"We want to give it everything we've got and play our best football," pledged Borussia Dortmund U19 coach Hannes Wolf in the run-up to the 2015 edition of the Evonik International Ruhr Cup, a four-day football tournament of superlatives.

The new BVB team, which mainly consists of members of the German B-youth title-winning sides of 2014 and 2015, will play their Group A matches in the Rote Erde stadium on Thursday 30 July and in Holzwickede on Friday (kick-off 17:00 CET both times). Their opponents in the "Group of Death" include reigning champions Dinamo Tiflis, Brazil's top team SC Internacional from Porto Alegre, 2014 UEFA Youth League winners FC Barcelona and a strong VfL Bochum side.

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The cup is held aloft by Harald Heinze, Chairman of the International Youth Encounters in Culture and Sport association, Organisational Leader Heinz Keppmann and Board Member Wilfried Wittke.

Group B, which will play its matches on Thursday in Velbert and on Friday in Marl, will see top Bundesliga clubs Borussia Mönchengladbach and 1. FC Cologne square off against the youth sides of serial Chinese champions Guangzhou Evergrande, the U19s of Benfica, who finished the 2014 UEFA Youth League as runners-up, and France's best team AS Monaco. The matches to determine placing and the semi-finals will take place on Saturday from 14:00 CET, with the final to be held on Sunday from 10:00 CET in the Rote Erde stadium.

"They will be incredibly interesting and intense encounters. Afterwards we'll really know where we stand. I hope that a lot of fans will lend us their support," said coach Hannes Wolf. A week later Borussia will begin the new season by taking on Mainz 05 in the DFB Cup before facing Borussia Mönchengladbach on 16 August as the new Bundesliga campaign gets under way.

"There is no higher-quality tournament in Europe," said Organisational Leader Heinz Keppmann as he lauded the appeal and significance of this "gathering of young talent", which is presented by the International Youth Encounters in Culture and Sport association and organised by BVB. The squads of the four Bundesliga clubs include 33 youth internationals, with Borussia Dortmund's contingent alone containing 13 from five countries. The dominant force, however, will be FC Barcelona, who will head to Germany armed with the best U19 players from its world-famous "La Masia" academy.

"We have trained very well since we began our pre-season preparations and will take part in the tournament with great enthusiasm," said Hannes Wolf, who is hoping to repeat the triumph of 2010 when Borussia won the inaugural competition courtesy of a spectacular 6-0 final victory over AC Milan. In recent years, however, BVB have struggled to make an impact.

Further information and a fixture schedule can be found at www.ruhrcupinternational.de