subs: King (16)

Summary:

Not a lot to say about this game as we hardly created any chances. Eikrem had our best opportunity missing a free header from six yards after a great cross from the left by Galbraith. Amos should perhaps have done better for their goal.

At the end of Day one United were third in Group 2 but with other teams taking points off each other there was not a lot in it.


Thursday May 1

10:00 Game 3 v FC Basle 0-3 (0-1 at HT)

Team: Zieler, Evans, Chester, Cathcart, Eckersley, Gray, Hewson, James, Stewart, Macheda and Cleverley

Subs: Norwood (6), King (12)

Summary:

Playing in all white, United gave a run out to Corry Evans, Matty James and Cameron Stewart. A mistake from Cathcart as he brought the ball out from defence led to Basle's first goal. Again United didn't really show much in front of goal and were trailing 0-1 at half time.

Basle scored a second four minutes into the second half which pretty much ended the contest and Ollie Norwood was brought on after 30 minutes. Basle wrapped up the match with five minutes left - Bekim Halimi scoring a well taken hat-trick - and King came on to replace Stewart. Richard Eckersley was booked in the last minute for a stong tackle.


11:40 Game 4 v Partizan Belgrade 2-0 (2-0 at HT)

Team: Amos, Gray, Chester, Cathcart, Eckersley, Eikrem, Cleverley, Possebon, Hewson, Macheda and Galbraith

Subs: King (16)

Scorers: Hewson (15), Galbraith (20)

Summary:

A much better performance by United who had most of the first half and scored twice to show their superiority. Hewson scored the first after fifteen minutes with a good header after a great cross from Eikrem on the right. On the stroke of half time Galbraith scored what was probably our goal of the tournament. He was put through with a great ball from Eikrem and running in full stride, chipped the keeper from the edge of the box. Great goal!

The second half saw the Reds control the game and only one substitute was made, King coming on for Magnus Eikrem. With five minutes to go, Richard Eckersley was booked for another bad tackle and misses the next match.

United finished the group stages in second place in Group 2 and faced FC Hamburg in the 3/4 place play-off.

15:20 Game 5 v FC Hamburg 1-0 (0-0 at HT)

Team: Zieler, Gray, Chester, Cathcart, Cleverley, Eikrem, Evans, Possebon, Hewson, Macheda and Galbraith

Subs: Norwood (8), King (16)

Scorers: King (35)

Summary:

With Eckersley banned, Tom Cleverley played at left back and Corry Evans came into the midfield. United had a couple of chances in the first half, the best coming after Galbraith robbed a German defender with a great tackle and bore down on goal. He beat the final defender and was about to shoot when Macheda took the ball off Galbraiths path and scored with a low shot. Unfortunately he was offside and should have let Galbraith finish it.

Norwood replaced Possebon early in the second half and then Eikrem missed a sitter from two yards when he took time to trap the ball and allowed the defender to get in a tackle when he should have hit it first time. King replaced
Eikrem with five minutes remaining and within seconds had scored. Galbraith made a good cross from the left and as it came across the six yard box, King swiped at it and only managed a tame shot at goal. Fortunately the keeper made an almighty cock-up and it squeezed through his legs.


United finished the tournament in 3rd place and also picked up the fair play trophy with only two bookings - both Richard Eckersley.

I would say that Magnus Eikrem was our Player of the Tournament.

Elliott

Great stuff, MUJAC. Thanks! Were you there? How would you rate King, Macheda and Rodrigo's overall performances?

samabachan

Sounds like Eikrem had a hand in a lot of our best moves..... is he starting to develop a bit yet?

Doevle