Olympics Preview and Milk Cup Recap

Tomorrow, Belgium kicks off their Olympic Games trip against Brazil. The match starts at 18 H (local time) and will be played at Olympic Stadium in Shenyang. Yesterday, our players had their first official practice there. It was a closed practice. According to Sport.be all of the Young Devils were able to train. Yves De Winter is fully recuperated. Vincent Kompany was the last player to arrive with the Belgium olympic squad. He just arrived Monday at 7:30 (Shenyang time). Belgium’s first match of the competition will be tough. We are up against a Brazil side that has Ronaldinho, Diego, Rafinha, and Alexandre Pato. Sadly, I don’t see us taking any points from this encounter. I predict a score of 3-0 Brazil. de Sart probably isn’t expecting much from the match. We need to focus more on our upcoming matches that we can win against New Zealand and China. New Zealand seems pretty weak, but China could give us problems. They undoubtedly will want to impress their home supporters. China will definitely have a 12 man squad thanks to their home field advantage and patriotic compatriots.

2008 Milk Cup: Since 1983 the Milk Cup has been held annually in Northern Ireland. It is a youth football tournament that has national and club sides. There are three different sections: Elite, Premier, and Junior. The Elite section features just U-19 national teams. Premier and Junior feature club sides but are different ages (U-17 and U-15 respectively). The Elite competition started in 1995. Turkey and Paraguay have won it the most (3 times). Like the Toulon Tournament, it is not under the supervision of a major football governing body such as UEFA or FIFA. This was Belgium’s first Milk Cup appearance.

Belgium sent two different national squads to the event: U-16 and U-19. The Belgium U-19 squad played against Northern Ireland (host) and USA in the tournament and our U-16 only played against Israel. Unfortunately, the Milk Cup official website doesn’t release too many match result details. Brief match summaries:
Monday, July 28, 2008
8.00 pm Belgium 2 v 2 Israel Riada Stadium, Ballymoney

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
8.00 pm N.Ireland 5 v 4 Belgium Showgrounds, Ballymena

NORTHERN IRELAND MILK CUP PLAY-OFFS (Friday, August 1st, 2008)
1.00 pm 3/6th Place 1 USA 2 v 1 Belgium Riada Stadium, Ballymoney