View Full Version : FIFA U-20 World Cup Canada 2007
Here are the groups:
Group A
Canada
Austria
Chile
Congo
Group B
Spain
Uruguay
Zambia
Jordan
Group C
Mexico
Portugal
Gambia
New Zealand
Group D
Brazil
South Korea
Poland
USA
Group E
Argentina
Czech Republic
North Korea
Panama
Group F
Costa Rica
Japan
Nigeria
Scotland
At halftime Poland is beating Brazil 1-0 thanks to a free kick by a player whose name I won't even attempt to spell. Brazil is looking distinctly average, they have no ideas in attack whatsoever even after Poland had a man sent off. So far I've seen nothing special in Pato. The Brazilian that's impressed me most so far is Leandro Lima, does anyone have more info on this guy?
I'm sure Abraćo has mentioned him before ... and if he hasn't he can tell us all about him :D
It always surprises that a team dominating possession can't at least have more shots on goal. Brazil looked like their senior team vs Mexico earlier in the week.
On another note, good to see 55,000 attendance for football in Montreal
zlatanov
30-06-2007, 18:39
It always surprises that a team dominating possession can't at least have more shots on goal. Brazil looked like their senior team vs Mexico earlier in the week.
On another note, good to see 55,000 attendance for football in Montreal
true, quite pointless possession by Brazil, both senior and junior team, as they seemed to lack clear ides up front how to cope with the organized Polish defense - it was basically left to hoping that individual brilliance might work at some point in the game.
Wonder if the synthetic field affected the performance of the Brazil NT as those are quite tricky to play on and more technical teams are more likely to be unsettled by that.
apart from that, Pato had an average game - some good moments but most of the time looked unconcentrated and had a heavy touch on the ball.
Lima showed some nice skills but I am on the opposite side to Vadims - too individualistic and too much of an egoist, I think, on the field, always trying to do it all by himself and tries too hard when a pass to the left or right would be a simpler solution.
Basically the type of player who is likely to wow the crowd but overall his efficiency on the field and contribution to the team is not as high as it could be expected to be from a player with good technique and speed.
The player I liked most was Renato Augusto (#10, I think).
liked everything about him really - technique, speed, vision and maturity in his approach. He reminded me of a hybrid between Kaka and Rivaldo and has actually been linked to Milan just recently as the latest "kaka heir" to come out of Brazil ... still relatively unknown in Europe so now could be the moment to act ;)
He seems to be quite fast, great technique and ball distribution and was IMO the engine and the brain of Brazil's midfield. Later into the game, he was even put in a more defensive, center midfield role, when Carlos Eduardo and Luiz Adriano came on and Brazil was playing with 2 forwards and 2-3 attacking mids, and still did very well I think.
Is that Carizzo (sp?) playing in goal for Argentina?
Im so sad I missed this match, do you guys know when does Brazil play their next game?
zlatanov
01-07-2007, 08:01
Is that Carizzo (sp?) playing in goal for Argentina?
here are the teams:
http://www.fifa.com/u20worldcup/matches/round=249401/match=58872/index.html
it's not Carrizo, who is 23 yo, but Romero (Racing, although it seems he has signed for AZ Alkmaar).
I didn't watch that game yesterday but a player to keep an eye on from the argentinians is Ever Banega who is Fernando Gago's heir in the Pirlo role at Boca and is doing really well despite being 18 yo or so.
zlatanov
01-07-2007, 08:04
Im so sad I missed this match, do you guys know when does Brazil play their next game?
July 3rd vs South Korea and then July 6th vs USA.
Here is the full schedule for the entire group stage:
http://www.fifa.com/u20worldcup/matches/index.html
A new Rivaldo, now that will be something to behold. I loved Rivaldo.
The Swangard stadium in Burnaby seems like a dump, which is kinda neat cuz when the Spanish team came off their bus to watch Jordan vs. Zambia, they were practically right beside me.
Spain vs. Uruguay was an amazing game. The atmosphere was alright for a stadium with 10000 capacity. I sat with a bunch of Spanish fans (who came all the way from Spain to watch their team play). They just went nuts when the goals went in, especially since our seats are SO close to the goal. At that moment, the emotions and passion are just amazing. Both teams were quite impressive, with some good attacking and individual pieces of skills. Uruguay wasted a few chances actually, but I thought Spain was robbed by the ref. There was a clear penalty not given. Instead, a FREEKICk was given even though the foul occured inside the box. The star of the game was definitely Capel from Spain. His moves were just dazzling to watch, and his goal just capped off a great game. He definitely has some attitude problems though. He didn't watch the previous match or go back to the tunnel after the game with his teammates. AND he walked right past a 5yr-old Spanish fan who was frantically crying and screaming for an autograph. Adrian Lopez (who scored the opener for Spain) was a LOVELY person though.....had a smile for everyone (even fans of Uruguay) and happily obliged to any demands for autographs. I was sooooooo happy for him when he scored that opener.
I thought the Zambia vs. Jordan game was sorta sad. Zambia's finishing was just shockingly bad, and mann....what a sucky goal to conceed. The worst thing is that nobody, not the fans or the players, seemed to care about the game. Most ppl were just there for Spain vs. Uruguay. The place was quiet except for an occasional "oohh....." when Zambia shoots wide or something.
Edit: Somebody I know said Capel was nice to her, so maybe he was just being emo or deaf when he ignored that little kid.
Spain-Uruguay was a nice match (especially for Live betting :D)
Lots of talent on both sides. Players i really liked were the Spaniard LW Capel (Sevilla) and the defender Pique (Man Utd- on loan to Zaragoza)
Uruguay also had good players though their attackers Cavani (Palermo) and Suarez (Gronningen) were the most dominant and the whole team relies too much on these two.
Capel is really fast and has an amazing technique and in run-dribbling. Unbelievably reminds of Nedved with his hair style and also with his way of play. The difference is Nedved has more powerful shot and is more versatile while Capel is faster and has better technique.
Pique is very dominant in defence but is also useful at set pieces and even with counters because he runs up and down all the time.
How could i forget Stephen Sunny , the Nigerian-Spanish DMC. He played less than 30 minutes but he had more intercepted passes then the entire Spanish team until 60th minute. The moment he came in Spain got a control of the midfield, Uruguay couldn't pass the center and Spain started dominating and scored 2 goals. The young version of Makelele, with amazing passing and creative abilities for a DMC.
Sunny is certanly a player to watch
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/africa/6470975.stm
Sorry for double post
Sorry for double post
Sorry slighly off topic but are you from Croatia?
Sorry slighly off topic but are you from Croatia?
Yeah, why ?
Yeah, why ?
Just wanted to gather your thoughts on Eduardo da silva, is he a good player? just want to know what are his strengths and weaknesses. I just thought as your from Croatia you might watch a little Croatian football and know if he was a good signing.
On another note todays game is another one I cannot miss, the main reason for that is because I want to see the hype behind that Carlos Vela player for Mexico, that is if his playing.
Just wanted to gather your thoughts on Eduardo da silva, is he a good player? just want to know what are his strengths and weaknesses. I just thought as your from Croatia you might watch a little Croatian football and know if he was a good signing.
On another note todays game is another one I cannot miss, the main reason for that is because I want to see the hype behind that Carlos Vela player for Mexico, that is if his playing.
His record speaks for itself i guess, but still 24m Arsenal will pay for him is way too much, imo.
I don't live in Croatia for a while and i'm not following the league. All i can tell you about him is from what i see on Croatian NT matches.
This kid scores a lot and he scores against the big clubs, that's his advantage ( if you remember Croatia-England 2:0 , he is the guy who scored the first Croatian goal, a header. He also scored against Arsenal in CLQ)
For Croatia he scored 7 goals in 12 matches and many of them were very important ( he scored against Italy in a friendly, against England in ECQ, the winner against Macedonia in ECQ, the winner against Estonia and a hat-trick against Israel)
In Croatian league he scores a lot (this year he scored 34 goals in 31 matches), but it's still CRO league and it means nothing.
Great dribbling, very fast attacker, a real executor in front of the goal. He matured a lot in last years and eventhough he's only 24, he plays like he has a lot of experience in top level.
His disadvantages...hmmm...not many...maybe his physical construction....he's small and skinny and can be eaten alive by the EPL giant defenders.
kastriot
02-07-2007, 08:20
His record speaks for itself i guess, but still 24m Arsenal will pay for him is way too much, imo.
I don't live in Croatia for a while and i'm not following the league. All i can tell you about him is from what i see on Croatian NT matches.
This kid scores a lot and he scores against the big clubs, that's his advantage ( if you remember Croatia-England 2:0 , he is the guy who scored the first Croatian goal, a header. He also scored against Arsenal in CLQ)
For Croatia he scored 7 goals in 12 matches and many of them were very important ( he scored against Italy in a friendly, against England in ECQ, the winner against Macedonia in ECQ, the winner against Estonia and a hat-trick against Israel)
In Croatian league he scores a lot (this year he scored 34 goals in 31 matches), but it's still CRO league and it means nothing.
Great dribbling, very fast attacker, a real executor in front of the goal. He matured a lot in last years and eventhough he's only 24, he plays like he has a lot of experience in top level.
His disadvantages...hmmm...not many...maybe his physical construction....he's small and skinny and can be eaten alive by the EPL giant defenders.
Arsenal will only pay 9 milion euros fro Eduardo....who the hell came with the 24 milion euro number!!!!!
Arsenal will only pay 9 milion euros fro Eduardo....who the hell came with the 24 milion euro number!!!!!
http://www.uefa.com/footballeurope/news/kind=2/newsid=557172.html
I saw it here, but i doubt it's a correct number
kastriot
02-07-2007, 08:34
http://www.uefa.com/footballeurope/news/kind=2/newsid=557172.html
I saw it here, but i doubt it's a correct number
Even in this article it says that the fee is undisclosed..they mentioned the whole deal was worth 24 mil. which still is to much
I read on index.hr that the fee is 9 mil which is more acceptable...considering that Henry itself was sold for 24 mil.
http://www.index.hr/sport/clanak/eduardo-u-arsenalu/352334.aspx
So u can be happy now...Now hajduk should be the favorite for the title :grinser:
http://www.uefa.com/footballeurope/news/kind=2/newsid=557172.html
I saw it here, but i doubt it's a correct number
Thanks Tony, scoring past Robinson deserves him a place in the starting line up lol.
The fee ranges between 6 Mill to 16 Mill, depending on which site you look at I think fifa says 6 and Uefa says 16. When thinking about it I dont think Arsenal have the spending power to pay that much money for a striker who is unproven in the EPL, my thoughts would be around the 6 Mill mark, if they did pay 16 Mill then god knows what they were thinking.
So u can be happy now...Now hajduk should be the favorite for the title :grinser:
Not yet, but when you'll lose Modric this summer, then we'll be the favorites :)
Can anyone tell me how Aguero performed in his latest match? I know he scored twice and apparently he had a great game, just wanted to know what others think of this.
Can't wait for USA-Brazil today, it should be one hell of a match! The Americans dismantled Poland 6-1, with Adu getting a hat trick and scoring two amazing goals. He's living up to the hype.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_DgOkYb01ZI
Adu enhanced his reputation in my opinion, the US-Brazil match was pretty good, maybe Chelsea should buy him instead of Pato ;)
So, Adrian Lopez anyone ? :)
He's an attacking midfielder and he scored 4 of the 7 spanish goals so far ( and the 2nd half tonight is yet to be played).
It's been long since i've seen such a dominance in the air and he's not even a tall guy. Great reading of the game. He reminds me of Inzaghi with his feeling where the ball will go :)
He plays for La Coruna and he scored against Barcelona this year.
He'll probably end up in one of the Spanish giants though.
Yeah. Adrian was on fire today. Umm....are you sure he's an attacking midfielder? Seems like a classic poacher to me. I think he has a GREAT header. Positioning and instinct are amazing too. I can definitely see the where the comparisons to Pippo come from. Ppl (including the commentator) have been saying that his goals were "easy" goals, but I think they only look that way because he's positioned so cleverly. And the first goal was far from "easy". It definitely was an amazing header. In the previous two games also , I spotted quite a few occasions where he was positioned very dangerously, but the Spaniards just couldn't get the ball to him on time. I'm glad things clicked for him today. Anyway, I hope he becomes big. I managed to get his autograph.Maybe I can sell it on ebay someday to help me finance a trip to Milan.
Spain's got quite a few great prospects actually. They're my personal favorites to win the whole thing. Adan the gk is very solid. Sunny Stephens is also promising, very hardworking, skillful and intelligent. Diego Capel has good speed, dribbling and crossing. He also has that intangible "star quality". Crowd holds its breath whenever he touches the ball. One of my favorites so far is PIQUE of Manchester United. SO composed, strong, intelligent and skillful. VERY very good young CB. Mata's alright. Pretty decent, but far from being the best player of the team. Comparisons to Raul are rather premature.
I'm SO happy for Zambia. They play some amazing football at times. Fluid passing, strong attack, but woeful finishing. I'm glad it's finally clicked for them.
He was playing a striker for Spain yesterday but it's not his natural position. In Deportivo, and on FIFA's official site he's listed as midfielder/forward. If you remember the first match against Uruguay, Bueno was the striker and Lopez was playing far behind him.
And his first goal was practically a replay of the goal he scored to Uruguay if i'm not wrong. Really great positioning and headers, you're right about that.
I also like this spanish u-20 team very much and they are also my personal favorites. People always look in SA for the greatest talents, and they are usually right, but this time Spain is the team that offers most talents.
Argentina has Aguero, Brasil has Pato, Mexico Dos Santos and Portugal Gama. Spain doesn't have someone so dominant over his team mates, but the quality they have in Capel, Adrian Lopez, Pique, Sunny, Iriome etc is really astonishing.
And Capel really has the "star quality" as you put it. You can see how the crowd in Canada adores him. He has some weird charisma and people love him. But he really has the potential to be top class. Great dribbling and speed this guy has !
Brazil lost 2 matches out of 3, Im not familiar with groups and the way of progressing to the knock out stages in this youth WC so I have to ask: Is Brazil now out of the competition? Becouse Im sure Pato deal is not possible untill WC finishes or Brazil gets knocked out.
zlatanov
08-07-2007, 07:47
I think that the first 2 teams of every group go thru and the best 4 teams of those who finished 3rd in any group will join them to make up for 16 teams necessary for the 1/8-finals.
So Brazil is hanging on a thread right now but they are not out yet
Pato seems very unimpressive from what I've seen. Can't see where the hype comes from at all. A few good moves here and there but no where near as good as ppl make him out to be. The entire Brazil team is disappointing actually.
The crowd's response to Capel is especially astonishing given the sort of treatment his teammates are getting. Against Zambia, everytime a Spanish player starts attacking or goes down, the crowd begins to boo and swear, but not with Capel. He's the only one from Spain who's loved by the audience for some weird reason, and after he got subbed off (with wild applause of course), the boos for his teammates got a lot worse. He hasn't played well in the latest 2 games though...still fairly good, but not as brilliant and dominant as against Uruguay. Local newspaper reported that he picked up a knock against Zambia and another one against Jordan. I hope he's alright.
I never realized the U20 World Cup can be so interesting. I'm actually starting to be more enthusiastic about this tournament than I am about Copa America. It's exciting to be given a peek at the future I guess, and for the first time ever, people around me here in Canada are enthusiastic about football....gives me hope that the enthusiasm will continue. Now...if only the Canadian team isn't such an embarrassment :str: :rolleyes:
I think that the first 2 teams of every group go thru and the best 4 teams of those who finished 3rd in any group will join them to make up for 16 teams necessary for the 1/8-finals.
So Brazil is hanging on a thread right now but they are not out yet
Brasil made it to the round of 16 and they were lucky i must say. At the end it was between them and Costarica for the last place in the 1/8 finals and Brasil went through because they had a GD of 4:5 while Costa Rica had 3:4.
Round of 16 :
Mexico-Congo
Argentina-Poland
Japan-Czech Republic
Spain-Brasil
Zambia-Nigeria
Usa-Uruguay
Chile-Portugal
Austria-Gambia
European u-19 champions Spain will face Brasil which is The match of the round.
Usa-Uruguay, Chile-Portugal ( the Portuguese will be without their star player Gama) and Zambia-Nigeria should be interesting to watch.
Now...if only the Canadian team isn't such an embarrassment :str: :rolleyes:
I agree, a host that didn't even score a goal :rolleyes: and this in a year when the senior team showed some signs of life in the Gold Cup. Not sure what to make of the CSA and their handling of the game here.
France' 2002 was even worse, scored no goal with 3 league top scorers in their team
This was a Brazilian team that will not be remembered.
Lost 3 of their 4 matches and went out in the 2nd round.
Pato has the class to become a great striker but he's not gonna be the greatest player of his time.
Compare him to Messi from u-20 in 2005 and Pato looks funny.
He has the dribbling, headers, positioning but he still lacks that..err, i don't know how to describe it...the special thing that seperates the great ones from the very good ones.
Paying 20m-25m for this kid will be a mistake ! There are at least 5 players on this u-20 who were much better than Pato and who won't cost more than 5-10m.
Lima, for one, seems like a much more versatile, clever player that will be a problem for many defences
Sergio Aguero :v408: :v408: :v408:
This was a Brazilian team that will not be remembered.
Lost 3 of their 4 matches and went out in the 2nd round.
Pato has the class to become a great striker but he's not gonna be the greatest player of his time.
Compare him to Messi from u-20 in 2005 and Pato looks funny.
He has the dribbling, headers, positioning but he still lacks that..err, i don't know how to describe it...the special thing that seperates the great ones from the very good ones.
Paying 20m-25m for this kid will be a mistake ! There are at least 5 players on this u-20 who were much better than Pato and who won't cost more than 5-10m.
I saw nothing spectacular from Pato either. In fact, he was farrrr from being the most stand-out player on the pitch last night. I completely agree that he lacks the special thing. I call it the "it factor".
The entire Brazillian team was rather disappointing actually. In the end, they almost got trashed by Spain. There were at least 4 chances that Spain really should have buried, including one that hit the crossbar, one that went SLIGHTLY wide and a missed point blank shot with no gk to beat. Not the best game from the highly rated Adrian Lopez (who scored the killer) and Mata, I'm afraid. I'm happy Bueno scored though. That was a brilliant decision from Melendez sub him on.
I also have to say I'm very impressed with the Spanish coach. So far, all his decisions have been spot-on. It's quite amazing how he can always change the game in his favor with his subs. He's not afraid to sub off "stars" who underperform either. I was also amazed by how Spain more or less remained composed and tried to find their rythm, keep possession and look for an opening instead of desperately pouring forward a la Roma vs. ManU. They really showed great character. I absolutely ADORE this team, a lot more than the senior Spanish team, who tend to act like a bunch of spoiled crybabies at times.
Also, I simply have to rant some more about Diego Capel. WHAT A PLAYER! Now he definitely has that star quality. It sounds absolutely ridiculous, but when he's on the ball, it seems like there's a spotlight following him around. Everyone in the stadium is holding their breath. I'm not exaggarating at all. The crowd "oohh"s and "ahhh"s at even the simplest of passes from Capel. Compared to the overhyped Pato, Capel is just CLASS.
I'm sooooooooooooooo glad we can get a game like Spain vs. Brazil here in Vancouver. It's done wonders to promote football. It really showed the hockey fans how entertaining and beautiful football can be, and this is just the U20 games! One of my friends who's a HUGE hockey fan just told me that he thinks football is just as good as hockey. That's a GINORMOUS admission. The guy who sat beside me also said Vancouverites are starting to feel that Spain is the "local" team cuz they've played all their matches @ the Swangard.
Pato hasn't been glowing like you guys said, however he has the ability, the technique, the skill to be great. He is very very good with his feet, he has a great eye for goal and he can hit some good headers. The problem is that he isn't mobile enough. What I mean is that he doesn't move enough up front.........but then again Brazil's game doesn't help him either. They never seem to settle on the ball and that doesn't allow Pato to get touches on the ball. Brazil always seemed to be rushing their opportunities, they always seemed to be rushing the ball forward. It looked like they just get the ball and try to get it up front as fast as possible. Not good showing for them at all. Also, the two forwards always pulled out wide on the flanks, thus leaving a huge hole in the middle. If one of them goes wide, one should stay in the middle, but both of them go on the opposite side and they never play off each other. I guess the idea was to give space to the mids to run through but it obviously didn't work.
Back on some of the bright stars.........I have to point out Capel also. He is a classic winger. Great speed and controll. He reminds me of Robben a lot, and I am sure he has a big future and a star-space waiting for him in a few years.
One of the best players on this WC, Poland's striker Dawid Janczyk, has signed for CSKA Moscow for 4m euro..... the shopping in u-20 WC has begun :)
Poland didn't give a star since Boniek....this Janczyk kid has the quality to be one of the best attackers in the world and i hope CSKA is just another stair on his way to the top.
Sergio Aguero.... he scored 5 goals and made 3 assists so far (in 4 matches). The best about him is that he can score from every position.
Just look at his goals against Poland yesterday ( 2nd and 3rd goal for Argentina)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se6m0gchD6w
And look at his goal against North Korea :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fowGB9SUnZE
Against Panama he made 3 assists and scored 2 goals.
I like Capel and Moralez more and these 2 are certanly among the favs to be the MVP of the tournament, but Sergio Aguero is in the lead for now to win the prize !
I watched Austria-USA yesterday, and I have to say that I was impressed with Austria's center-back Sebastian Proedl. I only saw that one game from Austria, and I know you don't judge a player by one game, but he was a rock in the back for the Austrians. Maybe someone has seen more games from Austria and can give a better oppinion on him.
You forgot this thread, he ?
Argentina-Czech Republic in the final.
It should have been Argentina-Chile but the draw wanted them to meet in the semis. These two teams were the best on the WC.
Czechs are without stars but they plays as a team. Compact defence, hard working midfield, solid attack. Atm it doesn't look like this team will give another Nedved, or even another Poborsky or Rosicky, but you could never tell with the Czechs because they are usually late developers. I've no doubt 2-3 of these Czech players will become big one day. They are in WC final so there must be top quality in the team after all.
Austrians, who lost the semi to Czech Rep. didn't impress me whenever i watched them. Some say their striker is good but he also didn't impress me.
Chile on the other hand were brilliant. They didn't concide a goal until the semis and outplayed their opponents in every match. Even in the semi, even though a man down since 17th minute, they were better than the Argies in the first 50-55 minutes.
Lots of talent in this Chilean team : Arturo Vidal ( Leverkusen already signed him for 6m euro) , Alexis Sanchez (he was amazing until the quarters and wasn't good in the quarters but i'm convinced he'll be a success. He's an Udinese player now), Nicolas Medina ( i still can't believe how much he reminds me of Inzaghi brothers, physically mostly, but even his way of play is similar to Pippo ..... he'll almost certanly end in Osasuna). Few others impressed in this WC : Winger Currimilla ( still plays in Chile but not for long, i'm sure), Vidangossy from Villareal and especially the defenders and the goalkeeper who kept clean sheet on 5 matches in a row.
I expect a lot from this Chilean team in the future at senior stage.
Argentina....we said a lot about them already. The most talented nation in the world (regarding young players). They won the u-20 wc record 5 times and they are close to the 6th trophy. I'm absolutely sure that all these Argentinian players will play in the best European leagues one day.
Maxi Moralez is my favorite from this team and i believe he'll be the Golden Ball winner (unless FIFA decide to give the award to a star - Aguero) because he's the most complete player in the tournament. Not only he assists like crazy but he scores also.
I'll make a review about the Argentinian team when they'll become champions ( yeah, they "only" need to win the final) :)
There are a few players that have really impressed me in this competition, we should be tracking down these players.
Galliani talked about the new ways Milan will work now and purchase players before they become a hit in another club where the price will go much higher - well why dont we put this into practice and buy a few players before they end up at the clubs. You see so many clubs linked with these youngsters but one team you dont see linked with them is Milan.
Arildonardo
24-07-2007, 19:15
There are a few players that have really impressed me in this competition, we should be tracking down these players.
Galliani talked about the new ways Milan will work now and purchase players before they become a hit in another club where the price will go much higher - well why dont we put this into practice and buy a few players before they end up at the clubs. You see so many clubs linked with these youngsters but one team you dont see linked with them is Milan.
Too bad most of them are argentinian players... We don't buy players from Argentina. :rolleyes:
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