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Sports

Monday August 6, 2007

Young guns for Juve

By S. SIVABALAN

KUALA LUMPUR: In line with their name which means youth in Latin, Juventus have named a young squad for the Champions Youth Cup (CYC), a tournament termed as Operation Malaysia back home in Turin.

Coach Vincenzo Chiarenza flew over to Kuala Lumpur with only four stalwarts – Yobie Bassaoule, Alessandro Dantoni, Giorgio Merlano and Nicola Cosentini – who helped the Juventus youth side lift the Primavera Youth Cup in April.

Bassaoule is a Burkina Faso Under-20 international, who tasted action in the African Under-20 Championship in Congo earlier this year and is versatile enough to play in either defence or midfield.

In his bid to measure Juve’s youth programme against the best Europe can offer, Chiarenza has decided to mix the team from three age-group categories – the Primavera squad, the Berretti and Allievi Nazionali.

He has included 17-year-olds, among them Somalia’s attacking talent Ayub Daud, goalkeeper Carlo Pinsoglio, Ivory Coast defender Abdoulaye Bamba and Simone Esposito for the tournament.

Hard at work: Boca Juniors players going through their training session at the Hang Tuah Stadium in Malacca. – By A. MALEX YAHAYA/The Star
During a two-week training stint in Chiusa Pesio, the team played three games against progressively stronger opponents (non-League Fossanese, Serie D team Vado, and Canavese, from Serie C2) and the results were encouraging.

Chiarenza told Juventus.com: “This is a solid group with excellent potential for improvement. We're going on this adventure with the right spirit, wanting to measure ourselves against different, unusual opponents; then afterwards we'll be able to assess our strength.”

Juventus are in Group B and will open their campaign against Qatar at the Darulmakmur Stadium in Kuantan on Thursday. Their other opponents are Paris St Germain and Barcelona.

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