PSG lift third Al Kass title to create history

Paris Saint-Germain became the first three-time winners of the Al KassInternational Cup, beating Kashiwa Reysol, 2-1 in the final yesterday.The French club had also won the tournament in 2012 and 2015.Benfica took third place by beating Espérance de Tunis, 3-0.Kashiwa wasted no time in the title match, opening up an early lead. Inthe fourth minute, Hayato Fujimoto launched a remarkable shot from theright side over the head of PSG keeper Trey Vimalin, a remarkable goalthat set the tone for the rest of the game.With the lead, Kashiwa settled into its usual defensive posture, and PSGwent on the attack. The French side equalised on 33 minutes, whenTanguy Coulibaly got on the end of a low cross and gave keeper LeoKokubo no chance.The second half saw more retrenchment from Kashiwa and more siege fromPSG. The pressure came to fruition in the 54th minute, when a Kashiwadefender was whistled for a handball in the area. Coulibaly snuck hispenalty underneath Kokubo, and PSG had its lead.Kashiwa was forced to bring its attack forward and nearly equalised with15 minutes remaining, but Vimalin was just able to tip Hosoya’s shotwide. It was the last, best chance for Kashiwa, who could only watch asPSG raised the cup for the third time.PSG coach Laurent Huard said, “It was an extremely difficult match.Kashiwa had a strong defence, so we didn’t have an opportunity to scoremore goals, but thankfully we managed to score the second goal and winthe Al Kass International Tournament. I’m so proud of my team, theperformed phenomenally.”Qatar Football Association secretary-general Mansoor al-Ansari said, “Tosee the youth come up and always play against great teams from all overthe world is an amazing experience for them, and for us, across theboard. And also on an organisational basis, to give all of theparticipating teams the opportunity to experience what Qatar has tooffer, from the facilities to the nice weather, as well as the level offootball, I think it will be a great memory for all of the players.”The winners medals were presented by football legend Ra?l Gonzalez, RealMadrid’s second all-time leading scorer who also played for Al Sadd inthe QNB Stars League.“I’m happy to be back at Aspire Academy to see old colleagues andfriends. It is great to see the constant progress in football and howenthusiastic people are about the game,” he said. “The Al Kasstournament is one of the best examples of this. Al Kass provides one ofthe most valuable opportunities to see the best talents in football, andmaybe we will see some of these young players come back to Qatar forthe 2022 World Cup.”The third-place match was a classic case of an unstoppable force meetingan immovable object. Portuguese side Benfica took the field as thehighest-scoring team in the tournament, with 20 goals in their firstfour matches. Espérance, on the other hand, leaned heavily on its backline, not conceding a goal until the semi-finals.The first half was scoreless, but on 56 minutes, a series of shortpasses in the area set up Ronaldo Camara for the game’s first goal.Benfica maintained that momentum, and in the 76th minute, substituteJavier Tavares found the net with a hard, low shot. Fittingly, Benfica’sthird and final goal of the tournament came courtesy of Gonçalo Ramos,who tapped home a cross from Tavares with two minutes left. The goal wasRamos’s sixth of the tournament, the most of any player.Ahmed al-Abbassi, Executive Director of Qatar national teams, said,“It’s extremely important to participate in such a great event. Weparticipate in several big tournaments, but the Al Kass InternationalCup is by far the strongest in terms of technical quality of thedifferent teams that we play against. It’s a catalyst for the players togain experience against the best players in the world of their age.”Moving down the table, in fifth place were Aspire Football Dreams, RealMadrid (Spain) were sixth, AC Milan (Italy) were seventh, and AspireAcademy (Qatar) took eighth.Finishing ninth through 12th, respectively, were Tottenham Hotspur(England), Guangzhou Evergrande (China), Wydad AC (Morocco) andFenerbahçe (Turkey).