Aspire Zone Foundation-owned KAS Eupen concluded its winter training camp at the Aspire Academy, and are ready to restart their football season with the forthcoming Belgian Cup semi-final against Zulte Waregem FC to be played tomorrow.
Chief Advisor of International Football Affairs at Aspire Zone Foundation and KAS Eupen FC board member Andreas Bleicher summed up the experience as ‘vitally important for the second half of the club’s first season in the Belgian Pro League.’
“It’s fantastic that KAS Eupen was able to hold a winter training camp here at Aspire, where the pitches are great, the weather is lovely and the conditions are wonderful. The side also played two friendly matches against quality sides like FC Bayern Munich and Shanghai SIPG FC. What more can one ask for? You can’t have it better than that for a training camp,” said Bleicher.
KAS Eupen lost to Bundesliga Champions and current leaders Bayern Munich but won 1-0 against Shanghai SIPG. According to Bleicher, however, the important game was not against the German Champions or the Chinese side, but is the Belgian Cup semi-final against Zulte Waregem FC tomorrow.  “The players are aware that the preparations here are very much with the Cup game in mind. Having completed our training camp successfully, we now head back to Belgium encouraged and ready to make the most of a vital second half of the season,” Bleicher said
“We brought some young players with us to this camp and the coaching staff needed this break to work on combinations with the team. I’m pleased to say that good progress has been made in this regard and everyone is excited for the remainder of the season,” he added.
KAS Eupen’s week-long training camp began on January 8th and saw four Qatari players – Fahad al- Abdulrahman , Monqeth Adi, Mohamed al-Bakry and Bassam Hisham – all of whom are graduates of Aspire Academy, return home.  
Al-Abdulrahman, who has cemented his place in the Eupen side as left back, said of the training camp: “It has been an exceptional week back here at Aspire Academy and l thoroughly enjoyed this training camp. We put in some hard work and benefited from playing against Bayern and Shanghai. For me personally, I have been inspired by the chance to play against top players like Arjen Robben, Robert Lewandowski and Franck Ribery in the Bayern game and l learnt a lot from marking Brazilian Hulk in the match against Shanghai SIPG. When you face players of this quality and know that you have competed well against them, it uplifts you in a way that I and, hopefully, the team will carry forwards into the second half of the season.”
KAS Eupen head coach Jordi Auli Condom described the winter training camp as a welcome opportunity for him and his coaching staff to fine tune things ahead of the second half of the season.
“This is a fairly young side with some recent arrivals, so it has been good to have a chance to look at all the players and work on new strategies. Of course, the conditions and environment suited the work we wanted to do and to be able to play two competitive matches, during which employed some of our new tactics, provided an immense boost for us as we restart the league and challenge for honours in the Belgian Cup,” Condom.
He also brought 12 other former Aspire Football Dreams players with the side to Doha, 8 of whom are still teenagers.
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