That would be a tough group. Ukraine just destroyed our pretty good team in 2015. Mali was arguably the best team at the same WC.
Eh, that 2015 team had major flaws up top, and was absolutely manhandled in the attack and in midfield against Ukraine. It was a midnight game for me, but IIRC, we missed a PK down 1-0, and couldn't force our way through much bigger kids. At least, that's what I remember. Looking up the highlights, they don't show much except the Ukranian goals and Hyndman's PK miss. PK was very soft.'' Mali did stick out as really good. IDK what they're looking like now though.
I recall Steffen having very good games against Ukraine, Columbia and Serbia so the scores were kind of misleading. Hyndman and Zelalem were overrun and no individual talent in attack. Ukrainians will be big and athletic again. Never know what African teams will look like, but that Mali team just played beautiful soccer.
Mali did win the CAF tournament, but it wasn't a walk for them -- they needed penalties in both their semifinal and final wins, and Senegal beat them in the group stage. Zambia, the last CAF U20 winner, didn't make it to the tournament at all, and they were a tough out in 2017.
Here's what looks to be Nigeria's qualifying roster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Africa_U-20_Cup_of_Nations_squads#Nigeria It included a '99 D named Udo and an '00 named Alhassan who have received some NMNT callups. They also called in a couple of '02s. The roster was mainly domestic with a few guys at comparatively small European clubs mixed in, meaning it left out Sam Chukwueze, the '99 attacker at Villareal. A scan of T'Markt shows a number of guys they may be hoping to attract at various clubs in Europe, including a few with American citizenship. They have certainly called in big-name players from major clubs for this tournament before, as in 2015. A guy worth noting is Southhampton's '00 Michael Obafemi, who recently played for Ireland's MNT. Things are tough all over... https://www.goal.com/en-ng/news/mic...igeria-england-miss/ogegwae9ydws1faond5hxm6if
This was Ukraine's qualifying roster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_UEFA_European_Under-19_Championship_squads#Ukraine It was entirely domestic, with the exception of one guy at Alaves. Their '99 D Vitaliy Mykolenko has some UMNT looks. And they seem to rely pretty heavily on their attacker Buletsa, who scored the group stage winner in qualifying against France. They've also given MNT time to a '99 GK at Leganes (Andriy Lunin) who wasn't on the qualifying team.
I won't pretend to know anything about Qatar's team or preparation, but here's the squad that won its qualifying group and then booked its trip to Poland by dispatching Thailand in the elimination round: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_AFC_U-19_Championship_squads#Qatar Several of its players are evidently part of Eupen, the Belgian club the country bought and incorporated with the Aspire program.
From the inbox: From today at midday CET until 5 March at midday CET, Visa cardholders will have an exclusive opportunity to apply for tickets on FIFA.com/tickets/U20WC for the first-ever FIFA competition to be hosted on Polish soil.
Here are the match officials, including three Yanks. http://fifa.pressfire.net/media/newsletter/FIFA-U-20WC-POL-list-of-selected-match-officials-.pdf
Mykolenko appears to be a lock starter for the senior Ukraine national team. Went 90 at left back in both of their March fixtures.
SQUAD | In case you haven't caught up yet, here are all the players who will be heading to Poland next month to represent New Zealand at the FIFA U-20 World Cup, good luck lads! pic.twitter.com/1PHWY88TUA— New Zealand Football 🇳🇿 (@NZ_Football) April 16, 2019 New Zealand with the first squad announcement that I've seen. They are still bringing one college player (a repeat from last cycle), but that's down from 5 last cycle. 3 players have senior NT experience, two of whom were on the team last cycle. Pretty much every team member who plays in the NZPL is getting pro minutes. One of their forwards has 18 goals in 14 games. It could be an interesting team to watch; lots of continuity from previous cycle and the U17s. It's not too hard to see a way out of the group for them.
Also, as noted elsewhere, Zwetsloot is U.S.-eligible, and will be provisionally cap-tied to NZ if he plays.
Mexico roster: Convocatoria de la Selección Nacional de México Sub-20 https://t.co/iaCcmMwn0Q#FMFporNuestroFútbol pic.twitter.com/xIDROF9WQZ— Federación Mexicana de Fútbol (@FMF) April 23, 2019
Portugal's roster was released today: A Geração de 99 quer voltar a fazer história! Estes são os convocados para o Mundial! 🇵🇹 🌍 🏆 Mundial Sub-20📅 23/05 a 15/06🏟 Polónia#U20WC #Sub20 #TodosPortugal pic.twitter.com/DfwSK3FL9a— Portugal (@selecaoportugal) May 10, 2019 Gedson Fernandes, Florentino Luis, and Diogo Dalot are pretty impressive callups for a U20 squad. Vinagre has 700 minutes for Wolverhampton. Jota is going to be electric at this level. Probably the most talented roster so far.
Japan's roster has yet to be released but it has been confirmed that Takefusa Kubo and two other U20 players will not participate, instead joining the senior squad at the Copa America. That would make Mexico's road to the knockout stages a little easier.
La liste de @BernardDiomede pour la Coupe du Monde U20 👊🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/J8n0u9g14j— Equipe de France ⭐⭐ (@equipedefrance) May 13, 2019 France's roster is out. There was a twitter thread going around about how their squad had 500 first division appearances among them but to be honest, it's not as strong a squad as I was expecting. Obviously Zagadou will be one of the best players in the tournament and Yacine Adli is a personal favorite, but I was expecting a little more. They'll still be a favorite of course but it's a weaker squad than Portugal's.
1125669378178023425 is not a valid tweet id Japan's roster is out as well. No Kubo as I previously noted. A very young squad, including a 16 year old keeper.
Nigeria is confirmed as well: #NewsAlert. Team Nigeria just released its U20 team.The U20 world cup in Poland will kick off on the 23rd of May.Nigeria 🇳🇬 , South Africa 🇿🇦, Mali 🇲🇱 & Senegal 🇸🇳 will rep the continentWe wish them the very best. Go make Africa 🌍 proud#AMPZ #AfricaToThewWorld pic.twitter.com/KDqiClHvWY— AMPZ (@ampzsports) May 14, 2019 No Chukwueze which is good news for the USA.
They didn’t but the official announcement was in Japanese and I thought Latin characters would be easier. That’s a Spanish language fan account. Why a Spanish language fan account exists for the Japanese national team is beyond me.
Staying on trend, here is the Italian U20 roster in a Indonesian tweet: Via @footballitalia , skuad resmi azzurrini untuk @FIFAWorldCup U20, 23 Mei-15 Juni nanti di Polandia. Dua tahun lalu Italia berada di peringkat ketiga. Tahun ini Italy berada di Group B bersama Mexico, Japan and Ecuador.Ini ajang yang Indonesia hampir ikut ni :) pic.twitter.com/OwF05n0LSW— Info Timnas Italia (@infoAzzurri) May 14, 2019
Some rather unfashionable club names on that Italy roster, though it appears some of those guys are on loan -- Esposito, for example, is on loan to Serie C Ravenna from a top-table club. In any case, interesting mix. (I also did a double-take thinking they'd called up the American Sal Esposito; it's not him.)