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| 2011 U20 World Cup | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 28 2011, 09:17 PM (798 Views) | |
| cafetero | Apr 28 2011, 09:17 PM Post #1 |
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The draw was made this week for this summer's U20 World Cup to take place in Colombia. This is how the groups were set: Group A Colombia France Mali South Korea Group B Portugal Uruguay Cameroon New Zealand Group C Australia Ecuador Costa Rica Spain Group D Croatia Saudi Arabia Nigeria Guatemala Group E Brazil Egypt Austria Panama Group F Argentina Mexico England North Korea The top two in each group plus the 4 best third place teams advance. As usual it is hard to prognosticate these tournaments but many are saying group F with Argentina, Mexico, England and the unknowns from North Korea is the most difficult group. I think Group C with Spain, Australia (almost always competitive at this age group), Ecuador and Costa Rica will also be a tough group. Colombia as the host country has a group which could be tricky. South Korea usually are good in U20 tournaments while France usually has a lot of talent too. Mali is the unknown team here but we all know African teams often do well in this competition so Colombia will not have an easy path. Should be a fun tournament and an opportunity to glimpse some players before they become really well known. As it will take place in the summer, getting players released for the tournament should not be a major issue. |
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| Dr. Z | Jul 30 2011, 02:48 PM Post #2 |
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Not many goals in the opening day of play: England 0-0 North Korea Argentina 1-0 Mexico Austria 0-0 Panama Brazil 1-1 Egypt 4 games played 3 goals scored! Argentina-Mexico was an even game and Mexico controlled the ball well against Argentina but missed the final pass. Argentina's star Eric Lamela got past Jorge Enriquez his man amrker and fired in the game's only goal. In an even game it took a nice bit of individual play to win it. Mexico, however, still have a good chance of qualifying as neither England nor North Korea impressed me. Good game between Brazil and Egypt which ended tied and that I think was a fair result. Brazil looked good going forward but vulnerable defensively which the quick and skillful Egyptians took advantage of. |
| Poniendo el pecho a las balas! | |
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| cafetero | Jul 30 2011, 10:28 PM Post #3 |
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Day 2 scores: Colombia 4-1 France South Korea 2-0 Mali Cameroon 1-1 New Zealand Portugal 0-0 Uruguay A superb start for Colombia who fell behind to France but responded with a penalty by James Rodriguez of Porto to tie the game at the half and then 2 goals by Luis Muriel and one by Santiago Arias in the 2nd period as they ended up cruising to the win. Korea looked pretty organized in their win over Mali while Cameroon threw away a chance to beat New Zealand in a game the Africans dominated but could not finish and eventually gave up an equalizing goal via an own goal. Portugal and Uruguay apparently was a real snoozer. |
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| Merengue | Aug 1 2011, 02:01 PM Post #4 |
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Big wins yesterday for both Spain and Nigeria over Central American opponents. Spain 4-1 Costa Rica Nigeria 5-0 Guatemala In Spain's group Australia and Ecuador drew 1-1 while in Nigeria's group Saudi Arabia 2-0 Croatia. So all 24 teams have now played one match each and Spain's, Colombia's and Nigeria's wins were probably the most impressive, although you also have to rate the wins by the Saudis and South Koreans. |
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| Dr. Z | Aug 2 2011, 01:13 PM Post #5 |
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Mexico 3-0 North Korea Argentina 0-0 England Brazil 3-0 Austria Egypt 1-0 Panama Comfortable wins for Mexico and Brazil in their respective groups, Argentina's tie with England and Egypt's win give them, along with Brazil 4 points each which should assure qualification for the next round. |
| Poniendo el pecho a las balas! | |
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| Johnbuildr | Aug 2 2011, 01:29 PM Post #6 |
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You had me double-taking there, Dr., but of course the Argentina 0-0 score was with England, not Mexico as your commentary explains. I have only seen the Argie v Mexcio match and small parts of others. But the obvious swagger with which the Argies were playing against Mexico was almost humorous. I mean, they are very good, but maybe not quite as good as they seem to think they are? :rolleyes: Anyway, we will see I guess..... |
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Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum | |
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| Dr. Z | Aug 2 2011, 01:41 PM Post #7 |
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Thanks for pointing that out to me John. It has now been corrected. Yes, Mexico did not play split squad games vs Argentina and North Korea. Last night was vs the Koreans. It was England who tied 0-0 with Argentina. Mexico's coach Juan Carlos Chavez (he was a sub on the 1994 World Cup team) actually noted that Mexico by using 8 U20 players to fill in for the suspended 8 players on the U23 team at the Copa America, actually hurt this U20 team's preparations as it took those 8 away from playing with this U20 squad. He did mention that for those who started in Copa America like Reyes, Enriquez and Araujo, playing in the Copa America helped rather than harmed them but for the other 5 who just sat on the bench in the Copa America they lost some game rhythm and it is taking them some time to recover it. From the way Mexico played last night I would say they are on the road to recovering that form. |
| Poniendo el pecho a las balas! | |
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| cafetero | Aug 5 2011, 07:48 PM Post #8 |
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Well we missed afew days of results here but that is all right as we are approaching the end of group play and moving on to where the tournament really starts, the knockout stage. Uruguay were eliminated tonight when they lost 1-0 to Cameroon, a disappointing end to the tournment for the charruas who never were able to reproduce here what they showed in the South American U20 championships when they finished runner up to Brazil. 4 of the 6 groups have now completed play and these re how those groups ended, with qualified teams marked with an asterisk: Group A *Colombia 9 *France 6 *South Korea 3 Mali 0 Group B *Portugal 7 *Cameroon 4 New Zealand 2 Uruguay 2 Group E *Brazil 7 *Egypt 7 Panama 1 Austria 1 Group F *Argentina 7 *Mexico 4 *England 3 North Korea 1 The groups which still have one match remaining: Group C *Spain 6 Costa Rica 3 Australia 1 Ecuador 1 Spain-Australia Costa Rica-Ecuador Group D *Nigeria 6 *Saudi Arabia 6 Croatia 0 Guatemala 0 Nigeria-Saudi Arabia Croatia-Guatemala Impressive play so far from Brazil, Egypt, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Argentina and Spain. Amazingly England, who have played 3 0-0 draws will qualify for the knockout stage without winning a game or even scoring a goal! That must be a first in any FIFA competition. |
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| SuperEagle | Aug 6 2011, 07:38 PM Post #9 |
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Saturday's scores: Spain 5 Australia 1 Ecuador 3 Costa Rica 0 Nigeria 2 Saudi Arabia 0 Guatemala 1 Croatia 0 Spain and Nigeria win their groups with perfect records while Ecuador and Guatemala each qualify with wins. The second round pairings are now set, and I have placed the teams in the order they will meet if they advance (in other words, winne rof first game listed played 2nd game winner in quarters, etc.) Colombia vs Costa Rica Cameroon vs Mexico Brazil vs Saudi Arabia Spain vs South Korea France vs Ecuador Nigeria vs England Portugal vs Guatemala Argentina vs Egypt This last match I have listed to me looks the best of these round of 16 games and one which is too hard to call. cafetero listed the teams which have been the most impressive in group play and he will not get any argument from me, except I think I would include Portugal in the list of teams who impressed in group play. Cameroon vs Mexico also looks like an evenly matche dgame. I am very happy with Nigeria's play so far, the team are showing good organiztion, speed, skill and something rare for Nigerian teams, a killer instinct in front of goal. Now they play England who as cafetero noted have yet to win or even score a goal! But they also play good defense, not permitting any goals either. The draw was not kind for either Brazil or Spain, if they each win, as expected, they will play one another in the quarterfinals. That would be a matchup appropriate of the final. |
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| Nkono | Aug 8 2011, 10:20 AM Post #10 |
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I am going to agree with Supereagle that based on group play Argentina-Egypt and Cameroon-Mexico look like the best games coming up in the round of 16 but every tournament, no matter at what level, we see surprises at this stage. we will see some more this week. I do think this tournament should finally convince FIFA of the nonsense of having 3rd place teams qualify for the 2nd round. England with no wins and not even a goal scored after mad eit to the 2nd round, and o did Guatemala who gave up 10 goals in their first two group games! Playing 3 group games to only eliminate 8 of the 24 competing teams is ridiculous. FIFA need to ensure these tournaments either have 16 or 32 teams so that there will be either 4 or 8 groups of four with only the top two in each group advancing. |
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| Johnbuildr | Aug 9 2011, 01:26 PM Post #11 |
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I say they should have allowed in 32, dammit, then the US might have been able to squeeze in!!!! :lol:
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Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum | |
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| rosarino | Aug 9 2011, 10:32 PM Post #12 |
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nkono's point is well taken but the first night of 2nd round of play saw some of these third place teams do pretty well. These were tonight's scores: Argentina 2-1 Egypt Portugal 1-0 Guatemala Mexico 1-1 Cameroon (Mexico wins 3-0 on penalties) Colombia 3-2 Costa Rica Each of these four were close games which could have gone either way, 3 penalties in Argentina-Egypt plus a 92nd minute penalty for home country Colombia which enabled them to beat Costa Rica. I thought all of those penalties were legitimate too. Guatemala, who gave up so many goals in group play, fell behind early to Portugal but at the end of the game Guatemala nearly tied it up. Mexico had more of the play vs Cameroon but could not finish them off so it went to penalties were Cameroon, taking a page from Brazil in the Copa America, missed all 3 of their kicks! |
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| chacal | Aug 11 2011, 10:12 PM Post #13 |
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The other 2nd round games: Brazil 3-0 Saudi Arabia France 1-0 ecuador Nigeria 1-0 England Spain 0-0 South Korea (Spain win on penalties 7-6) Every game but Brazil's was close, so 7 of the 8 octave finals could have gone either way. The competitive balance between these teams is definitely close. Should make for some good quarterfinals. The quarterfinals are: Saturday Colombia-Mexico Argentina-Portugal Sunday Brazil-Spain Nigeria-France |
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| SuperEagle | Aug 12 2011, 10:30 AM Post #14 |
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This has been a very entertaining U20 tournament so far and the parity between the teams was evident in the start of the knockout stage. The quarterfinals all look exciting but Spain-Brazil is the real eye catcher, two teams who are among the title favourites. Nigeria-France will have my attention and should also be a good matchup. Actually all 4 games look good and you can see each of them being matches which could be won by either team. |
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| Dr. Z | Aug 13 2011, 07:47 PM Post #15 |
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Saturday's quarterfinals: Portugal 0-0 Argentina (Portugal wins 5-4 on penalties) Mexico 3-1 Colombia An even game between Portugal and Argentina ended 0-0 with both teams struggling in the ehat and humidity of coastal Cartagena. In the penalty shootout it looked like Argentina would win as Portugal missed their first two kicks but needing to convert just one of their final 2 kicks out of their initial 5, Argentina missed them both sending the shootout into sudden death. Portugal made their next two, while Argentina made their first but then saw Portugal goalie Mika save from Tagliafuco to give Portugal the win. Another shutout for Portugal's excellent defense. In the night's 2nd game, Colombia began well spurre don by the home crowd but they could not break through Mexico's well organized defense. 38 minute sin, Mexico got a penalty for apush on Diego reyes and Erick Torres, getting a rare start in this tourney, converted the penalty. Colombia pushed forward but did not score until after an hour when a long range shot by Zapata went through mexico's goalie Jose Rodriguez' legs. A gift goal but rather than giving Colombia confidence, it was Mexico who perked up and they went 2-1 in front when Edson Rivera (an Atlas player I might add) headed in a corner kick. Mexico's defense was superb and stopped Colombia from getting off any good shots and on a counter, Rivera scored his 2nd, and Mexico's 3rd as Colombia's keeper Pinilla let his shot bounce off his arm and into the net! Not a great night for either goalie but a fine win by Mexico who showed good order on the field plus a nice passing game and most importantly good nerve in front of goal. In the semis Portugal will play the Nigeria/France winner while Mexico will face the Brazil/Spain victor. |
| Poniendo el pecho a las balas! | |
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6:35 AM Jul 11