The biggest Eastern Europe children football tournament, “Ateitis CUP”, held the U-8 tournament this weekend. From 36 teams, Moscow’s “Deviatka” stood out, winning the final 1:0 against the Polish Gdansk “Jaguar”. Bergamo “Atalanta” ending only in 7th place.

” Top club academies underachieving only shows the level of this tournament. Around 10 teams were at a similar level and the results and standings could turn at any point”,- Dainius Gudaitis said.

Third spot when to Tbilisi “Dinamo” who won 2:0 against Riga FS and the best performing Lithuanian team was Šiauliai Academy  who ended 6th, losing out to Kaliningrad’s “Baltika” for the fifth spot.

The next weekend will also be the last one of the year. U-7 and U-9 age groups will be participating with a total of 56 teams competing. Well known club will be sending their academies, such as Rotterdam “Feyenoord”, “Lugano”, Bergamo “Atalanta”, Bate Borisov and many more.

The sixth weekend of “Ateitis CUP” was exceptional as for the first time in 9 years – a team from India participated.

“Without a doubt, they were the center of attention for this tournament. Everyone wanted to meet, talk and play them”,- Dainius Gudaitis.

While only finishing 38th, the team from Mumbai promises to come back next year with a stronger team and put up a bigger fight.

The tournament champions were Russia’s Jurij Konopliov academy, winning in the final 2:0 against Riga “Metta”. The third spot went to Tbilisi “Dinamo” and the fourth went to DYYSSH-4 side. The best Lithuanian team was Panevežys FA, who placed 7th.

One of the biggest sensation in this tournament was Liverpool’s under performance, ending only 13th.

Best tournament players:

Goalkeeper: Lev Vainshten (Y.Konoplev academy)

Defender: Matis Silin („Metta“)

Midfielder: Luka Tsulaia (Tbilisi „Dinamo“)

Striker: Andrej Andrei Prosialikin (JY.Konoplev academy)

The biggest eastern youth football tournament “Ateitis CUP” sees new unseen visitors. For the first time, in the tournaments history a team from India travels to compete in the tournament.

“We’ve had offers from other teams from different continents showing interest in the tournament, but they never escalated beyond talks. The team from Mumbai put in a lot of effort to come for our tournament and we are grateful for that. I’ll be honest, up until the last minute, we weren’t sure if they would really come. Goes to show how far this tournament has come”,- Dainius Gudaitis, the main tournament organizer.

“Ateitis CUP” U-11 will start this week on Friday. A total of 40 teams will compete with known teams  like Liverpool, Dinamo Tbilisi, Nizhnyj Novgorod and many more.

The fifth weekend of “Ateitis CUP” held its oldest participants born from 2002 and 2003. Teams from England, Russia, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania competed but only one could come out on top – England’s “Middlesbrough” youngsters.

“Thank you for this opportunity. We truly enjoyed this our time here, in Lithuania, both on and off the pitch”,- England’s academy coaches.

“Middlesbrough” only defeated Latvian champions Ri “Supernova” Riga after penalties.

“We need to be realistic, they played a lot better, created more opportunities and won fairly. The penalties were also heartbreaking as we failed to score twice”,- “Supernova” coach opinion about the final.

The third spot battle was between 2 Lithuanian teams, where Paneveziys FA defeated Vilnius “Žalgiris” 2:1.

“ It’s disappointing that 2 mistakes early in the game took away the opportunity to compete in the final. Talking about individual performance, I’m quite pleased with my team”,- coach Darius Žindulis.

Best players:

Final standings:

1. FC “Middlesbrough” (England)
2.  “Supernova” Riga (Latvia)
3. Panevėžio FA (Lithuania)
4.  “Žalgirietis” FA (Lithuania)
5.  “Baltika” Kaliningrad (Russia)
6.  “Metta” Riga  (Latvia)
7. BFC “Daugavpils” (Latvia)
8.  “Legion” Tallinn (Estonja)
9.  “Žalgirietis 2003” Vilnius (Lithuania)
10.  “Titans” St. Petersburg (Russia)
11. MRJK “Viimsi” (Estonia)
12.  “Lokomotiv” St. Petersburg (Russia)

 

The fourth weekend in a row, “Ateitis CUP” continues its internationaly reknown tournament. Georgias champions, Tbilisi “Dinamo”, were triumphant in their games, beating Irelands “Cherry Orchard” 2-0 in the final.

“Thank you very much for the tournament. Even though we won the tournament, in all of the games, we were forced to play our best game to win. We’re happy we came to this tournament”, – Tbilisi “Dinamo” coach, promising to come again next year.

The battle for bronze ended with a tight score of 1-0 for BATE Borisov, beating Stuttgarts “Vaihingen” youngsters.

 

This tournament also had a representitive from England, “Middlesbrough” teams academy. ”I’ve never been to Lithuania before and my first experience here was astonishing. The level of football, the food and the culture – were all amazing”,- Jordan Taiti, academy coach of “Middlebrough”. Englands youngsters beat Tallinn “Legion” 2-0, for the fifth place.

The best performing Lithuanian team was NFA, who were one goal of from being in the top 4 teams. They ended 7th, beating Rygos “Metta” 1-0, for the spot.

The tournaments best players:

 

Next weekend will be played by U16 /U15.

The biggest baltic country based tournament,  “Ateitis CUP”, ends its third weekend with youngsters from Swedens “Hammarby” becoming the champions.

“Hammarby” has now won the tournament twice in a row. Last year they beat Helsink’s HJK in the final over penalties, this year as well their final game against Brest “Dynamo” came down to penalties.

The battle for bronze was also an incredible match. The Belarussian derby between Riga “Metta” and BFC “Daugavpils”, looked over after “Metta” went 0-2 down, but they didn’t give up and came back with 3 goals, securing the 3rd spot.

 

Best tournament players:

 

Final standings:

1. FC „Hammarby“ (Sweden)
2.  „Dynamo“ Brest (Belarus)
3.  „Metta“ Riga (Latvia)
4. BFC „Daugavpils“ (Latvia)
5. HJK  Helsink(Finland)
6. FK „Minsk“ (Belarussia)
7.  „Dinamo“ Riga (Latvia)
8.  „Smena“ Minsk (Belarus)
9. FC „Torino“ (Italy)
10.  „Voluntas Montichiari“ Bresia (Italy)
11. FA  „Žalgirietis“Vilnius (Lithuania)
12.  BATE  Borisov (Belarus)
13. FK „Babite“ (Latvia)
14. FC „Lugano“ (Switzerland)
15. „Vostok“  Elektrostal  (Russia)
16.  „Tiskor“ Minsk (Belarus)
17. FC „Alliance“ (Estonia)
18. NFA (Lithuania)
19. TJK „Legion“ Tallinn (Estonia)
20. FM „Vilnius“ (Lithuania)
21.  „Harju“ Tallinn (Estonia)
22.  „Nomme United“ Tallinn (Estonia)
23.  „Kalev“  Tallinn (Estonia)
24.  „Khamovniki“  Moscow (Russia)
25. „Dinamo“ Chisinau (Moldova)
26.  „Vityaz“ Odincovo (Russia)
27. FM „Ateitis“ (Lithuania)
28.  „Olimp“  Vologda (Russia)

This weekend will be the start of the U14 Cup. “Middlesbrough” England,  “Vaigingen” Germany and other teams from countries like Georgia, Finland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania will compete.

Dortmund’s “Borussia” youngster took the 3rd spot this weekend in the U12 “Ateitis CUP”, but before going back to Germany they visited the municipality of the capital city and later Lithuania’s football federation, where they were greeted by the president, Tomas Danilevičius.

“The tournament is growing, so it’s only natural for the government and the football federation to show support. In 8 weekends around 10,000 foreigners will visit Lithuania, because of the tournament, and being appreciated for it only seems fair.

“The tournament is growing, so it’s only natural way to show support. In 8 weekends around 10,000 foreigners will visit Lithuania, because of the tournament, and being appreciated for it only seems fair. “

Dortmund’s “Borussia” are visiting for a second year in a row and it doesn’t seem like the last.

“Borussia” is not the only big name that will compete this year. Turino “Juventus”, “Lugano” and Kiev “Dinamo” . This weekend will be played by the U13 group were teams such as FC “Torino”, Borisov BATE, Helsinki HJK, Stockholm’s “Hammarby”, “Lugano” and others, will compete to become the champions of “Ateitis CUP”.

 

 

“Ateitis CUP” – a tournament uniting 36 teams for 90 hours of football, comes to an end with Kiev “Dinamo”  becoming the grand champions.

“It’s undeniable that Kiev “Dinamo” were the strongest team, however, the tournament continues with the other age groups and many more teams will compete to be remembered. “- said Dainius Gudaitis, the main organizer.

The 3rd place went to Dortmund “Borussia” after beating NSA from Norway 4:1.

In total, teams from 14 different countries competed. Jaroslav Kuzmenko was the highest scorer, Tim Schliech from “Borussia” was chosen the best goalkeeper, Jevgenij Didych was the best defender, Micheil Saja was the best midfielder and Mathias Guterud from NSA was chosen the best striker.

  

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.