Minor shock but New Caledonia get a point vs Japan! Good for them. Japan - New Caledonia 1:1 France - Honduras 5:1 France 9 pts Japan 4 pts Honduras 3 pts New Caledonia 1 pt Despite the shock draw everything else going exactly as predicted... Boring. So we have: BRACKET 1 Colombia vs Germany Brazil vs Honduras BRACKET 2 Paraguay vs USA Winner group F (Iraq of England) vs Japan BRACKET 3 All African bracket Mali vs Runner-up group F (Iraq or England) Ghana vs Niger BRACKET 4 France - Spain Iran vs Third group F (Mexico or Chile) So far out: 1 CAF 1 UEFA 2 AFC 2 OFC 1 CONCACAF and the final one will be either CONCACAF (Mexico) or CONMEBOL (Chile). If Chile lose they become the worst team in this competition.
Why Nigerian football association doesn't tackle this issue once and for all? It is embarrassing to see this happens again and again in a country that was so good in football in late 90s and early 2000s? http://africanfootball.com/news/635...26-fail-Eaglets-MRI-test-first-team-wiped-out Can you elaborate on this Zahzah?
What happens? Nothing happens. Nigeria has mandatory MRI testing so players are cleared before they can join the youth setup. They are dealing with it, else they wouldn't be doing these MRI tests. They did the same test for the 2013 and 2015 teams, had to cut some 20 or so players then as well (including one US born player with a US birth date which shows that the MRI testing is flawed and some bonafide youngsters fail the tests) and still massacred all contenders at both cups. The NFF has introduced a series of mandatory tests since 2011 to screen all players at U15-U17 level. Whats more they do the first tests one year before the African Cup. These tests are repeated three times, so you can pass the first being 18 years old, but won't pass the second test being 19 years old. There don't have any control over individuals pretending to be older. They can only check official documents and do official testing. Nothing to look at here.
But that link I have provided says 26 players out of 50 failed the test in 2016 which 9 of them were among first 11 line up list. Apparently, the test was conducted before the match vs Niger U17 team. Is that why Nigeria didn't make it to WC this time? I mean if they were among the line up list they should have been cleared long time ago.
Minor point - Out of 60. The MRI test was done prior to the first game. But if you look back to 2012 and 2014 there were similar tests just before the first game. The only fault of the FA is not conducting the test a couple of weeks earlier. Basically the current setup is as follows: 1. First selection - mandatory Nigerian FA MRI test 2. Prior to first game - mandatory CAF test 3. Prior to the U17 African Cup - II mandatory CAF test 4. Prior to U17 World Cup - select FIFA test In between theses stages new players can be added plus between tests players get older, so the were borderline on the previous test, but failed the next one. Overall yes - the high number of players failing the MRI tests were a key reason behind Nigeria's failure to qualify. The past two times the Nigerian FA did better, but still - in 2012 18 players failed the MRI test, in 2014 13 were outed. The cuts were less drastic though.
Wow... even here no shocks... 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the group remain unchanged. England - Iraq 4:0 Mexico - Chile 0:0 England 9 pts Iraq 4 pts Mexico 2 pts Chile 1 pt BRACKET 1 Colombia vs Germany Brazil vs Honduras BRACKET 2 Paraguay vs USA England vs Japan BRACKET 3 All African bracket Mali vs Iraq Ghana vs Niger BRACKET 4 France - Spain Iran vs Mexico
Projection based on group performances: 1/8 FINAL Colombia vs Germany Brazil vs Honduras Paraguay vs USA England vs Japan (tough one, but I think Japan will take this) Mali vs Iraq (Mali on the up, Iraq just got whacked) Ghana vs Niger France - Spain (beat France in qualifying with ease) Iran vs Mexico 1/4 FINAL Colombia vs Brazil USA vs Japan Mali vs Ghana (think Mali looks better this tournament) Spain vs Iran (impressed by Iran so far) 1/2 FINAL Brazil vs Japan Mali vs Iran FINAL Brazil vs Mali
Just out of interest, have you watched the England games, if so then fair enough but if not what are you basing the judgement on? To be fair I've not seen Japan play so I can't say either way but just interested.
He's picking Japan because England represents UEFA, nothing more than that trust me. Maybe your new to zahzah.
Aha, yeah he's new to me but judging from his predictions, I see your point. I would be quite surprised if Spain, England and Germany all went out at the next stage regardless of how well there opponents might have played so far.
Germany have been terrible at this tournament. They got thrashed 4:0 in the group stage and face Brazil. So that one is a no brainer. Not a good set of kids. Iran is brilliant. Thats why I give them the edge over Spain. Together with Brazil, England and France they have been superb. Japan played like equals vs France, but lost that one. But I think they'll win their next game vs European opposition, hence my choice. Mali seems to be growing into this tournament, so I expect them to be stronger with each game. Hence why I think they'll make the final.
Believe me, it's not my opinion, it is as factual as the earth revolving around the sun. I can also say with certainty there has never been anyone more bias on these forums throughout their entire history. If you question me, look at his history. He also has the audacity to call others bias. Okay I'll leave it alone now, just rubs me the wrong way.
Nah, sorry I wasn't questioning you, I was agreeing with you from his predictions as there seemed to be a trend against all the UEFA teams. Guess we will see if he's right in the coming week, I suspect he will be wrong but it's knockout football so anything can happen.
Well, football fans are inherently biased or else they wouldn't be fans. In senior tournaments, a bias in favor of UEFA is often justified by results while in youth tournaments a pro African bias and anti-UEFA sentiment is often rewarded. Anyway, very hard to predict football scores even if one were to wear a Mr Objective hat and that applies doubly IMO to youth football. In the 2013 U-17 World Cup, for instance, a Mexican team which had been thrashed 6:1 by Nigeria in the opener somehow crawled its way to the final, albeit losing the final again to Nigeria (3:0). That same year, if I recall correctly, Brazil existed the tournament early despite having looked brilliant in the group stage. In the group stage, the most impressive teams have been England, Iran, Brazil, France along with Paraguay. Each of which have collected maximum 9 points from their earlier games. The best overall record among them belongs to France (+11 GD), England (+9 GD) and Iran (+9 GD). But if you told me to peg France a favorite based on these results, I would be hesitant to do so because in a friendly right before this U-17 World Cup, Iran's U-17 reportedly thrashed France 4:0. So obviously, I will have my doubts about them. England, on the other hand, have been impressive and I certainly disagree with Zahzah giving Japan an edge over England. Japan looked impressive against Honduras but Honduras have been rubbish. Otherwise, I don't see Japan (which lost to France 2:1) and shockingly managed only a draw against "New Caledonia" faring better than Iraq against England. Iraq may not be as good as Iran despite the fact that they beat Iran on penalties to win the AFC U-16 tournament from which these teams qualified to the World Cup. But they are probably the 2nd best AFC side in this tournament after Iran. As for Iran, we will be without our influential captain in our next match due to picking up his second yellow card in the Costa Rica match, unless Iran's appeal against that decision is somehow successful. But the fact that Iran has even bothered appealing a yellow card decision should indicate that Iran's team does feel not having its captain will be a significant blow. http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/u17-...against-ghobeishavi/9133gwsxsxbn1uu1c1z397ifu U17 WORLD CUP: IRAN WANT TO APPEAL AGAINST GHOBEISHAVI BOOKING
I guess he is right about Germany not passing Brazil. I think England is stronger than Japan. Iran has been showing great form recently thrashing Germany 4-0 and wining France 3-0 in a friendly prior to WC. I give Iran vs Spain 50-50 chance. So I think England will most likely advances to semi final.
Iran's and England's GD is against strong opposition, meanwhile most of France's +11 GD is from beating New Caledonia 7:1 and Honduras 5:1. This was arguably the weakest group of them all. I would add Spain and Mali to top teams, as both played pretty even games against the group winners (respectively Brazil and Paraguay) and on a different day the score could have been different. Hard to say about the credentials of Ghana, USA and Colombia... Seems like the most even group. The obvious weaklings in the 1/8 are Germany, Honduras, Niger and those games should be easy for the opposite team. Apart from that anything can happen. But Brazil will make the semis at least...
Sure most, but not all fans are bias. However there is your average bias and then there is zahzah bias. You can't put everyone on an equal level, it simply isn't true.
Yeah, I hadn't checked the full fixture list and went of Zahzah's predictions so I thought Germany were playing Columbia. Obviously Brazil will be a really tough game for them so yeah they will be favorites.
Africa lucked out a bit with three teams in their bracket, meaning it'll be highly likely we'll have one African semifinalist. Everything else is up in the air, but Brazil - Colombia should guarantee a second semi-finalist. BTW Scores between teams at the respective championships: 1/8 finals: Ghana - Niger 0:0 (Ghana on penalties) France - Spain 1:3 Potential 1/4 finals: Mali - Niger 2:1 Ghana - Mali 0:1 Colombia - Brazil 0:3
I agree about France: as I mentioned, I don't count them among the favorites after the group stage. Spain and Mali are fine sides, I am sure, and there are several others to mention. But for me, these 3 teams stood out after the group stage. http://www.hindustantimes.com/fifa-...roup-stages/story-cn8HYyzeLNV8E52UM1aXxM.html FIFA U-17 World Cup: Brazil, England and Iran dominate group stages
Japan actually has some decent players who are quite composed when I saw some clips of them in the FIFA highlights. However, if they lose to France 2-1 and can't beat New Caledonia. On the other hand England just dismantled Iraq 4-0 with their B-team and it should've been 7 or 8 nil. It also appears that Jadon Sancho will be staying with England for the rest of the tournament, even though he hasn't been heavily involved as much in the matches as I would've liked him to be.
He's actually gone back to Dortmund, they wouldn't let him stay out any longer so he's not going to be involved for the duration of the Tournament.
Dortmund recalling Sancho is a big loss for England. There is a lot of talent in this squad but he is the biggest difference-maker by far.
Still expect them to lose in the end. The gulf in class between them and Iran was just huge. You don't just overcome that. Besides - Germany just set themselves up for a date with Brazil. CONMEBOL losing 2 of their teams in the first day of the knockout stages. And both times to heavy loses. Paraguay 0:5 to USA in the other match. So far 50% guess rate from me.... But giving how lopsided all these results are I have no idea what to expect any more.