Hard to say which confed looks best, but I would have to say Europe (minus Turkey) AFC: North Korea was outplayed by a poorly playing Niger. Crap team. India look like a whipping boy (albeit they are surprisingly still fighting for a draw vs Paraguay, but 1:0 down now) Japan (very good), Iraq and Iran looked good though (that said Guinea defending was pretty atrocious and they gifted Iran all three goals) CONMEBOL: Brasil beat a sturdy Spanish side. Obvious title credentials. Paraguay looked good vs Mali, but are now losing to New Zealand. Colombia was decent vs Ghana. Chile sucked big time. CAF: Ghana gained a vital win on first match day. Lost today, but looked good. Should go dee. Mali lost vs Paraguay, but mauled Turkey today. Suggests they could go deep. Niger and Guinea look amateurish comparatively, but Niger's win vs No CONCACAF: Very good game vs Ghana, so USA should go far. Mexico looked poor, last minute draw vs Iraq won't change that opinion. Costa Rica did OK vs a strong German side. Honduras terrible. OFC: New Zealand may make the 1/8 final, but thats about the extent of their quality. New Caledonia - crap. UEFA: Germany and England look strong. So did Spain, albeit a tier below Brazil. France - they played New Caledonia, so I'll withhold judgement for now. Turkey - worst team at this competition not named New Caledonia.
LOL. New Zealand leading from two own goals by Duarte of New Zealand. Can't wait to see the highlights.
History made for India. They have scored their first ever World Cup goal. The fans have really shown up for their team. Full stadium. A lot of singing. Nice to see.
Sort of a shame they lost. Not out just yet, but only in theory... Will probably lose all three games.
At this point any team that gets six points will automatically qualify to the next round. The reason why is that two of the groups have already had ties happen and their third place team can't get six points (proof below). Proof: There are six games and eighteen available points in each group. A team with six points can drop no lower than third place and only if the group has three teams with six points and one team with 0. Once there is a tie in a group it becomes impossible for that group to have a third place team with six points since the number of available points in the group drops to 14. Two groups have already had ties and this guarantees that two third place finishes will have less than six points. Thus, any team with six points will be guaranteed at least a third place finish and that there will be two other third place teams below them.
That means that Paraguay and the US are qualified to the next round. We just don't know at what position.
Guinea passed 40 shots on goal today (42 to 7)... how the failed to win vs Costa Rica is a miracle... Final score 2:2. They now have to beat Germany to progress. They won't do it. Not with that kind of finishing. I said Niger is weak after the North Korea game and Spain confirmed it. Terrible finishing again though. Should have scored one or two...
Wow... One way traffic in this Germany - Iran game. And its Iran doing all the traffic! Iran winning 2:0 and thats a generous scoreline!
Iran is up 3:0 against Germany and dominating so far. The German team looks very un-German. Despite trailing from the early going, most of the possession, corner-kicks and all of the chances have belonged to Iran. What has particularly surprised me is how easily the German players are dispossessed of the ball.
I take my previous comment back. Guinea is obviously a better team than Germany and should be favorite to win the final game. Iran look set for a deep run though. Group win in the bag.
I have to add that Japan also has looked very strong. Championship material. But that observation is from previous experience. The United States has only one loss this year. It's against Japan by an extremely lopsided 4-0. Also, if Costa Rica manage to win against Iran they will be the king of flukes. Germany put 25 shots against them and now Guinea had 42. Record numbers.
What did I tell yall, we have had over 30 shots so far winning 4-0 and it could have easily been double digits had we finished off our chances also 2 pks not called 2 of our goals been called offside (one was on side), we hit the cross bar twice and many missed one on one chances n missed empty net as well. Iran is one of the favourites for the title we have been scoring at least 3 in the last couple of matches 4-0 against France 3-0 against Mexico 3-1 against guinea and now 4-0 against Germany
Japan and Iran are obviously top teams. Judgement is out on Iraq. But the dropoff in quality to North Korea and India is pretty steep.
why is nigeria not in this tournament? you guys are chickening out of a rematch from 2013? i told you that game you scored 4 goals against us in 2013 was an inflated scoreline. even if you were the better team you should not have won by more than 1 goal. all of your goals were lucky counters. we controlled that match. i know its hard to believe due to the scoreline, but this is u17 level so these things happen. i told you but you didnt believe it. and now we beat germany 4-0. now you believe me? its a shame nigeria chickened out otherwise we could have gotten our revenge in this tournament. i dont think we will win the whole thing now, but we might go pretty far.
On a side note - looks like Paraguay and New Zealand will end on 1 point each, so they would be the obvious third placed team to miss out.
LOL. Different team, different year. 2013 has no bearing on 2017. Especially at U17 level. There is probably only two constants at the U17 World Cup: Nigeria and Brazil are always the teams to beat (if they qualify). Iran was easily beaten and the scoreline flattered Iran in 2013.
yes that is such a ludicrous claim that it is funny. the match ended 4-1. you are saying it should have been more than 4-1... that is hilarious on your part. 1st nigeria goal: ok nice goal 2nd nigeria goal: counterattack 3rd nigeria goal: horrendous individual defensive mistake gift goal 4rth nigeria goal: lucky deflection you deserved to win that match, but 4-1 was definitely inflated. we dominated possession and you had only a few more chances. it should have be a 1 goal victory, or at most 2. you saying it should have been more than 4-1 shows how ridiculous you are and nobody can take you seriously. we put up one of the best performances against nigeria in that tournament, the scoreline definitely did not reflect that.
I don't understand why we are talking about the Iran-Nigeria U-17 match in 2013? Nigeria won that tournament deservedly, beating a lot of teams (not just Iran) by lopsided scores. For instance, they won the semifinal 3:0 against Sweden and beat Mexico 3:0 in the final. And they had defeated Mexico 6:1 in the group stage. Honestly, with Iran beating Guinea 3:1 (a match where the scoreline flattered Iran) and then dominating and beating Germany 4:0, in a match where the scoreline if anything flattered Germany, and securing its place in the next round, isn't rather strange (and somewhat unfair to Iran's current side) that we should be talking about the Round of 16 match between (another) Iran U-17 side and Nigeria in 2013? To be sure, I actually disagree with Zahzah and don't think the 4:1 scoreline in that match was flattering to Iran or even all that indicative of the run of play. But I find the discussion irrelevant and even annoying.
Yeah, lets just leave it at this - Iran U17 2013 has nothing to do with Iran U17 2017. U17 is famously inconsistent and its hard to predict anything. Did anyone in their right mind expect Germany to be this poor? What does this say about other German teams? Nothing. There are only two consistent teams in this tournament are Brazil and Nigeria.
German coach reaction to his side drubbing at the hands of Iran: http://www.goal.com/en/news/u17-wor...ad-too-much-respect/uadf5bd07mmr1ul2g0gcn3jqm U17 WORLD CUP: CHRISTIAN WUCK - 'GERMANY HAD TOO MUCH RESPECT FOR IRAN'
thats exactly what i said. i said Iran put up a better fight against nigeria than the other teams that nigeria beat. i said that the scoreline was inflated, but this zahzah guy, even 4 years after, is being ridiculous and saying that Iran were lucky to lose only 4-1 and it should have been more. that is a ludicrous claim. this zahzah character doesnt seem to get over things easily, just look at his avatar. he is still upset about the 2014 nigeria vs france match, which france deservingly won. anyways, case closed. so nobody knows why nigeria did not enter this tournament?
Let's not talk about the past because they are playing in another age level now. We need to stay focus and continue the good job. We (Persians) all know we usually give easy goals to our opponents the moment we get cocky. Our past records isn't good either. I hope this team breaks the old habits and advances far above what we have achieved in the past.
I don't know if Iran is that strong as the results suggests against Germany. Because the same Iranian team had been dominated by the the same Indian team in the granatkin cup in Russia less than a year back, which India eventually lost 1-0 as they couldn't convert their chances. Personally, I feel the German really had a very bad day or just this team is not good enough as we expect any German team to be. And India still has a chance theoretically if they win against Ghana 2-0, 1% chance but nevertheless something to fight for team. Here the link of India U17 v Iran U17 You can judge by yourself.
yea i agree. as i said, i dont think this result means we are going to win the whole thing or anything, but we do have a team and may go far.