English Championship 2 Youth Cup 1 - Big Kick Off and Preview

Youth Cup – The Draw

This morning at St George’s Park near Burton on Trent the draw for the First Round of the English Championship 2 Youth Cup 1 took place. The guest of honour was the elusive Matteo DF himself, the former Liverpool manager said to the BBC cameras that he is always delighted to check in on the progress of EC2 and his former team Liverpool. While Matteo DF drew the home teams it was another EC2 legend, tebthereb who drew the away teams.

St George's Park - where the draw took place this morning

It was also announced that the First Round would take place on Friday 5^th December at 10pm UK time as planned, with the Final scheduled for Wembley on Saturday 13^th December. Games will happen every 2 days.

Remember IF you LOSE you are out. I will do more of these moving forwards, including a league again.

The Draw in full:

West Ham United		-		Gillingham
Rotherham United		-		Middlesbrough
Blackburn Rovers		-		Hartlepool United
Everton		-		Blackpool
Leicester City		-		Huddersfield Town
Grimsby Town		-		Wigan Athletic
Cheltenham Town		-		Port Vale
Sheffield United		-		Queens Park Rangers
Chelsea		-		Chesterfield
Newcastle United		-		Norwich City
Walsall		-		Darlington 1883
Plymouth Argyle		-		West Bromwich Albion
Carlisle United		-		Charlton Athletic
Rochdale		-		Liverpool
Maccabi Haifa		-		Portsmouth
Swindon Town		-		MANCHESTER UNITED

The favourites according to ‘FrankBet’ –

FrankBet,  Frank Hirst  EC2's leading bookmaker quickly published the odds for the Youth Cup on their website and post draw saw a flurry of bets for Rotherham, who were quickly installed at 5/2 favourites.

Rotherham 5/2
Liverpool 3/1
Walsall 6/1
Darlington 8/1
Huddersfield Town 10/1
Chelsea 10/1
Manchester United 13/1
West Brom 13/1
West Ham 13/1
Sheffield United 15/1

The others:

Queens Park Rangers 25/1, Portsmouth 28/1, Rochdale 33/1, Newcastle United 28/1

Swindon 35/1, Charlton Athletic 35/1, Everton 40/1, Blackburn Rovers 45/1,

Middlesbrough 45/1, Cheltenham 50/1, Carlisle United 50/1, Norwich City 66/1

Chesterfield 66/1, Leicester City 66/1, Port Vale 80/1, Grimsby 100/1
 Gillingham 150/1, Wigan Athletic 150/1, Blackpool 200/1, Hartlepool United 200/1, Plymouth Argyle 250/1

Sir Scott is baffled by the odds on Plymouth

Jake Bullet is disappointed with an away draw
 

 

The ties of the round –

Pre-tournament the TV rights were sold to various companies including Balaji Telefilms in India, CBS in the USA and the BBC have all won rights to show the games live and exclusive.

Rotherham v Middlesbrough (Balaji Telefilms) (Friday at 10pm)

Defending Youth League Champions Rotherham United were an obvious pick for the Indian broadcaster, Youth League Star Man Santi Mina will be hoping to play a starring role again and Anand Kr1sh(((ManUtd))) will have the likes of Shaw, Varane and Jones at his disposal as he looks to launch an assault on the Youth Cup. In his way stand a resolute Adriano Borges who will be hoping that Conor Wickham can fire his team past Rotherham.  

Santi Mina - Best Player of Youth League 1

 

Walsall v Darlington 1883 – (CBS) (Friday at 10pm)

Without doubt when tebthereb drew Darlington 1883 to face Walsall the crowds at St George’s Park drew in gasps from the audience as this clearly was a stand-out tie. Both managers, Kevin KAMPL and michael h have aspirations to win the tournament, and with Vladimir Putin expected at the Bescot Stadium as guest of honour to watch his countryman Kevin KAMPL the pressure will surely be on the Walsall manager but he said “I respect the opponent. We will play on defense. We have a chance to win”

It is not clear whether michael h has invited Darlington fan and US President Barack Obama due Obama’s Irish heritage, but he is surely confident that Barkely, Markovic and Countinho have the quality to beat Koke and co.

But regardless of who is in attendance it is sure to be the battle of the ‘youth’ super powers on Friday night.

Obama on the phone to michael h 



Putin is expected at the Bescot on Friday

 

 

 

 

 

 

Swindon v Manchester United – (BBC ) (Friday at 10pm)

British TV audiences will be treated to an intriguing tie between Youth League runners-up Swindon and the mighty Manchester United. Swindon under the new leadership of cal cal since the departure of Davide Sepp Mourinho Piero Beckenbauer Baggio Bierhoff Blatter Platini Cooper have the likes of Kelvin and Kaikai to call up while Manchester United will look to the likes of Oar, Mendler and new signing Redmond to take them safely through what is a tricky away tie. But it is the young Japanese defender Iwanami who impressed most in the Youth League with the ever present defender winning pludits from fellow managers and the press alike.

Kaikai - top scorer in Youth League 1

Iwanami - Man Utd Defender

What the other managers say:

Everton Manager, Liam Daniels  said ahead of the first team trip to Wigan tonight “I don't have very big expectations but will just see how the youngsters perform”

aaron mc manager at Bramall Lane is pleased with a home draw and commented “Sheffield United will reach the final with their rising stars, they are the team to look out for in this competition, I'm hoping Luis Suarez will be the top scorer!”

john vinicombe meanwhile doesn’t seemed phased by a trip to Division One Chelsea,  “we are totally confident going to Stamford Bridge on Friday that we can overturn Chelsea in the first round of the youth cup.....I have briefed his boys and think that a beautiful game will ensue.... there is a lot of wonderful talent in the Chesterfield United 21’s and we will give everyone a game to remember, hopefully we will come out on top in a feast of football......the lads are raring to go and cannot wait to kick off...as ever we will play with a smile on our faces and teeth gritted!`....tremendous!.” The gathered members of the press were mesmerised by john vinicombe’s words, never having seen such as eloquent manager in the Spired city.

Syed Shah’s very young Port Vale team with lots of players involved with the first team have been drawn away to Cheltenham, he said: “I think it may be a good draw because we both have good squads or I might edge it and I am hoping that some of my youngsters will push for a place in the first team.”

“I feel our youngsters can beat anyone on our day! we're in this competition for a bit of fun, but will be looking to go at every opponent with everything!” were the words of Pompey manager, Frank Hirst, as he spoke to the press whilst engrossed in a game of online golf. The Pompey fans only hope that the players put in as much effort of the field as Frank does into his golf.

The Linder at Gillingham and despite the difficult draw away at West Ham said on Radio Gillingham:  "This is a great opportunity for the younger players - we're in it to win it, as always."

And finally recently appointed Blackburn boss Coach Manyol was very clear, "I'm sure the young squad of Blackburn Rovers will try our best to be the winner in this competition"

BY YOUTH CUP CORRESPONDENT STEPHEN BEDDOWS