I am sorry for Spain and Mali the referee is the legendary Ryuji SATO. One of the most controversial Asian referees!
I watched the game. Its not the scoreline as much as how absolutely dominant Iran was. They dominated in midfield, dominated in goal opportunities and if Germany had lost 10:0 it still would have been an honest reflection of that game. It was as one-sided as watching France play Liechtenstein... Ergo the hype around Iran. How the hell that game happened is a mystery, as Germany turned out to not be as weak as we thought, while Iran was not as indomitable as it turned out.
As Zahzah rightly mentioned, Iran didn't just thrash Germany 4:0. It dominated that match and could have won 8:0 and it still would be a fair reflection on how that game unfolded. It was so one sided that I actually kind of stopped watching once Iran were leading 3:0! I didn't watch Iran versus Spain, but I hear the game was equally one sided. The Spaniards dominated and outclassed Iran from the moment the whistle was blown and it wasn't until the 2nd half that Iran even appeared interested in challenging them. We lost 3:1 but might as well have lost 6:1. Of course, youth matches from my experience come with a greater variance in both scores and performances than senior matches. But even so, I think the Iran/Germany as opposed to Iran/Spain games are irreconcilable. They seem 2 extremes in terms of how Iran performed in this tourney and a person basing his impressions of Iran's capabilities on one as opposed to the other would come up with 180 degree opposite conclusions. If we throw away these 2 games, we come up with a more balanced picture of Iran. A picture which shows Iran at the level I had expected. And, as for Germany, it is clear that they had a terrible performance against Iran and that they could play much better than in that match. In their other matches, they were nothing like the useless and clueless side that was dominated by Iran until Iran was already comfortably leading 3:0. Even trailing 3:0, the Germans merely started having more possession but couldn't do anything useful with that possession and I eventually stopped watching the game.
To add to what I mentioned, and to wrap it up, let me also say the following:\ 1- Possession stats aren't by themselves illuminating. It is one thing to give an opponent possession once you are leading a side by 2-3 goals, as was the case with Iran/Germany or Iran/Costa Rica, compared to a side absolutely dominating possession from the get go (Iran/Spain). The Mexico game is hard to classify as Iran jumped ahead 2:0 inside the first 10 minutes (although the goals from Iran appeared to me against the run of play), but against Guinea (which Iran beat 3:1), I understand from reports that Guinea had more possession from the start and throughout the first half when the score was 0:0. 2- I actually gave up on whatever hype might have surrounded Iran's team after watching the Mexico game. Since we scored 2 goals quickly, you couldn't be sure, but I did feel that Mexico outclassed Iran in that match. Still, in terms of scoring chances, we were still pretty good and created enough. 3- The fact that Iran missed its best player, Delfi, against Spain was probably more instrumental than I had hoped it would be. Until the game against Spain, Iran had created 42 goal scoring chances -- the 2nd highest in the tourney. Against Spain, Iran had barely 2-3 scoring chances and all of them after Spain was already leading 3:0.
Honestly Germany didn't look that impressive in the 2nd half that I saw vs Brazil. Not to mention physically they looked spent (perhaps due to weather). And they may also have underestimated your team. But in football each game is a different story and they don't have to reconcile.
Germany never looked impressive at this tournament. Maybe save for against USA. But they were outplayed by Iran, they were dominated by Guinea who must have had the worst strike force in this tournament (if Guinea could actually finish off their chances Germany would have lost that game handidly) and despite that made the 1/4 final. Still the discrepancy between Iran whooping Germany 4:0 and then Germany almost eliminating the best this tournament have to offer in Brazil is pretty mindboggling.
U17 tourneys are mostly useless anyway. How many of these players will make it to the men? For a country like Germany probably not a single of them. They're still kids, even the best of them are no real professionals yet. One shouldn't do the mistake to lay too much into a tourney like this.
No one does, but a few usually do make the grade each u17 tournament. And often success at U17 is a decent prognosticate of lesser countries being on the up, like Switzerland, Mexico or recently Nigeria. It also indicates which federations have improvements in youth systems. It doesn't say a lot, but it does say something. You have players like the following progressing through the U17 tournament: Iniesta, Fernando Torres, Mascherano, Carlos Tevez, Pablo Zabaleta, Fabregas, David Silva, Freddy Guarin, Zapata, Armero, Gago, Garay, Keylor Navas, Mikel, Joao Moutinho, Stephane Mbia, Carlos Vela, Altidore, Alex Texeira, Danny Wellbeck, de Gea, Fran Merida, Eden Hazard, Benteke, Trapp, James Rodriguez, Toni Kroos, Onazi, Kayode, ter Stegen, Mustafi, Gotze, Yunus Malli, Philippe Coutinho, Neymar, Casemiro, Seferovic, Xhaka, Roberto Rodriguez, Adam Maher, Martins Indi, Bertrand Traore, Joel Campbell, Isco, Morata, Iker Muniain, el Shaarawy. You have good years like 2003 or 2009, but overall historically only 5-6 players per tournament become household names, primarily however from the teams that made the biggest splash at the given tournament. Its too early to be sure with 2011 tournaments onwards (players are at most 23 years old) but from: 2011 you have Memphis Depay, Benjamin Mendy, Kurt Zouma, Tiemoue Bakayoko, Jordan Pickford, Raheem Sterling, Emre Can, Marquinhos, Victor Fischer, Hojbjorg 2013 you have Kenedy, Franck Kessie, Iheanacho 2015 you have Pulisic, Haidara, Kelechi Nwakali
They're kids. That's why. For the most part the team that first gets scored against loses and often loses quite badly. The only team that has shown a consistent resilience is Brazil.
It's a development tournament at the end of the day and is merely an experience for the players to use in an attempt to push them on towards the required level. There are so many issues/pitfalls after this for them to deal with. I don't think winning the tournament actually means much. I've long thought it may actually be better to come up short. I do think these tournaments can show signs of certain countries doing the right things. Positive traits, individual quality and ways of playing that can become evident later down the line at senior level.
Brewster with two hattricks in the 1/4 final and the 1/2 final. Had just the one goal prior to the goal. Now leads the Golden Boot with 7 goals!
England rule at the tournament this year. No one even close. Much like Nigeria in 2013 and 2015. Still not over yet though...
So England in 2017 won world cup u20 euro u19 and is in u17 world cup finals. Impressive. I remember the guys few months ago telling me here that england will never be a serious threat.
there is no direct link between youth and senior success, but it seems like with all these young talents, england will be a top 5 team again. they were not even top 10 for many years within the past decade.
There is no link when there is only one team winning...but when you got 3 different ages teams winning at the same time it increases the chances considerably. So this week end we will have: Germany world champions England u20 world champions England or Spain u17 world champions. UEFA takes everything.