Thanks, at least is will prep some of the boys for the tourney in Peru in Jan. Qualification for 2011 in Colombia wont be that simple since Colombia get an automatic bid, only 4 teams can qualify. So nothing can be taken for granted.
Important that we do qualify as well after the last debacle. Good to hear the kids played solidly in defence. Any more details please ? As for England I'd keep eyes on just three players Rodwell of Everton, Wilshere of Arsenal and McEachran of Chelsea. A couple of the Manchester United kids James for instance may be worth watching. The rest are middling to poor. As Leon says the tabloids love to talk up the England team here .It seems now that bubble has been well and truly burst though in the eyes of the public at large. Who cares anyway one less competitor to worry about.
Sadly, over the last 20 years we are only competitors with England to see who wil get knocked out at the quarter final stage first.
Well aside the defense, i saw nothing calling my attention unfortunately... As i said, it was a borefest watching this side as they lacked weight in offense. (so, as a consequence, they create very few chances) Though, it has to be remembered a good amount of these players werent the first choice. Esteban Andrada (Lanus, goalkeeper) German Pezzela (River, CB) Hugo Nervo (Arsenal de Sarandi, CB) Michael Hoyos (Estudiantes, midfielder) For me, they are the ones who seem to have a future in professional football.
I guess we can forget about Pareja. He just signed a contract with Spartak Moscow for 4 years. He won the lottery though He'll play in the Champions League next year, so that's a step up but players in the Russian league always get overlooked when it comes to playing for the NT. I guess the price Espanyol asked for him was too much for most Spanish teams.
lolz! Well chau Nico. When the players go to a such league, it's over period. Looks like we will have to stick with Demichelis.
From the guys that played lately, i would include, Tagliafico, Zuculini and Viola. In the other hand i think it should be debated what's the importance of the youth national team coaches, because ultimately the clubs are the ones that develop them, while the national team ones may be important, they may not be the most important ones.
Obviously, that's my pov but i thought Tagliafico was nothing special imo. As for Bruno Zuculini, it was said he was better than his brother, but i didnt see anything leading to that up until now. Finally Viola, well... poor kid, he was alone in the front, not easy at all. EDIT; I have a question for you andrès, are we already qualified for the Olympic Games in 2012?
No, I think that will be determined in Peru in January. In 2007 we took away a spot from Uruguay. It was a last second goal that got us in for 2008 Olympics. I think it determines who goes to the U-20 WC as well as the Olympics. Top 2 teams go to the Olympics and top 4(But I believe if Colombia finishes top 4, the 5th place team will get in) will go to U-20's in 2011. But it seems that Colombia will be active in the U-20 qualifications (Peru 2011 U-20,South American Championships) which they are hosting and are in. I guess they are competing for an Olympic spot.
I like Rodwell. He was CB in youth/reserves teams his whole career but has done very well as a DM/CM. This McEachran boy looks good too. England might finally have a midfield that can keep the ball and pass. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYNcQcjslOI&feature=related"]YouTube- Josh McEachran v Czech Republic[/ame]
this is not an england thread, so with all do respect take it else where. in other news, we play colombia tonight the paraguay tournament final so i hope we can pull this out and build confidence for the real tournament in january
I'm not English and I didn't mention those players first. I saw Albiceleste2010's post and looked up McEachran as I have never seen him before. Video was just to show what I saw of him. Sorry if I offended.
i wasn't offended, just don't want to turn it into an english discussion, especially when our kids have a final tonight.
And especially when all an English player has to do to be hailed as the greatest thing sliced bread if have to decent games out of every 45.
Argentina lost to Colombia 1-0 in the final of the tournament. I think i will put a comment taken from Olé's website that sums it up my thought after having seen most of the game:
Bilardo OUT!!! NO ganaste nada, te lo dio todo Diego! Pekerman NEEDS to return to Secretario de Selecciones. Batista once he found out that Diego was out, started walking around with his head up his ass. So much for wanting to work every day and stay with the Sub20. That's why he's lost points with me. He really thinks that he is going to get the Seleccion job. If he chooses to abandon the pibes, what could happen in the future? Grondona has stopped caring about soccer, or rather winning. If anything he just wants the pibes just to somewhat shine, because I'm sure he gets a cut from transfer fees and what not!
Problem is that when we used to win everything at youth level it didn't make any difference to how the senior team did at the world cup. I can't help feeling that there needs to be a major restructure in the AFA, you can play musical chairs with the managers role, but that makes little difference, you have to start at the top.
Indeed. Disappointing for them to lose but they are minus several of the first choices. Still. Batista has not made that great a sucess of the u20's so I would see him only as a #2 at best.
It's true the potrero-type of player is really disappearing... I mean, among the offensive players, none of them could make differences by dribbling, none. No desequilibro, nada de nada.
Well, success also very much depends on the material you have at hand. Maybe the current Sub20 generation is not good enough. He may do very well with the major players, as he has already shown during Olympics. I don't understand the rush to find a replacement. Why don't we let Batista handle it for the coming friendlies and if he does well, then we support him at least till Copa America.
Do you think he did that well in the Olympic Games? Or maybe the opposition was lackluster? I would be very cautious with the result in the OG considering we were playing with almost our A team against the other opponents... imo, Batista is a burro and not up to the task.
It's disheartening, where are the Riquelmes, Aimars, Saviolas, Sorins, Messis, etc... Apart from the fact that there doesn't seem to be any organisation what so ever at the youth levels anymore, I think there's also a genuine lack of world class talent. Future looks bleak IMO.
I don't know how much the poor opposition was the reason. Fact is Brazil had a pretty good team and really wanted to win it, and we beat them fair and square. More than the results, I was impressed by how he allowed Messi to shine. I thought he had his team right and only needed a few adjustments here and there to compete at senior level.