FIFA U-20 World Cup 2013

Oat23

21st June - 13 July

Groups:

Group A (Istanbul, Kayseri): France, Ghana, USA, Spain.
Group B (Kayseri, Istanbul): Cuba, Korea Republic, Nigeria, Portugal
Group C (Trabzon, Rize, Gaziantep): Turkey, El Salvador, Colombia, Australia
Group D (Gaziantep, Trabzon): Mexico, Greece, Paraguay, Mali
Group E (Antalya, Bursa): Chile, Egypt, England, Iraq
Group F (Bursa, Antalya): New Zealand, Uzbekistan, Uruguay, Croatia

Some top talents on show here the past few tournaments and there will be some more this time around too. France, Spain, Colombia and Portugal all seem to be highly rated but there could be some dark horses (Ghana, Mexico) as with most youth competitions. Looking forward to seeing Boakye of Ghana, Bruma of Sporting Lisbon for Portugal is highly rated although I've never seen him play. Also excited to see Calhanoglu in the Turkish midfield along with a few others.

First set of matches:
21st June
4pm
France vs Ghana (Eurosport)
Cuba vs South Korea (Highlights on Eurosport after France-Ghana)

7pm
USA vs Spain (Eurosport)
Nigeria vs Portugal (Eurosport 2)

Rekop dog

The French look to have a decent squad for this.

They'll have to be to beat the Ghanaian under 28 team tomorrow.

AgileMyth

Spain tend to win everything now so I'm going to go out on a limb and back them!

ArmaniJeanss

Group A is a horror show of a draw for the teams in there.

Oat23

First two games starting in 20 minutes.

Official stream available in Europe (I think) - http://www.fifa.com/u20worldcup/video/live/information.html

mike65

Liverpool and Chelsea both have players from the winning side of WCU20 2011 - Coutinho and Oscar. Chelsea also have Romeu from the losing side and Liverpool have Pacheco. Isco also played.

http://int.soccerway.com/matches/2011/08/15/world/u20-world-cup/brazil-youth/spain-youth/1106805/

CSF

mike65 wrote: »

Liverpool and Chelsea both have players from the winning side of WCU20 2011 - Coutinho and Oscar. Chelsea also have Romeu from the losing side and Liverpool have Pacheco. Isco also played.

http://int.soccerway.com/matches/2011/08/15/world/u20-world-cup/brazil-youth/spain-youth/1106805/

Did Pacheco really go any further than being a promising prospect though?

RGM

Noticed USA have an Irish-born player on their squad: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shane_O%27Neill_(soccer)

Be interesting to see how he develops and, if he's good enough, whether he plays for the US or Ireland.

mike65

Not yet! He is a classic case of a pretty talented player who falls through the cracks. Three LFC managers have not been swayed by him while his loans have been a mixed bag. seems to me he should be able to hack a decent career in Spain with a "yo-yo" level side.

mike65

USA

1 C. Cropper
3 J. Ocegueda
4 C. Stanko
14 J. Torre
2 D. Yedlin
10 L. Gil
8 B. Joya
6 W. Trapp
19 J. Hernández
11 J. Villareal
17 D. Garcia

Spain
1 Daniel Sotres
6 Campaña
5 Israel Puerto
2 Javi Manquillo
4 Derik
15 Saúl
8 Suso
16 Oliver Torres
17 Gerard Deulofeu
10 Jesé Rodríguez
11 Juan Bernat

GTR63

CSF wrote: »

Did Pacheco really go any further than being a promising prospect though?

No he always looked a beast with Spain and at times with the reserves. He played a cup game against Northampton iirc that we lost and never got a real chance after that bar a sparodic appearance here or there. Never knew why that was.
He's a bit like Domonic Adiyiah

Andersonisgod

Goal! Fantastic run and cross from Deulofeu picking out Jese who calmly finishes. Spain 1-0 up

wadacrack

Deulofeu looking good.Great direct running. Jesse Rodriguez expect him to feature more for Real Madrid

RGM

Whoever wrote the book on defending in the US should be taken out back and shot. Just bad at the back throughout the system, all the way to the senior team.

GLaDOS

What a strike!

Andersonisgod

Goal! Straight out of La Masia, a touch of genius courtesy of the next big homegrown Barcelona star, Gerard Deulofeu.

GLaDOS

Really poor by the US there, too easy

Andersonisgod

Senior side, under 21, under 20, it doesn't matter, Spain are always a joy to watch. 3-0, Jese gets his second, cracking play from Manquillo down the right flank after a lovely ball from Suso.

Gbear

Suso is playing brilliantly.

Beautiful little trick by him to get past the defender for the chance at the end that nearly led to the 4th goal.

wadacrack

The talent in Spain is scary. This team would probably have made it to the final of the European u21 championship. A few players with La Liga experience.Two very good Full backs and a front three of Deulofeu, Jese and Suso

SantryRed

Andersonisgod wrote: »

Senior side, under 21, under 20, it doesn't matter, Spain are always a joy to watch. 3-0, Jese gets his second, cracking play from Manquillo down the right flank after a lovely ball from Suso.

I wonder why.

CSF

Andersonisgod wrote: »

Goal! Straight out of La Masia, a touch of genius courtesy of the next big homegrown Barcelona star, Gerard Deulofeu.

Sometimes I think you're doing it on purpose...

MD1990

Andersonisgod wrote: »

Senior side, under 21, under 20, it doesn't matter, Spain are always a joy to watch. 3-0, Jese gets his second, cracking play from Manquillo down the right flank after a lovely ball from Suso.

just move to Spain

klose

A perfectly weighted through ball there forged and refined in 'melwood' by suso

~Rebel~

Spain have a bit of a tendency to get themselves into trouble at the back, completely unnecessarily.

GTR63

Portugal vs Nigeria ain't bad. 3-2 and both are going for it.

Oat23

Very happy I didn't turn off Nigeria vs Portugal now!

Bruma has a brace, his second restoring Portugals lead after Nigeria came form 2 down. They almost equalised again there.

shrewdness

Portugal's keeper is impressive, he's saved them a few times.

GLaDOS

Great goal for the US's consolation

~Rebel~

Great goal.

Can't help but feel a better team would have really punished Spain's regular idiocy at the back.

~Rebel~

Great great ball from Suso again there.

Andersonisgod

CSF wrote: »

Sometimes I think you're doing it on purpose...

It was an incredible goal, the touch, awareness, quality and class of the highly rated youngster all on show in that one goal. He has electric pace, awesome skill and quite mature decision making for a winger of his age. Should we downplay him?

MD1990

Andersonisgod wrote: »

It was an incredible goal, the touch, awareness, quality and class of the highly rated youngster all on show in that one goal. He has electric pace, awesome skill and quite mature decision making for a winger of his age. Should we downplay him?

incredible
it was a good goal but Henry nearly scored 1 every week in his prime

Andersonisgod

MD1990 wrote: »

incredible
it was a good goal but Henry nearly scored 1 every week in his prime

That's an exaggeration.
This is a 19 year old, the star of an under 20 side expected to win the World Cup, in their opening game. Lets give credit where it's due, it's an incredible goal no matter the circumstances.

CSF

Andersonisgod wrote: »

It was an incredible goal, the touch, awareness, quality and class of the highly rated youngster all on show in that one goal. He has electric pace, awesome skill and quite mature decision making for a winger of his age. Should we downplay him?

Oh my god. You are the Ray Wilkins of La Liga.

Andersonisgod

CSF wrote: »

Oh my god. You are the Ray Wilkins of La Liga.

Not such a bad thing, you look at that Spain side this evening, you look at the under 21 side and then you look at the depth of options available to the senior side and you realise there is something to be excited about. Just this week, in The Guardian I think, I've seen Spanish football be described as a diamond dynasty rather than a golden generation and I couldn't agree more.

CSF

Andersonisgod wrote: »

Not such a bad thing, you look at that Spain side this evening, you look at the under 21 side and then you look at the depth of options available to the senior side and you realise there is something to be excited about. Just this week, in The Guardian I think, I've seen Spanish football be described as a diamond dynasty rather than a golden generation and I couldn't agree more.

Ok.

wadacrack

Andersonisgod wrote: »

Not such a bad thing, you look at that Spain side this evening, you look at the under 21 side and then you look at the depth of options available to the senior side and you realise there is something to be excited about. Just this week, in The Guardian I think, I've seen Spanish football be described as a diamond dynasty rather than a golden generation and I couldn't agree more.

Are you spanish yourself?! You should be a journalist you have a beautiful way with words:D

Andersonisgod

wadacrack wrote: »

Are you spanish yourself?! You should be a journalist you have a beautiful way with words:D

I'm not Spanish, and thank you, not really what my posts are intended for but I appreciate that all the same.

Oat23

Results in the early games today

Colombia 1-1 Australia
Mexico 1-2 Greece

Watched the end of the Colombia game and it seemed decent, a 16 year old named Daniel De Silva was the goalscorer for Australia.

He was born in March 1997. I'm so old

Oat23

El Salvador might not be the best opposition, but Turkey are looking very strong. 3-0 up at the minute.

greendom

Seems that the French 3 - 1 win over Ghana got over-looked. Loads of potential for les bleus. Be interesting to see how they get on.

GTR63

Iraq got a 2-2 draw with England there.

Andersonisgod

Quite a good opening 5 minutes for Spain. Showing more control and better decision making in the opening 7 minutes than they did against the USA, we've even see a rondo, wonderful stuff.

Oat23

GTR63 wrote: »

Iraq got a 2-2 draw with England there.

People saying it's a shock, but lets be honest, English teams are always massively overrated.

Andersonisgod

Goal! Spain! That's a quite lovely goal, Suarez slows down, suckers in the defender and at the very last moment drags the ball away, he then has the awareness to pick out the free-scoring Jese and Spain lead 1-0. Fully deserved, it's been a blistering start.

GTR63

Suprised the french drew with the US earlier, Pogba is suspended for the Spanish game. Even so 4pts will probaby get the a last 16 spot with the way the tournament is formatted.

The_Kew_Tour

Lads anyone see the Ref in the Korea v Portugal game with his spray paint?

Gbear

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Lads anyone see the Ref in the Korea v Portugal game with his spray paint?

They've been using that in all the games.

Hopefully it'll be rolled out across europe.

It's bloody stupid the way walls are currently handled.

Oat23

They've been using the foam all tournament ^

Ryu Seung-Woo's equaliser for Korea at HT was fantastic.

The_Kew_Tour

Gbear wrote: »

They've been using that in all the games.

Hopefully it'll be rolled out across europe.

It's bloody stupid the way walls are currently handled.

Ah ok.

I only saw highlights in games and took no notice.

I just thought this ref was taking his job bit too serious.

Good idea.