Today, the Otten Innovation Cup kicked off once again. Ten top teams from three continents played their first matches of the tournament, and all games ended in narrow victories for one of the teams. As in last year, there were experiments with new rules, including the 'self-pass,' time penalties for yellow cards, and two halves of 20 minutes of effective play. New this year is the time limit of a maximum of 8 seconds for the goalkeeper to hold the ball. If the keeper holds the ball longer, a corner is awarded to the opponent; on the first day of play, this penalty was not yet enforced.
The tournament format has also slightly changed this year. Each team plays three matches, with a single complete standings table, similar to this season's Champions League format.
The tournament kicked off on the main field with the match between PSV and RSC Anderlecht. This was also the most goal-rich match of the day, with a 2-1 win for the hosts.
PSV started the game well and rightly opened the scoring after 7 minutes for the title defenders. Aside from a yellow card for Fabian Merien, this was the most notable event of the first half.
Against the run of play, the Belgians equalized midway through the second half, thanks to a somewhat easily awarded penalty. A few minutes later, the hosts themselves claimed a penalty for a similar handball situation, but the referee didn’t oblige. Three minutes before the end of the match, it was Noah Fernandez who, with an unstoppable shot from 16 meters, secured the final score of 2-1 with his second goal of the game.
On field 1, Red Bull Bragantino from Brazil opened against Atletico Madrid. The Southern European and South American passion was mainly displayed on the sidelines. The coaches of both teams were very vocal with their loud coaching. However, this did not lead to many chances. Still, in the 29th minute, Red Bull Bragantino scored the decisive goal through Delfino Garcia.
At 3:30 PM, the second round of matches began, with Manchester United facing Benfica on the main field and Paris Saint Germain playing FC Utrecht on field 1. Chances were scarce in both matches, and the similarities between the games didn’t end there; on both fields, the winning 1-0 goals were scored in the final minute. Thus, Benfica (goal by Francisco Couto) and FC Utrecht (goal by Ebite) took the victories.
At 5:00 PM, it was the turn of FC Copenhagen from the Danish capital and South Korea's Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors FC to start their tournament. In a relatively evenly matched game, it was ultimately the Koreans who prevailed, winning the match 1-0 thanks to a goal by Giju Han in the first half.
Tomorrow, the tournament continues at 10:00 AM with PSV vs. Red Bull Bragantino on the main field and RSC Anderlecht against Atletico Madrid on field 1.
See you tomorrow!