38 games have been played and 31 of those games have been won by the team who has scored first. Only two teams have come from behind to win a game so far (Brazil beating Spain and France beating Honduras).
UEFA teams on average still tend to hold their own in youth tournaments, contrary to popular belief. Especially in the under-20 WC.
Coming in third has turned out lucky for the US. Easy win and now they have an advantage in rest days.
I just had a thought that maybe the ranking of third-place teams should be done by excluding results against the worst team in each group (similar to UEFA qualifying). In this case, that would've meant Guinea advances instead of Honduras.
I don't like the best 3rd place team advancing system and my issue with it isn't solved by which results you use to determine the "best 3rd place" team. As long as the comparison is based on results by teams against different opponents, I don't like it.
Wow. Congratulations. I hope this suggests something about the quality of Iran's team rather than how fickle and unreliable U-17 results are for prognosticating future performances. Either that or Colombia sucked big time.
Colombia unfortunately made some very school boy amateurish mistakes in the back and by the keeper but Germany did take advantage of them with pretty goals.
Actually, the highlights I saw, showed Germany missing 3-4 excellent scoring chances besides the 4 goals they scored! And among the 4 goals they scored, the first one could be blamed on the keeper (who had done well initially in a one-on-one situation to only then fumble the ball), and the last one was from a defender being dispossessed of the ball, but the other goals were not the result of any amateurish mistakes. But regardless, this German team didn't look at all like the German side that was thoroughly outclassed and thrashed 4:0 by Iran.
Half of their 4 goals and half of their 4 other excellent scoring chances Honestly, these results don't inspire confidence in prognosticating about the other knock out round results based on the group stage performances and results. Not when Paraguay wins its group winning all 3 group games and earning maximum points, only to then get thrashed 5:0 by the US which had finished 3rd in its group!
As you alluded to before at this age level you just can't predict who will show up and who will play poorly from match to match.
They may hold their own, but the parity that exists between confederations in youth tournaments (including the Olympics) is nothing like what we have had so far in senior tournaments. The latter have been dominated by UEFA's top sides along with Brazil and Argentina. In youth tournaments, the honors are far more evenly divided. More importantly, you do not have a clear pattern of UEFA sides out-performing teams from the so-called lesser confederations. African sides in particular, but even Concacaf and Asian teams, have often held their own and done well against UEFA sides. We don't need to go far to realize what I mentioned. The chances of Iran's senior team winning its group in World Cup 2018 with maximum points and a +9 GD, in the process thrashing and schooling Germany 4:0, is nil. Yet, despite the fact that Iran is actually an under performing side historically at the youth level, this is not the first time Iran tops its group at the youth world cup beating its UEFA opponent. In the 2009 U-17 World Cup, Iran beat then UEFA champions the Netherlands and topped its group, with the Dutch eliminated at the group stage. And in the 2013 U-17 World Cup, which again included Iran, we advanced from our group alongside Argentina (who topped the group), with the UEFA representative finishing last in the group.
The margin of victory was surprising but the outcome wasn't. The US wasn't your typical third place team. They got six points in a tough group. Missed winning the group by about 25 minutes.
Well but the 2nd placed team of the group Colombia got thrashed 4:0 by Germany, who in turn always got thrashed 4:0 by Iran. So who the frick knows? I bet on USA to win, but not 5:0... Yesterday's results were out of the blue... Like I said - only two constants - Brazil and Nigeria are always here to win the tournament. Other than that? Nope.
Iran is not letting off... Is there anyone that can beat them? France - Iran will be an interesting clash of the top dogs. Of course if France wins their game. Iran seems to have a stranglehold on their win, alhtough despite the scoreline they aren't all that dominant.
And Mexico back in it with a goal! EDIT: At least statwise France look like they are taking Spain to school - 8 shots to 2 so far and 1:0 up.
HT: Iran 2 Mexico 1 Mexico has played well, but they have weak links, particularly defensively. Mexico fell behind 2:0 inside the first 10 minutes despite having started more brightly than Iran. Thereafter, Iran naturally played from a counterattacking posture and Mexico held most of the possession. In terms of chances, both sides had a few until Mexico scored a nice goal. Incidentally, contrary to what I had read here, Iran and Mexico had indeed played a friendly at this level before the world cup, but the score was 2:1 in favor of Iran not 3:0. Anyway, hope Iran is able to win this match but Mexico aren't a roll over by any means and play a more articulate style, even if Iran looks more poised and somewhat less mistake prone.
The referring has been awfully, Mexico's goal was offside and a clear foul on irans player was given as a dive and the English ref issued a yellow card to our player even though it happened right in front of him. Our captain is missing this game due to another silly yellow card in the last match against Costa Rica we better not lose any more players for the next match although I'm not worried about France at all.
Except for the yellow card to one Iran's players who was indeed fouled by was mistakenly carded for diving, I felt the referee did alright. He rightly awarded Iran a penalty to set up Iran first goal, and while that was the right call, it was the kind of call some referees would not have made.
Iran had beaten Mexico 3-0 in the friendly tournament in Spain right before the start of the world cup not 2-1. We had also beaten France 4-0 http://www.footballimpact.com/news/...ith-another-victory-this-time-against-mexico/
In that case, my bad. The guy who is reporting the game said Iran had beaten Mexico 2:1 in a friendly before this match.