TOON WELCOMES EASTERN PROMISE

A NUMBER of football stars of the future will strut their stuff in Ballymoney this week.

Up-and-coming players from across the globe are competing in the Milk Cup throughout this week, with the town playing host to several clashes involving high profile sides.

Last night Japan and Denmark went head-to-head at the Riada Stadium in the Elite Section with Belvedere playing Co Fermanagh in the Premier Section.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Portuguese giants FC Porto played Club Marcet in the same section and Dundalk SL faced Co Antrim.

This afternoon (Tuesday) South East Bayern take on Queen of the South (noon), Aspire face Watford (3.30pm) and Etoile Lusitana will play Bolton Wanderers (5pm). At 7pm KV Mechelen will play Tottenham Hotspur.

Wednesday sees the visit of China to Ballymoney for their game against Northern Ireland, kick off 8pm.

China head coach, Su Maozhen, is promising his team will deliver their own distinctive brand of football.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It's the first time that the national team of China has played in the under-19 Elite section and Su Maozhen is determined that his side makes their indelible mark on the tournament.

"We will try our best to play our own football. The teams that are here are all strong and will provide good opposition for us," he said.

The coach said the team had prepared very well for this week's matches before making a long and tiring journey to Northern Ireland.

"Before this we went to North Korea for a few matches. We then went to Beijing for three or four days training.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"We flew 11 hours from Beijing to London where we stayed for one night before coming here. We are all very happy and excited about everything."

Most of the squad play for teams in the China Super League or First Division and have dreams of a successful career in the professional game.

"All the players play for the either their club's second teams or reserves - they are not at the top level yet but they have the potential to be," Su Maozhen said.

Football is enormously popular in China and the coach added that there is great media interest in how the team performs this week.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"There is a lot of attention on the team from newspapers and media. The Milk Cup is quite famous and people know about it.

"We will face very good opposition here. We are happy to be the first under-19 team from China to play in the tournament."

A number of matches in the latter stages of the Milk Cup are also set to be staged in Ballymoney. For up-to-date fixtures, news and reports see our sister paper the News Letter every day this week.

Meanwhile, there may have been a transfer for finals day from Coleraine to Ballymena this year but Milk Cup organisers are running a special bus service to Warden Street Showgrounds from Coleraine and Ballymoney.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

There will be three departure times from Coleraine and Ballymoney on Friday from outside the High School at Lodge Road, Coleraine - at 2.45pm, 4.45pm and 6pm travelling to Ballymoney and picking up passengers at the filling station just off the Portrush Road roundabout at 3pm, 5pm and 6.15pm.

They will arrive at Ballymena Showgrounds at 3.45pm (15 minutes ahead of the Junior Final), 5.45pm (in time for the Elite final) and 7pm (ahead of the Premier decider which kicks off at 8.15pm).

Departure times from Ballymena are at 6pm, 8pm and 10pm.

Related topics: