Aspire Academy for Sports Excellence students from years 1998 and 1995 played their final friendly football matches versus teams from Stuttgart and Senegal respectively last week.
Aspire students in action during their final friendly matches of the year
The first match between Aspire 98 and Stuttgart 98 was a close affair, with the home team emerging 3-2 victors.
However, Stuttgart won the second match 4-2 to exact revenge.
Aspire head coach of football, Michael Browne said: “Stuttgart have been regular opponents of ours for several years and for one of our teams to be at this level in comparison to Stuttgart after only 18 months in Aspire, bodes very well for the future.”
“We would normally expect to be on a par which such teams after about three to four years in Aspire,” he said, adding “so to be able to beat them in one game last week was very pleasing”.
The Aspire 95 team then took on a Senegal 96 team, with both teams managing to score heavy victories against their opponents.
Senegal 96 won the first match 3-0, before the Aspire 95 side rallied and won the second contest by 5-0.
“Senegal were physically very strong and very aggressive in terms of their approach to the game – on paper we were a year older, however in physical terms this was not apparent,” said Browne, adding: “We were disappointed with the result of the first game as we felt we had created enough chances to get a positive result.”
“The performance in the second game was outstanding and it was very pleasing to see our players refusing to be intimidated and being able to keep their discipline in difficult circumstances. The quality of some of the goals was exceptional and overall it was an excellent result.”
“The group is performing very well at the moment and in comparison to other groups we have had in Aspire they are certainly proving that they are probably the best group we have ever had,” he added.
