Ernest Faber: "The Otten Cup is a great tournament with top teams"
By: Henriëtte Heesakkers
Together with assistant Chris van der Weerden, Ernest Faber is responsible for PSV A1. Faber, who started his career at PSV C1 before making his debut as a pro, knows very well what goes around in his players heads. Apart from loan spells at NEC, Groningen and Sparta, played his entire career for PSV, winning five league titles with the club. Unfortunately Faber was subject to injuries quite a lot. From this season onwards, all youth coaches are fulltime employed to the youth setup. This is the first step on the road to a more professional youth setup that Wiljan Vloet and Rini de Groot had in mind.
The 63rd edition of the Otten Cup is a prelude to the new season. On August 14th, 15th and 16th, the traditional youth tournament will be played at the Herdgang. Four teams from the Netherlands (hosts PSV, FC Twente/Heracles, Sparta Rotterdam and SC Heerenveen) and four clubs from Europe and South America will compete for the prestigious trophy. Faber looks ahead to the tournament.
| Poule A | Poule B |
| Sc Heerenveen | Sparta Rotterdam |
| Pão de Acúcar | Real Madrid CF |
| FC Twente/Heracles | RSCA Anderlecht |
| Tottenham Hotspur FC | PSV |
On Friday August 14th and Saturday August 15th, the group matches will be played.
On Sunday August 16th the knock-out phase will be played.
What are you hoping for this tournament?
Faber: ‘I expect my guys to show the will to win. That’s what the attitude should be, coming onto the pitch. I hope to see some great football and a willingness to work when things don’t go their way! Players should be able to cope with disappointments, that’s also a part of professional sports. During the Otten Cup I’m curious to what my team is capable of, right before the start of the season. This season we have five new guys in the squad. Four from our own youth academy and Jorn Sweres from NAC Breda.’
It’s quite a hard job, preparing the team for the Otten Cup in only a month.
‘Tournaments are always a great way to measures the state of the team, but the League is where it all happen. Besides training, some friendlies and the Eurofoot tournament in Belgium will be a good practice for the Otten Cup. Therefore there are enough opportunities to measure ourselves.’
The Otten Cup last year, FC Twente/Heracles was the winner last year.
‘That’s true, last year PSV finished 7th with a very young team. In the league we had a tough first part of the season, recovering well in the second part. The tournament is not only about the willingness to win, I want so see good and beautiful football.’
The development of our play and therefore our players, is certainly as important!
Who would you like as an opponent in the final?
‘Top teams compete for the Otten Cup. For my players I hope Real Madrid as opposition in the final. I think it’s a dream for everybody to play your talents to such a great opponent.’
Good luck with the preparation for the tournament!
This message was published on Thursday 13 August 2009 at 19:40
