Aspire Qatar’s player Abdulrasheed Ibrahim, receiving the Man-of-the-Match award from an official at the end of the Aspire Qatar and Chicago Fire match at Aspire Academy in Doha yesterday. Aspire Qatar won 1-0.
Doha: Free-scoring Real Madrid handed a footballing lesson to opponents Porto with a classy 6-2 victory in yesterday’s opening game of the Al Kass Cup.
Just 24 hours after suffering a grueling defeat at the hands of Aspire International, Los Blancos took to the field knowing that a second successive loss would see them eliminated from the tournament.
Yet they betrayed no signs of early nerves, displaying a quiet determination from the kick off.
Porto, making their debut in the competition, were quickly placed under pressure, with the ball seldom out of their half for the first few minutes as the Spaniards looked to press high up the pitch and impose themselves on the game.
Real attacker Nestor Gonzalez provided a real threat going forward from the get-go and made an early impact in the game’s sixth minute.
Pouncing on a poor pass along the Porto back line, the 15-year-old made a clever interception on the edge of the box before getting his shot away to open the scoring, albeit via a lucky deflection off a Porto defender.
There was less fortune, however, for his attacking team-mate Daniel Alcon, who managed to miss three clear goalscoring opportunities in the space of five minutes following the opening goal.
The second goal owed much to the tenacity of midfielder Gregorio Teruel, who fended off challenges from at least five defenders at the edge of the Porto box before squaring to his teammate.
Nestor Gonzales made no mistake, scoring his second goal of the game with a sweet shot directed into the bottom right corner of the net.
With Madrid now two ahead, Porto began to drift.
Industrious midfield player Madiu Bari and striker Idrisa Sambu showed flashes of real talent but the Portuguese outfit failed to provide much threat going forward.
And in the game’s 38th minute, it was no surprise to see Porto punished again.
Firing Madrid’s third, and his second, goal of the game, Alvaro Alcantara volleyed home following a lobbed pass from teammate Nestor Gonzalez.
The half-time break did little to disturb Madrid’s momentum, who went further ahead within five minutes of the restart.
Finding the ball inside the Porto penalty area, Oscar Rodriguez struck well to put the game beyond the Portuguese side. To their credit, the Portuguese side continued to compete strongly, and received a belated reward on 65 minutes when midfielder Miguel De Sousa fired home to make the score 4-1.
However, any hope of a fight back was short-lived as, three minutes later, a superb 25-yard free kick from Madrid’s Oscar Rodriguez arced into the top left corner, leaving Porto keeper Tiago Martins with no chance.
Rodriguez’ strike was his first of the tournament, and he did not waste the opportunity to show off his impressive dance moves at the corner flag.
The engrossed spectators had already been treated to a six-goal fiesta, yet there were more to come. On the 70-minute mark it was Porto’s turn to add to their goal tally. Twisting and turning inside the Madrid penalty area, substitute Michael Da Silva broke past two defenders before firing a fine strike past goalkeeper and captain Luca Zidane.
Real completed the tally with seconds remaining with Nestor scoring the sixth goal, his strike completing a superb piece of team play from the Spanish side. Aspire Qatar resulted in a narrow victory over US side Chicago Fire in the Group D game.
Abdulrasheed Ibrahim scored the only goal of the match in the 18th minute shooting past the American keeper Raymon Leon Jr.
For much of the first half both sides played some attractive pass-and-move football, with the teams looking to the wings for much of their creativity. Chicago Fire midfielder Malik Johnnson was an industrious presence along the left flank, constantly looking to beat the Aspire Qatar right back Khalifa Almanaseer with his electric pace.
And, in the final minutes of the first half, the 15-year-old came close to pulling his team level when he broke through and went one-on-one with the Aspire keeper. Fortunately for the Doha team, a last-minute sliding challenge from defender Khalid Mubarak Al-Naimi was enough to prevent the American from getting his shot away.
The Peninsula
