Cagliari, The Soccer Tournament experience ends in the round of 16
The red and blues participated in the seven-a-side football tournament, where they were eliminated by the Newtown PridePer restare aggiornato entra nel nostro canale Whatsapp
Like a year ago, when the rossoblù participated in a pair with Como, Cagliari's experience at The Soccer Tournament - a 7-a-side soccer tournament in the United States - ends against Newtown Pride, a team that won the first edition in 2023. The American club wins 5-2 and continues its journey.
Cagliari participated with a team composed mostly of the Primavera boys, fresh from a spectacular season that ended with seventh place and the victory of the Coppa Italia . This is why the coach was Fabio Pisacane, among the candidates to take Davide Nicola's place in the first team (but his presence in the United States was not directly linked to the future rossoblù coach, so much so that he had already led the team in the participation a year ago). With the Under-20, aggregated from the "big" the goalkeeper Giuseppe Ciocci, the midfielder Nicolas Viola and the striker Kingstone Mutandwa. Plus the midfielder Nicolò Cavuoti (returned from the loan to Feralpisalò in Serie C) and some young players from the Chinese Academy of Xiapu, to enhance the work done by the Cagliari XPlay project.
The Soccer Tournament is a seven-a-side soccer tournament held in Cary, North Carolina, with games consisting of two 20-minute halves plus a special time called Target Score Time . In the latter, if the teams end in a draw in the first two halves, the first to score wins (the golden goal, which was sadly famous in Italy between the late 1990s and early 2000s). Otherwise, the team ahead at the end of both halves wins definitively with a goal, while the team behind can overturn the result as long as it does not concede goals. If there is no winner in the first 3 minutes of Target Score Time, one player from each team is eliminated (6 against 6) and so on until the decisive goal.
In the first phase, with 48 teams in 12 groups, Cagliari ended up in Group B where they faced Hoosier Army and Cardinal Legacy on June 4, with the next day's challenge against City Soccer FC . In their debut, they won 3-1: goals by Cavuoti, Viola and Vinciguerra. In the second match, goals by Kingstone and Vinciguerra were not enough, at Target Score Time, Cardinal Legacy overturned the result and won 3-2. The same result with which the rossoblù lost to City Soccer FC (Cavuoti and Kingstone scored), conceding the decisive goal at Target Score Time in a 4-on-4 situation. Despite the double defeat, Pisacane's team still qualified for the round of 32 as one of the best third-place teams .
In the first match of the knockout phase, Cagliari faces Newtown Pride: the final result is 5-2 . The Americans score twice, but Cavuoti scores twice for 2-1 and 4-2 (four goals in as many games for the midfielder). In the Target Score Time, the final 5-2 closes the game. "An electrifying and valuable experience from a cultural point of view and for the club's internationalization projects," commented Cagliari Calcio at the end of the match.
In addition to the matches, Cagliari has held various activities in Cary with the many fans present. Among these, numerous initiatives that have allowed them to promote Sardinia and its territory , but also the history of the red and blue club that last May 30 celebrated 105 years since its foundation.