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Don Julio
03-31-2009, 12:08 PM
What is this all about?


CITY'S young stars will head out to the United States on Friday morning to record another major milestone for the club's world-renowned Academy in the wake of April's deserved FA Youth Cup triumph.

The Boy Blues have been invited to the prestigious Dallas Tournament in Texas on the strength of that Youth Cup victory over Chelsea and will kick off on Sunday against the cream of the Italian crop from AC Milan.

Jim Cassell's youngsters, who have never before played in what has become one of the world's top youth tournaments, will follow that Group A appetiser with games against Toronto and the leading Mexican club Tigres.

The potential opposition in the semi-finals is no less daunting. Group B is headed by Brazilian holders Sao Paulo and also incudes Eintracht Frankfurt, while Group C boasts River Plate of Argentina and Vancouver Whitecaps.

Academy manager Cassell said: "It's an honour for us to be invited to such a prestigious tournament. The age group is Under-19 but we'll take a younger squad to give them experience. It will help to educate the younger ones about playing against foreign opposition."

City will play five games in Dallas whether or not they reach the final, which is expected to be staged in front of a 20,000 crowd, and will return to Manchester on April 14th, eight days before their FA Youth Cup semi-final second leg at Arsenal, who lead 2-1.

Squad to travel: Abdi Ibrahim, James Poole, Jeremy Helan, Andrew Mitchell, John Guidetti, Joe Clegg, Tobias Johansen, Reece Wabara, Andrew Tutte, Robbie Mak, Alex Nimely-Tchineni, Greg Cunningham, Chris Chantler, Ahmad Benali, Jack Redshaw, Sean Tse, Dedryk Boyata, Omar Elabdellaoui.


It looks like we'll be in Dallas anyway..

RYANTFC
03-31-2009, 12:09 PM
^^^ toronto fc 18s? or reserves?

Fushida
03-31-2009, 12:10 PM
Its the TFC academy team.

RYANTFC
03-31-2009, 12:15 PM
yeah, not the first team

Don Julio
03-31-2009, 12:15 PM
Is it? The senior team will be in Dallas that week too..

RYANTFC
03-31-2009, 12:18 PM
thats the dallas cup, its for youth teams around the world, clubs dont send their first team sides

GabrielHurl
03-31-2009, 12:18 PM
Is it? The senior team will be in Dallas that week too..

Why would the first team be playing in a pointless tournament like this during the regular season?

Red CB Toronto
03-31-2009, 12:21 PM
It is the senior Academy team.

Don Julio
03-31-2009, 12:22 PM
Why would the first team be playing in a pointless tournament like this during the regular season?

Yeah, why would they play meaningless games in the middle of the season?! Could never happen!

Anyway, I stand corrected - the confusion came from people on the City board assuming it was against first teams since the official post on the MCFC site didn't indicate otherwise.

Still, TFC vs City! Pretty exciting stuff!

StandUpIfYouHateChelsea
03-31-2009, 12:23 PM
LOL @ teh confusion , this is an ACADEMY YOUTH TOURNEY , NOT A FIRST, SECOND OR THIRD TEAM THING. ACADEMY = The TFC academy playing in the CSL , it is U-18 ;)

Don Julio
03-31-2009, 12:29 PM
Exciting to see yet another Abdi Ibrahim making strides in the world of football, though!

TorontoBlades
03-31-2009, 12:33 PM
just saw that

T_Mizz
03-31-2009, 12:57 PM
Anyone else think this is kind of screwed up how the junior team qualified but the senior team gets to play, granted the 16 year olds last year are 17 year olds this year