The Ateitis CUP tournament, held for the tenth season, broke records every weekend. Last weekend is no exception. There were 76 teams in the two age groups who played 228 matches in three days. The U-9 group triumphed with Kyiv Lokomotiv young footballers, the U-7 group triumphed with Manchester City Academy youth.
“The Manchester City Boys show was like the cherry on our cake of the decade. It was the highest level, and it ‘s great that this is the note we completed in 2019. I do not like to appreciate my work, but the abundance of teams and their feedback best answers the question of what they think about the tournament, ”said Dainius Gudaitis, the main organizer of the tournament.
In the U-9 group, winners Kyiv Lokomotiv was among 48 teams defeated Riga’s RFS peers in the final 6: 3. Third place went to Minsk Smena footballers, who defeated Dinamo in a 5-0 derby.
The Lithuanian team “Ateitis” was the best among the Lithuanians, who remained seventh in the final standings. Eighth place was held by Kaunas Fortuna, ninth place – Šiauliai, other teams were even lower.
“To be clear what the tournament level was, I can say that Tbilisi’s Dynamo took ninth place, Rotterdam’s Feyenoord seventeenth, Kyiv’s Dynamo eighteenth, Manchester city twenty-third, and Borisov BATE twenty-fourth. “- emphasized D.Gudaitis.
In the U-7 group, despite all the magic of the game, the ManCity boys won the final after a series of penalties. The final time of the final match against Kaliningrad SSHOR5 team was 4: 4. The third was the Nevsky front in St. Petersburg. Among the Lithuanian teams, the highest seventh place was held by “Šiauliai”, the sixteenth – by the Baltic Football Academy, and the nineteenth – by “Ateitis”.
As soon as the Autumn Tournament cycle is over, the organizers are already looking at season eleven. The first winter-spring cycle tournament will take place in late January.
“We will have a lot of Turin Juventus Academy groups, plans to return to Rotterdam’s Feyenoord, and I can’t really reveal other famous names until we have contracts. I can only guarantee that we are certainly not going to lower down the plank, ”- said D.Gudaitis.
A record-breaking Ateitis CUP tournament attracted 47 teams from ten countries over the weekend. Over 160 games were played in three days.
“This tournament was a new challenge for us. For example, the first time the team did not leave Italy was because .. it was snowing there and the flight was cancelled. Imagine? 40 people planned to come with their parents but did not arrive.
Another moment, the crash on Friday completely stopped the city. One trip from the hotel (Green) to the LFF Stadium took almost an hour and a half when usually it takes 20 min. Everything is arranged in minutes, and no one can be late. Still, somehow we managed.
As for the tournament itself, it has been one of the strongest in the entire decade. Clubs like Dinamo Tbilisi (Sakartvel Champion), Dinamo Minsk (Belarus Champion) or one of the strongest Latvian teams of this age group in the RFS didn’t even get into the top ten. Why not get in? Because there were more good teams than the top ten, ”commented the main organizer of the tournament Dainius Gudaitis.
In the final of the tournament, Dinamo Kyiv youths defeated Minsk by 5-0, the same team eliminated Rotterdam Feyenoord youths in the semi-finals.
The players of the Dutch super club also kept pace with the mini-finals, where they lost 0: 1 to the winners of the third-place Riga’s Metta.
The Lithuanian team of “Ateitis” was the best among the Lithuanians, who took the first place in the group, lost to the future winners Dinamo Kyiv football players, Borisov BATE team and remained in the tournament at tenth place. Also among Lithuanian teams, the tournament was good for Kaunas Tauro youths, while Ateities 2010 team remained third among Lithuanian teams.
This weekend, the 2011 and 2013-born graduates will compete for the tournament’s top team title, followed by the U-9 and U-7 juniors a week later. 50 teams planning to compete this weekend and over 80 teams next weekend.
Moscow’s Spartak football team (fourteen-year-old team) won the Ateitis CUP tournament and topped the list of Tbilisi’s Dinamo, Manchester City and Brest’s Dynamo this season. In the final, Spartak youth defeated Utrecht, the Dutch champion of this age group.
“We are happy to have chosen this tournament. This is a very different kind of football from here in Holland. We are dominated by technique and here we saw more by force football. We really appreciate the experience gained in the match against the Lithuanian national team, ” Utrecht coaches said.
For the first time in this age group, the Lithuanian regional team remained third. The team was prevented from reaching the finals by the aforementioned Utrecht representatives in the second stage after defeating Lithuanians 2:1. By the way, in the fight for the third place, Lithuanian representatives defeated Brest’s Dynamo peers after penalties. The latter were collected on the basis of the Belarusian national team.
“If we want to achieve something, we have to play that level games. Some guys entered the regional squad for the first time but showed that they deserve that invitation. Great atmosphere, tremendous desire and, most importantly, the fulfillment of what we demanded, led to this result, ” said one of the team coaches Ramūnas Radavičius.
U-15 and U-16 footballers will compete for the Ateitis CUP tournament’s Cups the coming weekend. Among the participants we will see Middlesbrough as well as teams from Finland, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The tournament will take place at the Sportima indoor stadium, LFF and Fan Stadiums.
On Friday, the second weekend of the tenth anniversary of the AteitisCUP Tournament will kick off in the Lithuanian capital, with twelve-year-olds from Manchester City, Bergamo’s Atalanta, Tbilisi’s Dinamo and other super academies from all Europe.
“Last week we raised the cart high enough so there is no doubt that we want to keep it at the same level. I think this weekend will not be much different from last weekend, only now matches will be played not 9×9 but 11×11, ” said the main organizer of tournament Dainius Gudaitis.
For the first time in history based United Lithuanian U-12 team will participate in Ateitis CUP tournament.
“In the older groups we will have regional teams and the 12-year-olds have decided to play for the Lithuanian national team. No doubt, it will be interesting to watch them and for them it will be a great test of what they are worth,” – said D.Gudaitis.
According to the tournament format, 32 teams will be divided into eight groups. The teams which will win first places at their groups will fight for the main cup. The tournament will take place at the Sportima indoor stadium, LFF Stadium, FANAI Stadium and Širvintos Stadium from Friday till Sunday.
The winners of the tournament will be revealed at 13:10 on Sunday at Sportima arena.
This friday is the begging of the second “Ateitis CUP” 2018 Autumn tournament, which will be played by the U12 age group. The tournament will use 4 stadiums over the span of 3 days to play 108 matches or 90 hours of football. Numbers like these are new to the tournaments history.
“This will be the first time, where some of the matches won’t be played in Vilnius. Due to massive participation, some of the games will be played in Širvintai. At first, we thought 36 teams won’t be a problem, but then reality caught up to us and there was no turning back. It’s still early to say, but I think we prepared ourselfs pretty well for this challenge” ,- the main tournament organiser, Dainius Gudaitis, about the upcoming tournament.
Big name teams such as Dortmund “Borussia”, Kijevo “Dinamo”, Tbilisi “Dinamo” will have their academies compete in the tournament. There will also be teams from Scandinavia, England, Russia, Belarussia, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia and , of course, Lithuania.
“I’ve mentioned this before, how we set a goal of bringing 10,000 visitors to Lithuania over 8 weekends. So far it’s been a good start and we just need to keep it up”,- D.Gudaitis.
The tournament will be held in “Sportima”, “LFF”, “Fanų” and Širvintų stadiums. The games begin at 8 A.M Friday and the closing ceremony begins on sunday 1:30 P.M.
This weekend is the beginning of the biggest Baltic countries football tournament “Ateitis CUP”. As expected, U8 winners were “Juventus” Torino, who beat “Dinamo” Minsk 2:1 in the final.
“Quite sad actually, we had multiple opportunities but failed to use them. On the other hand, the tournament itself was amazing. Not every weekend do you get the opportunity to play against teams like Turino “Juventus”, “Lugano” or Kaliningrads “Baltika” ;- Minsk “Dinamo” coach, Stanislav Parmonov.
The 3rd place was taken by Kaliningrad “Baltika” who defeated Minsk FSHM 3:0.
Along side the eight year olds, the U-6 group was also being played. In this age group Kauno “Fortūna” were the grand champions.
This upcoming weekend will be played by the U12 age group, were big name team academies will compete. Dortmund „Borussia“, Kiev „Dinamo“, Tbilisi „Dinamo“, Bath BWB, „Lugano“ and other teams from Scandinavia , Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.
This weekend in the capital of Lithuania “Ateitis CUP” tournament was started, in which 24 teams from 12 countries competed.
The biggest interest was in Hellas Verona Academy from Italy and the best last year Scandinavian teams – Hammarby and Helsinki HJK.
All the teams were divided into 6 groups. The winners of the groups and the canditates to the champion title were: Verona Hellas (Italy), SK Babite (Latvia), Riga Metta (Latvia), Stockholm Hammarby (Sweden), HJK Helsinki (Finland) and Tallinn Harju (Estonia).
The Hammarby and HJK Helsinki became the finalists, and the result of this battle was decided by a dramatic 11-meter penalty shoot-out.
The best tournament players were choosen from the finalist teams and Riga’s “Metta” .
The next weekend will U13 groups compete !
