The NextGen Series (Champions League for Youth Football)

gnfnrhead

Would it not have been better to give Ajax or Barca the bye to the final? Liverpool were already eliminated, should they go on to win it I can see a lot of complaints from other teams as a result.

DDC1990

gnfnrhead wrote: »

Would it not have been better to give Ajax or Barca the bye to the final? Liverpool were already eliminated, should they go on to win it I can see a lot of complaints from other teams as a result.

Well, if the illegally qualified player had an impact on the game, which led to Liverpool's loss then it seems the most logical decision.

Hypothetically if Barca play Messi vs Ajax, and he scores the winner, surely you wouldn't advocate the same situation would you?

L'prof

gnfnrhead wrote: »

Would it not have been better to give Ajax or Barca the bye to the final? Liverpool were already eliminated, should they go on to win it I can see a lot of complaints from other teams as a result.

So you'd have them play each other in the quarter final and then again in the semis? Makes more sense to let Liverpool through I'm afraid!

opr

Two of the worlds best academies play each other in todays QF : Barcelona - Ajax (K.O. 5pm).

Will be streamed on the nextgen site - http://www.nextgenseries.com/en/Tournament-news/Comments-and-Features/2012/Barcelona-vs-Ajax-Live

Opr

ASOT

opr wrote: »

Two of the worlds best academies play each other in todays QF : Barcelona - Ajax (K.O. 5pm).

Will be streamed on the nextgen site - http://www.nextgenseries.com/en/Tournament-news/Comments-and-Features/2012/Barcelona-vs-Ajax-Live

Opr

Its weird watching ajax play when i played against some of them players back in a tournament in almere.

Ferris_Bueller

Ajax bet Barcelona 3-0 tonight. Haven't seen either team play, but knowing how good Barcas academy is, Ajax must have some team.

D'Agger

Barca had a strong team it's fair to say - their number 10 is a great bit of stuff would love to see Liverpool snap him up, looks a good prospect.

Ajax Liverpool in the semi - should be a good game can't wait to see it.

mike65

Liverpool v Ajax 14.03.12 at St Helens Langtree Park 7pm KO

I bet the quality of football beats the senior team against Everton tonight!

The_Kew_Tour

Ajax winning 6-0 in as one sided a game as you will see.

Chucky the tree

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Ajax winning 6-0 in as one sided a game as you will see.

You didn't watch the game then?

The_Kew_Tour

Chucky the tree wrote: »

You didn't watch the game then?

yep watched full highlights:rolleyes:

opr

Just on the game tonight. Ajax scored very early. Liverpool then dominated the game for 40 minutes missing a penalty and Ajax scored right at the end of the half to make it 2-0 which was completely unreflective of the first half. They scored early in the second half through a bad error from our keeper. Our lads heads dropped and with the quality Ajax have they ripped us apart for the rest of the game. They were by far the better side with some cracking players but the score line was very harsh on Liverpool. Posts like yours purely for mickey waving purposes are pretty much why very little good discussion happens in threads like these.

Considering it's likely Arsenal and Man United will join this competition I thought I would give some thoughts as someone who has watched and really enjoyed it as whole. I watch a decent amount of Liverpool U18 and reserve football and the standard in this competition has been a huge step up. The games are proper competitive fixtures played against really good teams of varying styles. I think the competition as a whole has been an indicative barometer of how far behind other clubs academies are to the likes of Sporting, Ajax and Barce and some of the reason why they consistently produce so many good players.

To tell this tale I need to give a little history to the Liverpool Academy which I will try to make short as most other fans won't care and Liverpool fans know it well. Basically Rafa got full control of the Academy a few years back which he described as being a complete mess. He went about reforming it completely. He hired the guys who used to oversee the Acadmey at Barcelona when the likes of Xavi, Messi, Fabregas were coming through - Pep Segura and Rodolfo Borrell. Here is what Borrell said among other things when he first arrived at Liverpool :

"The under-18s had no centre forward, no balance, no tactical level, no understanding of the game.

Since then they have set about righting those many wrongs and the group that played tonight is the first group that will have trained with them for any length of time. While I think we have some very talented individuals in the team you can see just how far overall the team is behind the best in the world.

This being the first team under the new coaches they wanted to improve things straight away so lots of the team Liverpool currently have at this level have been bought rather brought through the age groups as lots of them were deemed not good enough. Hopefully in the years down the line we will have kids coming through that will have played and worked with these coaches since a very early age.

What I found most interesting following this competition is that these kind of teams that have been produced right through the age groups many with players whom have been together since they were 10 years old are so ahead of the curve. This is how the Barcelona team was produced. Borrell actually discovered Fabregas at 10 years old.

"I went to see them play again and suddenly I saw this one player who was simply wonderful," recalls Borrell.

"They told me he was called Cesc Fabregas and he was one year younger than the rest. He was good at running with the ball, had a fantastic pass over short, medium and long distances.

"He was very mature for his age and had all the attributes we were looking for at Barcelona at that time.

"At half-time, I asked the coach why I had not seen this kid before. He admitted that, when he saw me coming, he had decided not to play him because he knew that if I saw him I would take him."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/8591463.stm

Pique, Messi, Fabregas and others all played for Borrell's under-14s. They came up together through the ranks as a team. They regularly destroyed teams at all youth levels. The Sporting, Ajax, Barce teams all work on this system of bringing the best youth players through together from the youngest age possible. Imagine being around the same group of players, growing up together, playing the same way, etc. Think of the understanding, team ethic and bonding among many other things that it builds. It takes huge vision and a very long term commitment to youth to make these academies work but it does seem to be them that bare the most fruit.

On a side note the Sporting Lisbon side who were very unlucky to go out to Inter Milan in the quarters are one of the best youth sides I have ever seen.

Opr

GavRedKing

Chelsea joining the NextGen Series from next season.

Confirmed on the ChelseaFC website.

http://www.chelseafc.com/page/Latest...658899,00.html

mike65

With more big guns joining I'd hope that someone takes a punt of the TV rights for the
knockout stages at least. If it were only on the BBC red button that would be great.

opr

mike65 wrote: »

With more big guns joining I'd hope that someone takes a punt of the TV rights for the
knockout stages at least. If it were only on the BBC red button that would be great.

Yeah someone smart should take a punt and try and tie them into a four year deal for the rights as I can only see the competition getting bigger. Great to see Chelsea officially signed up. Also heard that Man United and Real Madrid have signed up for next season which means surely the likes of Arsenal can't be far behind.

Opr

GavRedKing

It would be good to see it on Setanta or ESPN, I dont think Sky will gamble on it at the moment.

If Chelsea TV we're to show all the Chelsea games I'd definetly subscribe again.

opr

I would presume Chelsea TV will show at least the home matches. LFCTV showed all the home games. Even the away games against the likes of Molde had some channel picking up the game, most of the time a local channel from which a stream usually appeared online. The Nextgen site also streamed a few of the Liverpool matches. Last nights semi final was shown on LFCTV, Eurosport (France), Fox Soccer (USA), Setanta (Russia, ROI) and Eredivisielive.

Opr

opr

The other semi final in this takes place in London at 6pm tonight.

Inter Milan vs Marseille

Opr

opr

The final is on at the moment Ajax - Inter Milan.

Currently 1-1 after normal time with Inter down to ten men going into extra time.

Link - http://www.coolsportz.de/stream8.php

Opr

opr

Penalties at the moment. 1-1 so far in the shootout.

Opr

opr

All sorts of drama Ajax miss a penalty to make Inter champions. They run off celebrating but referee makes him retake the penalty and they score :pac:

Inter score the next penalty anyway and are Champions!

Opr

D'Agger

opr wrote: »

All sorts of drama Ajax miss a penalty to make Inter champions. They run off celebrating but referee makes him retake the penalty and they score :pac:

Inter score the next penalty anyway and are Champions!

Opr

Inter must have seriously turned it up a notch after their game against Tottenham - they were ripped apart by them.

Some good young players coming through from there, Sporting and Ajax it seems

civis_liberalis

gavredking wrote: »

Chelsea joining the NextGen Series from next season.

I wonder is it true that the Airtricity Under 19 Elite League winners will get a place in next season's NextGen series?

opr

PaulieC wrote: »

Inter must have seriously turned it up a notch after their game against Tottenham - they were ripped apart by them.

Some good young players coming through from there, Sporting and Ajax it seems

I think that Inter had a huge churn of players over the course of the competition. Only four players who played against Tottenham played in the final. The competition as a whole fired up loads of strange results which isn't a surprise at youth level. The guys that were in charge of both Sporting and Inter have both been made first team coaches since. I have to say it would be a interesting idea down the line to think about Rodolfo as Liverpool's first team coach. Nice to see us beating Marseille in the 3rd place payoff who put Barce out.

civis_liberalis wrote: »

I wonder is it true that the Airtricity Under 19 Elite League winners will get a place in next season's NextGen series?

That sounds like all kinds of awesome. Would be great if it happened but sadly it feels like a pipe dream.

Opr

civis_liberalis

opr wrote: »

That sounds like all kinds of awesome. Would be great if it happened but sadly it feels like a pipe dream.

http://www.shamrockrovers.ie/teams/under-19s-section/about

Last sentence in that article.

opr

civis_liberalis wrote: »

http://www.shamrockrovers.ie/teams/under-19s-section/about

Last sentence in that article.

Thanks for the link, well I hope that happens. The Irish u19 league as a whole sounds like a great idea and finally maybe we are putting some thought into youth development.

Nextgen really is shaping up to be a great competition next season.

Opr

opr

Good article on the competition and its future going forward.

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/03/28/nextgen-series-represents-footballs-future-but-what-next-for-the-under-19-champions-league/

Talk is that it will move to 24 teams next year with Paris Saint-German and Chelsea officially confirmed. The other teams who have agreed for next season so far are rumoured to be Arsenal, AC Milan, Athletic Bilbao, Olympiacos, CSKA Moscow and Real Madrid.

Opr

D'Agger

opr wrote: »

Good article on the competition and its future going forward.

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/03/28/nextgen-series-represents-footballs-future-but-what-next-for-the-under-19-champions-league/

Talk is that it will move to 24 teams next year with Paris Saint-German and Chelsea officially confirmed. The other teams who have agreed for next season so far are rumoured to be Arsenal, AC Milan, Athletic Bilbao, Olympiacos, CSKA Moscow and Real Madrid.

Opr

Delighted to see the competition taking off - good exposure for young players and entertaining football going by what I saw this season.

Sporting, Liverpool (in Patches), Ajax in particular played some lovely stuff.

mike65

Manchester Utd could well be the only really big club not taking part.

G.K.

I thought they'd signed up already?

opr

G.K. wrote: »

I thought they'd signed up already?

Ferguson is quoted last year as saying he didn't join because he didn't think the competition would last. Surely his views will have changed a little given its success this year and growth for next season ?

Opr

D'Agger

Ferguson's always getting it wrong sure :pac:

opr

NextGeneration ‏ @NextGenSeries Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
Arsene Wenger - "We are excited about joining the tournament. It’s a great challenge to face off against the best young players in Europe"

Arsenal officially join next years competition.

Opr

D'Agger

More and more teams entering which will make it very interesting.

Hopefully we might see it on TV rather than having to stream the whole time - the interest would be there.

civis_liberalis

opr wrote: »

Arsenal officially join next years competition.

A few more on the way.

...but plans are afoot to bring in other teams from next season if all goes well as they look to expand to 24 teams.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2006964/Q-A-NextGen-Series.html

Glico Man

New teams for next seasons NextGen include: Dortmund, Chelsea, Arsenal, PSG, Anderlecht, CSKA Moskva, Olympiakos and Athletic Bilbao.

Looks like a great lineup when you include this seasons sides. Competition going from strength to strength.

civis_liberalis

civis_liberalis wrote: »

http://www.shamrockrovers.ie/teams/under-19s-section/about

Last sentence in that article.

So this wasn't true at all in the end. Sounded to good to be true tbh anyway.

Nuri Sahin

Dortmund will play Liverpool, Inter Milan and Rosenborg in the groupstage of the Next Gens tournament next season.

mike65

The six groups for the NextGen Series 2012-13 are:

Group One: Barcelona, Tottenham Hotspur, Olympiacos, Vfl Wolfsburg.

Group Two: Manchester City, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, Fenerbahce.

Group Three: Chelsea, Ajax, CSKA Moscow, Molde FK.

Group Four: Arsenal, Athletico Bilbao, Olympique de Marseille, RSC Anderlecht.

Group Five: Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund, Internazionale, Rosenborg BK.

Group Six: Sporting Clube de Portugal, Celtic, Aston Villa, PSV Eindhoven.

Manchester Utd and Real Madrid increasingly glaring by their omission.

jimjimjimmy

^
Why are the British teams in bold?

mike65

In recognition that 90% of regular boardsies follow British Teams (and it helps point out that Man Utd are not there!).

Knex*

jimjimjimmy wrote: »

^
Why are the British teams in bold?

Because Mike was kind enough to go to the effort of posting all the groups and highlighting the teams that would have the highest interest among the posters on this forum.

jimjimjimmy

mike65 wrote: »

In recognition that 90% of regular boardsies follow British Teams (and it helps point out that Man Utd are not there!).

Ok was just wondering.

Thanks for posting the groups btw.

As an Inter fan I think we have a very exciting group. Liverpool and Dortmund games should be good. Don't see us retaining the trophy as Stramaccioni is 1st team coach now. Him getting the 1st team job gives this competition extra credence, not just for young players but for the aspiring managers too.

dor83

I don't know, Bernazzani has been doing well with the Primavera, who finished top of the table and are in the semi-finals for the Scudetto. The Juniores also won there league this season, so they should be in good shape to put in a good showing next year too.

civis_liberalis

Wouldn't be surprised if this was mentioned before, but SEVEN Irish players played for Villa in the quarter final they narrowly lost to Marseille. 6 starters and another came on for the last half hour. Villa had 8 Irish lads playing for them over the course of the comp.

Paul George at Celtic too. Striker that scored 3 in the comp. As much as anyone else got for Celtic.

civis_liberalis

UEFA have announced an Under 19 Champions League, to be competed by the 32 teams that qualify for the Champions League proper.

Looks like the NextGen series has spooked them.

gnfnrhead

civis_liberalis wrote: »

UEFA have announced an Under 19 Champions League, to be competed by the 32 teams that qualify for the Champions League proper.

Looks like the NextGen series has spooked them.

Will it affect those already signed up for the NextGen? Like, is it one or the other, or can teams still do both?

civis_liberalis

I have no idea. Not a lot of info at the moment.

UEFA to stage Under-19 Champions League

UEFA have confirmed they are to launch an Under-19 shadow Champions League tournament from 2013.

The competition seems to have been set up to limit the growing influence of the NextGen series, which last year included Barcelona, Inter Milan and Juventus, in addition to Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City.

UEFA’s tournament will be limited to the 32 teams that qualify for the Champions League proper, with the same group composition and calendar.The knock-out phase will be played as single leg ties, with the semi-finals and final held at neutral venues.

Link

Dickerty

gnfnrhead wrote: »

Will it affect those already signed up for the NextGen? Like, is it one or the other, or can teams still do both?

I would imagine that the teams signed up to NextGen for the coming season are locked in, but I think it's on a season to season basis. So I'd imagine a lot of those teams will switch over to the UEFA version, may leave the Next Gen with the A.N.Others...

mike65

Yep UEFA having not had the wit to invent this format steal it and then ring fence it!