2020 Men's Olympic Football Tournament

Discussion in 'FIFA and Tournaments' started by Every Four Years, Jun 16, 2019.

  1. Every Four Years

    May 16, 2015
    Miramar, Florida
    Nat'l Team:
    India
    Since it appears no one has started one yet and the UEFA U21 tournament which serves as a qualifying tournament begins tomorrow in Italy, I decided to create this thread for the purpose of discussion, news, qualifying updates, etc. surrounding the Tokyo OG men's football tournament. Not sure how closely I will follow this tourney, but here we go anyway.

    Japan of course has already qualified as hosts. Their spot comes out of the AFC's usual 4 spots at the OG football tourney.

    For more about the allocation of spots and qualifying tourney dates: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_at_the_2020_Summer_Olympics_–_Men's_tournament

    The U21 Euros kick off tomorrow with Poland vs Belgium, followed by hosts Italy vs Spain. Since the last edition in 2017, the U21 Euros have 12 teams instead of 8. Somewhat odd format: three groups of four, no quarterfinals, instead straight to the semis with just the three group winners and the best runners-up. A tad unforgiving IMO.

    Anyway, top 4 (semifinalists) qualify from this tournament for UEFA. Sweden and Portugal, finalists in 2015 and Olympic qualifiers last time, did not even qualify. Admittedly, I do not know too much about U20 football in UEFA, so any insights would be welcome. Who are the favorites to qualify? Are there any teams from UEFA or elsewhere that you are excited to see at the Olympics? Any surprise picks you want to make now?

    Have at it, folks.
     
  2. r0adrunner

    r0adrunner Member+

    Jun 4, 2011
    London, UK
    Club:
    AS Roma
    Nat'l Team:
    Italy
    While, as you say, the format is too unforgiving - UEA actually changed it from 2021 to feature 16 teams, introducing quater-finals - Italy has, understandly after its recent difficulties in int'l football placed a great deal of emphasis on this event and will be desperate to at least reach the semi-finals in order to claim one of the four UEFA slots in Tokyo.

    AFC usually has three slots, they only have four this time because Japan is hosting.

    The CONBEMOL qualifiers will be early next year in Colombia after that confederation decided to re-introduce its continental under 23 championship.
     
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  3. HomietheClown

    HomietheClown Member+

    Dusselheim FC 1971
    Sep 4, 2010
    Club:
    --other--
    For those people who want to get an idea of what the Japanese Olympic team might look like you should take a look at their matches in the Copa America in Brasil. They brought a U22 team that will probably be the base of their Tokyo squad along with a few over age players who could also be considered.
     
  4. r0adrunner

    r0adrunner Member+

    Jun 4, 2011
    London, UK
    Club:
    AS Roma
    Nat'l Team:
    Italy
    Thanks for the tip.
     
  5. bigsoccertst1

    bigsoccertst1 Member+

    United States
    Sep 22, 2017
    Regarding next u23 Olympic Conmebol qualifiers, note that each federation will work with locally-based players.

    As the Brazilian federation already noted, preparation must focus on players which will not be withheld by European clubs.
    Similar to other youth tournaments, any professional club can refuse national team call-ups for u23 Olympic qualifiers/finals. FIFA backs professional clubs on such refusal.

    Some Conmebol u22 teams started preparations during May 2019.

    Both Brazil and Chile finished competing at Toulon 2019 this week. Concacaf u22 sides from Mexico and Guatemala also competed.

    u22 sides from Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay will compete at the 2019 Panamerican Games next month.
    They will face Concacaf sides from Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico and Panama.
     
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  6. HomietheClown

    HomietheClown Member+

    Dusselheim FC 1971
    Sep 4, 2010
    Club:
    --other--
    To add to that Colombia is probably going to use a team comprised of some of the players from the U20 World Cup team, Some from the U21 team that won the 2018 Juegos Centroamericanos y del Caribe, and some players who are doing well in the Colombian league who are not a part of the National team process yet.

    I imagine there will be some players who will be considered from Mexico and MLS because they are on winter break in January but as stated foreign clubs have no obligation to release them. Hopefully one or two of their clubs do it out of the goodness of their hearts (or to raise the value of their players).
     
  7. bigsoccertst1

    bigsoccertst1 Member+

    United States
    Sep 22, 2017
    @HomietheClown Mexican professional league starts early in January.

    Sudamericano Sub-23 2020 (South American Olympic qualifier) starts in January 15.

    I doubt that MLS can provide better players than most South American leagues.

    Each federation will need to work closely with prospects during this last semester of 2019, so MLS employees should be out of the question.
     
  8. HomietheClown

    HomietheClown Member+

    Dusselheim FC 1971
    Sep 4, 2010
    Club:
    --other--
    Good point about the Mexican League.
    MLS may have some diamond in the rough players to choose from. Colombia's manager Queiroz has hinted that anyone from any league will be considered for the team in general and there are always some decent Colombians in MLS.
    But yes, odds are Colombia will be domestic based.
     
  9. HomietheClown

    HomietheClown Member+

    Dusselheim FC 1971
    Sep 4, 2010
    Club:
    --other--
    Spain is the first UEFA team to qualify for Tokyo.
     
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  10. BocaFan

    BocaFan Member+

    Aug 18, 2003
    Queens, NY
    Damn! Super difficult to qualify from UEFA. Only group winners and the best second-place team qualify from this elite round!

    So Germany also in. France & Romania could conspire to a result that would see both teams advance and qualify. A draw or a narrow win for France would do, if I am not mistaken.
     
  11. Every Four Years

    May 16, 2015
    Miramar, Florida
    Nat'l Team:
    India
    France and Romania seem to be aware of this. Goalless after 50 minutes...

    Sucks for Italy, though. Even home advantage couldn't take them through. They kind of f*cked up by losing to Poland, however.
     
  12. Every Four Years

    May 16, 2015
    Miramar, Florida
    Nat'l Team:
    India
    Change that to 87. This is why you don't have formats that involve depending on teams in other groups...
     
  13. Every Four Years

    May 16, 2015
    Miramar, Florida
    Nat'l Team:
    India
    France and Romania through.
     
  14. BocaFan

    BocaFan Member+

    Aug 18, 2003
    Queens, NY
    Or have an odd # of teams in each group (WC 2026-).
     
  15. jesta

    jesta Member+

    Feb 9, 2014
    thats gonna be funny! :D
     
  16. HomietheClown

    HomietheClown Member+

    Dusselheim FC 1971
    Sep 4, 2010
    Club:
    --other--
    That is a really good field of four Euro teams that qualified.
    Japan looked decent in the Copa America other than their first match.

    Shaping up to be a really nice competition so far based on the names.
    Let's see how the other regions go.
     
  17. BocaFan

    BocaFan Member+

    Aug 18, 2003
    Queens, NY
    Slightly O/T but just noticed that for the women's tournament only 3 teams qualify from Europe. A bit of a farce given 7 of the 8 WC quarter-finalists are from Europe.

    It seems like just about every major int'l football tournament has expanded in recent years except, ironically, the one tournament for which an expansion would actually be justified. :mad:
     
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  18. Every Four Years

    May 16, 2015
    Miramar, Florida
    Nat'l Team:
    India
    Yeah, it's silly. I don't see why they won't just expand it to 16. I'm not sure whether that's the IOC or FIFA that wants to keep the smaller field. I'm sure it wouldn't be break any Olympic host to add four more teams. And there have been some quite major absentees recently, e.g. Germany in 2012, Japan in 2016.

    As far as UEFA not having enough spots is concerned, that's just FIFA being FIFA as usual. UEFA always has way too many quality teams in pretty much any FIFA tournament for them all to be there and still keep the lesser confederations happy. And the anti-UEFA bias is even stronger in the women's game since UEFA actually didn't dominate as much in the early days (see: China of all places being a major powerhouse of women's football in the 90's), so they don't (or at least didn't) even always have the results to push for more spots at these tournaments like they do in the men's game. Which means we get to see Thailand get smashed 13-0 instead of watching Denmark or Switzerland :confused:.

    It was sort of okay when UEFA women's soccer was basically just Germany and a few of the Nordic countries, but it's starting to look a little stupid now as the rest of UEFA is starting to get in on the action and take women's soccer seriously. Even 8 out of 24 WC spots seems quite low when you look at the kind of quality (or lack thereof) the other confederations have to offer.
     
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  19. BocaFan

    BocaFan Member+

    Aug 18, 2003
    Queens, NY
    Guaranteed to have at least one major absentee in 2020. If France loses to US on Friday they won't qualify. If they win, then one of the WC semifinalists will not qualify (so defending Euro champion and defending Olympic champion also in jeopardy).
     
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  20. Every Four Years

    May 16, 2015
    Miramar, Florida
    Nat'l Team:
    India
    Back to the men, does anyone think it would be possible in the future to make the Olympic tournament a senior-level tourney? Of course some sides like most of the UEFA and CONMEBOL sides wouldn't send full teams and might just go with youths anyway, especially what with the Euros and Copa being the same summer, but I could see likes of Mexico, US, Japan, S. Korea, some of the African teams, etc. taking this pretty seriously (assuming it was on the FIFA calendar and clubs would be forced to release players and so on).

    We could really use another major international tourney on the men's side, what with the Confeds Cup being gone now and the Global Nations League still in doubt. It's not as though we're exactly awash with intercontinental play as it stands.

    No idea how qualification would work (results from latest continental championship?), but it would certainly be worth a try.

    Thoughts?
     
  21. r0adrunner

    r0adrunner Member+

    Jun 4, 2011
    London, UK
    Club:
    AS Roma
    Nat'l Team:
    Italy
    I would replace the continental championships with a senior Oluympic tournament, so we would have a world championship every two years: one called the FIFA WC and the other called the Olympics. This is what all other sports do, even if they don't have a non-Olympic championship as prestigious as the FIFA WC.
     
  22. HomietheClown

    HomietheClown Member+

    Dusselheim FC 1971
    Sep 4, 2010
    Club:
    --other--
    I think FIFA likes it the way it is and will never let it change.

    What I would like to see though is the very best players at the U23 Level.
    But the Euro Clubs would complain too much.
     
  23. BocaFan

    BocaFan Member+

    Aug 18, 2003
    Queens, NY
    I suspect the IOC wouldn't be too fond of it either. A senior global football tournament would totally overshadow other Olympic competitions. The Olympics as we know them would probably be killed off within a couple of cycles.

    I would imagine that other sports do it because they have no other viable option. How would you put together a CONCACAF hockey championship? Most team sports are only popular in 1 region, or a small set of countries in multiple regions. Either way, doesn't make a great deal of sense to have regional championships.

    In any case, there is no buy-in for your proposal. Fans are perfectly happy with regional championships in soccer and don't want them replaced with a 2-week tournament that very few countries (no more than 16) would be able to compete in due to time-constraints.
     
  24. Every Four Years

    May 16, 2015
    Miramar, Florida
    Nat'l Team:
    India
    Should probably just have kept the Confeds Cup tbh, and even expanded it to 16 or something. That would have given us the secondary tourney I feel like international football needs. Alternately, perhaps opening up more WC spots to intercontinental playoffs would also be good.

    The whole CWC expansion thing looks really shitty now. FIFA should never have put the club game ahead of the international one. Sure, not every team bought into the Confeds Cup, and we would probably see even more of that with an expansion, but it was actually quite useful to many of the lesser teams involved. Though FIFA could maybe sort of rectify things if the whole GNL thing ever were to pan out.
     
  25. Every Four Years

    May 16, 2015
    Miramar, Florida
    Nat'l Team:
    India
    France OUT after yesterday’s result. Germany out for the second time in three editions, too, if Sweden can hold on for another ~25 minutes. Rooting for the underdog, but the Olympics situation is farcical.
     

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