Aston Villa won the HKFC IP Global International Soccer Sevens for a record fifth time yesterday (Sunday, 16 May) with a thrilling 3-2 victory over Glasgow Rangers.
Villa raced into a three-goal lead and then held off a strong fightback from their Scottish opponents in front of a near-capacity crowd at the Hong Kong Football Club.
Two players with first team experience – striker Nathan Delfouneso and midfielder Marc Albrighton – made the difference for Villa.
Delfouneso put them ahead after just three minutes and Albrighton added a brace to stun a Rangers team who had entered the final without conceding a goal in the whole tournament.
But inspirational Rangers captain Andrew Shinnie – one of the stars of the weekend – netted a penalty on the stroke of half-time and added a stunning second soon after the break to set up a dramatic finale.
Delfouneso and midfielder Harry Forrester both hit the bar for Villa in a frantic last few minutes.
Rangers, for whom midfielder Shinnie finished as the tournament’s leading scorer with eight goals, had to settle for second best again after losing last year’s final to city rivals Celtic.
Villa academy manager Bryan Jones said his coaching staff had come up with a game plan and the players had executed it perfectly.
“We had seen Rangers play and we knew they were very strong in midfield, Shinnie is an excellent player, but we felt we could get at them down the wings and I think it paid off,” he said. “I thought our wide players were excellent, especially Marc out on the right.”
Jones said first team experience was not the only reason Albrighton and Delfouneso stood out during the weekend. “Marc and Nathan have also been to the Soccer Sevens before and that counts because seven-a-side is completely different. You can play in the Premiership and still struggle in this form of football.”
“They know how to play it and I think their experience told in the end. We think they’ve both got a great future in the game.
“Martin O’Neill [the Villa manager] takes tremendous interest in the academy players and if I don’t text him in the next five minutes to tell him the result I’ll be in trouble! He’s very keen.”
Jones said Villa, winners of the trophy four times between 2002 and 2008, felt they owed it to the organisers to bring their strongest possible squad.
“We’ve been coming here for eight or nine years now and we’re so well looked after that we almost feel duty bound to bring one or two ‘name’ players to help bring in the fans. It’s our payback to the organisers,” he said.
Albrighton admitted Rangers had made Villa fight all the way. “It was a great team performance,” he said. “We made hard work of it but we got there in the end.
“Rangers beat us in the semi-finals last year so we knew they were a good side. After we went 3-0 up we got a little bit complacent but we saw it out and it was brilliant to get the victory.”
Earlier, Villa were superb in beating Ajax 3-1 in the quarter-finals, Albrighton scoring twice in-between a fantastic strike from Delfouneso. Forrester was the star of their 3-0 semi-final victory over West Ham United, netting the first two goals before Delfouneso tapped in the third after brilliant approach work from Albrighton.
Rangers had exacted revenge against Celtic for last year’s final defeat, winning their quarter-final clash 2-0 with a pair of Shinnie goals. Shinnie was also the architect of their 3-0 win over Sunderland in the semi-finals, earning and converting a penalty and slamming in a free-kick to give his team a two-goal half-time lead, then setting up Rory Loy for the third.
Soccer Sevens debutants Ajax gained some consolation for their quarter-final defeat by Villa when they beat Celtic 2-0 in the second-tier Shield final – Nathaniel Will and Vlatko Lazic getting the goals.
Aston Villa captain Ciaran Clark (holding trophy) leads the celebrations (Pic:Create Images/Soccer Sevens)
Masters Competition
In the Masters Cup final, KFC Tokyo – a team of expatriate amateur players mainly based in the Japanese capital – secured a surprise 2-1 win over the Andy Cole Jura All Stars.
Manchester United great Cole put his team ahead with a lethal shot early in the game – his sixth goal of the weekend – but KFC Tokyo pulled level within a minute with a brilliant long-range strike from Malaysian midfielder Punanseveran.
French striker David Serene scored the winner with a superb solo effort and the All Stars finished with six men after ex-Chelsea defender Frank Sinclair was shown the red card by Premier League referee Martin Atkinson for two bookable offences.
“We’re very happy, we’ve been coming to the Soccer Sevens for a long time so it’s nice to finally win a trophy,” said KFC Tokyo captain Kirk Neureiter. “We lost in the Plate final four years ago so to win the Cup this time, especially against a team containing so many great players, is just a fantastic feeling.”
See at the Soccer Sevens in 2011!
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