congrats to Gambia, really thought Tunisia would have it easy. I just hope there isn't a group consisting of Azerbaijan, Gambia, Uruguay & a surprise team from CONCACAF(Jamaica?? Panama??).
Just to give an idea of how incredible that is - this is Gambia's first ever entry into any competition with any female national team (age group or otherwise).
Hi all, Oceania updates can be found here: http://www.ultimatenzsoccer.com/OtherNZWomensTeams/reports.htm Cheers, JR
Maybe too incredible ? "In an interview, it was put to the chairman of the football normalization committee Alhaji OB Conateh that there was a likelihood not all the girls would make it to Azerbaijan if subjected to similar tests ahead of the World Cup final but he revealed that the test will be carried out in the country and that he is hopeful that 95% of the girls will make it to the finals. Alhaji OB said, “We’re going to test them here [Gambia], now in Gambia, we have the MRI machines and we are going to test all of them and those who fall under the age bracket will go but 95% of them will pass the MRI test.” http://gambiasports.gm/index.php/football/353-gambia-women-u17-set-to-undergo-mri-tests
poor Gambia. I just hope none of their games are lost by more than 10 goals. early predictions: GROUP A 1. Colombia 2. Nigeria 3. Canada 4. Azerbaijan GROUP B 1. United States 2. North Korea 3. France 4. Gambia GROUP C 1. Japan 2. Brazil 3. Mexico 4. New Zealand GROUP D 1. Germany 2. Ghana 3. China 4. Uruguay QUARTERFINALS Colombia def. North Korea United States def. Nigeria Japan def. Ghana Germany def. Brazil SEMIFINALS Japan def. Colombia Germany def. United States FINAL Germany def. Japan
Seriously.......Germany? France were supposed to be the better team in Euro qualifying, and from DFB highlights, I don't think this viewpoint was stretching the truth too far either, as the latest generation of German U-17's seems a few degrees below what were accustomed to seeing. In tournament football though, the most successful teams aren't always filled with the best players, but for me, Germany just don't have the all round menacing feel to them this time around. Japan seem to think that their latest crop of U-17 girls are the best that they have ever produced , and the AFC are now notoriously good at this level too, where superior technique and a sound understanding of tactics, can really go far. So picking any East Asian nation would be a safe bet for success, especially after we saw all three AFC sides in the semi final stage of the last tournament. Do you know something nobody outside of Colombia knows , because in my mind, seeing Colombia in a semi would be a bit crazy, considering Uruguay and Brazil both beat them fairly easily in the CONMEBOL qualifying tournament.... . I haven't seen their new U-17's play, but if your assessing Colombia's potential on the present U-20/senior core of talent, and what they have achieved in the last few years, that progress was unfortunately only based around that one single generation of girls, and nothing more. But hey, like I said, maybe you know something about this group of Colombian girls, that not even their regional rivals witnessed . Both USA and Canada could be a wild card picks, as both teams were said to be fairly evenly matched versus one another in their regional qualifying tournament, but when you look back at previous CONCACAF performances, and see USA in a group with North Korea and France....
No. FIFA somehow refuse to give out these informations for the U-X WWCs. My guess is this: Pot 1: Azerbaijan (automatically assigned to position A1), the 3 AFC teams Pot 2/3/4: France, the 3 CONMEBOL teams Pot 2/3/4: New Zealand, the 3 CAF teams Pot 2/3/4: Germany, the 3 CONCACAF teams In addition the three UEFA teams obviously weren't allowed to be drawn into the same group. Other possibilities: Pot 1: Azerbaijan (A1), France, Germany, New Zealand Then 3 of the 4 remaining confederations were placed into one pot each and the teams of the last confederation were split among these three pots.
Canada's roster has been announced. http://www.whitecapsfc.com/news/2012/09/canada-announce-roster-2012-fifa-u-17-womens-world-cup
Since the tournament starts this week, I guess it's time to bump this thread and start throwing wild guesses at how the group-stage will end! Is Brasil any good? Japan's group is the same as U-20 WWC (Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Switzerland), only with Brasil instead of Switzerland. At first sight, it should be substantially worse for Nadeshiko Japan, but you never know how different things can be at this age level (by the way, seriously, Gambia? By the way, what's this story about MRI test? I have no idea what an MRI test is: is it something revealing doping? it has something to do with the doubt that Gambian girls are actually older than 17? Or is something completely different?)
of course, they are good, don't have the regular brand-names with this squad, but you have nothing to worry about, because the incompetent coaching and breakdowns on the back-line (from coaching again) will insure they never make it past the quarters. as far as pure football skills go, they are top 3 in the tournament.
After witenessing the U-20's....., this time I think we should just all go with the flow rather than try and depend on the dependable. Saying that though, if there's one thing we could all expect to see again, it's that the AFC's sides excellent technical and tactical abilities see them remain very strong at this level, with one European nation (France) probably joining them as a real dark horse for the tournament too. Oh, and Gambia...... well after seeing Japan and Germany put a serious hurting on teams within this age group in the past, means somebody is bound to get it this time too. African teams have had a long history of using overage players within FIFA's youth tournaments, so it was decided that the MRI scan would be used to check the age of bone development within the wrists of players, as a format to best prove the age of players heading into FIFA's age group world finals.
I don't know a lot about our team but three players to watch closely will be the captain and playmaker of the team Sandie Toletti , who is describe as a new Abily, a very technical player. Center back Griedge Mbock who already play in our top division and is a biggest hope of our football, centre forward Kadidiatou Diani , who is the ones of our forward closer to Delie.
I guess Gambia had a 3 minute long defensive collapse. 20' (3 - 0) R. KYONG HYANG (Korea DPR) scores!! 19' (2 - 0) R. UN SIM (Korea DPR) scores!! 18' (1 - 0) C. YUN GYONG (Korea DPR) scores!!
Gambia sucks. I don't care if they're 25 years old, instead of U-17. They don't belong in this tournament. It's crazy to have three CAF teams in a 16-team FIFA WWC. The ratio should be 1 out of 8. If it's a 24 team tournament, fine CAF can have three teaams. But a 16 team tournament, CAF should only have two teams in (instead of three). And it seems like we have more CAF teams in this tournament than UEFA teams (which is absurd). Azerbaijan doesn't seem like a worthy UEFA team (yes, they are the host). If they aren't the host, no way they get in this tournament. Two CAF teams should have gotten in (instead of three), and that should have opened the door for another UEFA team getting in. FIFA dropped the ball on that. Breakdown should have been: Host: 1.0 UEFA: 3.0 CAF: 2.0 AFC: 3.0 OFC: 1.0 (New Zealand) CONCACAF: 3.0 CONMEBOL: 3.0
Since Australia moved to AFC, New Zealand is automatically qualified for all the tournaments, of all age level and sex, in the next century...
North Korea is now up 9-0 over Gambia. If Gambia can just get one goal on the board, then they can get some confidence to try to come back with a flurry of goals and get a draw in this match.
The commentator just said something about drink breaks (because of the weather). Gambia is down 9-0, so they should be breaking out the Colt-45. I mean, they are old enough, so it shouldn't be a problem (they look 24 years old).
I think I saw a banner advertisement for "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" in the background on the sideline, but I can't tell because my ESPN-3 screen has gone blurry.