FIFA U-20 World Cup: Korea Republic 2017 [R]

Yeh he just had to take a quick look at the wikipedia.
The Japanese broadcast made it very clear they need a 2-2 or higher draw from the beginning.
And I had a feeling it would happen after Italy went 2-0 up, because Japan have been much better in the 2nd half in all their matches.

 

You'd think they'd have the stats right there or something... the only justification I can think of is that maybe he didn't want to say anything that might reveal the earlier results from the day in case someone's watching reruns, or they're reshowing it...

 

Still trying to figure out how Zambia could generate a billion scoring opportunities and not score, and Costa Rica could generate 2 or 3, and score once and hit the post. What a bizarre game to watch. Looked like total dominance from Zambia, but w/o some sterling goalkeeping on penalties, it should have been 2-0 for Costa Rica.

So what teams actually brought something approximating their first choice options up and down the roster? I know my US Side is basically missing about 3/4's of what would start if we had a sane coach, and didn't have a bunch of our best players not released. What about other squads?

 

I know England, Portugal and Italy brought weaker squads, I think mostly because of the upcoming u21 Euro. From what I have seen(mind you I haven't been able to watch that much) Venezuela, Uruguay and France seem to be the best teams here.

 

As an England supporter I know these guys we would have liked to have seen in the squad that are eligible:

Marcus Rashford (Manchester United) - Playing for United and called up for England.

Patrick Roberts (Celtic on loan from Manchester City) - Celtic wanted him for the Scottish Cup and England had no balls to say otherwise.

Izzy Brown (Huddersfield Town on loan from Chelsea) - Club didn't want him to play.

Joe Gomez (Liverpool) - Not called up and fully fit.

Tammy Abraham (Brighton on loan from Chelsea) - Called up for U21s.

Rico Henry (Brentford) - Was picked but got injured.

Axel Tuanzebe (Manchester United) - Playing for United.

Tom Davies (Everton) - Koeman didn't want him playing for U19s, which meant he could've played here, but wasn't selected. Maybe they didn't want him playing at all this summer.

Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool) - 98 born and same case as Davies.


Out of all these Henry, Tuanzebe, Gomez, Brown and Roberts are the realistically could have been selections. Still we have a good squad for the options we had and shows how deep the 97' pool is.

 

I'd also add in England and South Korea as outside bets to win it. England haven't been great, but if they put three in the midfield then they'll be tougher to beat and enjoy more possession. Korea are tough to beat and have some flair as well.

 

as it stands now Germany is advancing as one of the 3rd placed teams....

 

Even if they win this is already CONMEBOL worst ever U20 World Cup run ever.

OUT:
Conmebol 2 teams
CAF 2 teams
AFC 2 teams
CONCACAF 1 team
OFC 1 team

South Korea vs Portugal and Zambia vs Germany look like the matches of the knockout phase.
My team Zambia with a killer route to the final. I know they can attack (they've been slicing through everyone at will), but I question the defence... Just their luck to win the group and to meet the worst 3rd place team, which turns out to be Germany!

Pairings:

South Korea - Portugal
Uruguay - Saudi Arabia

Venezuela - Japan
USA - New Zealand

France - Italy
Zambia - Germany

Mexico - Senegal
England - Costa Rica

 

Some pretty good matches.
At this level you just never know who is going to show up and who is going to fall flat on their face.

I have a feeling Germany wakes up though. Zambia is probably like we play our hearts out in the Group Stage and our reward is playing Germany? What the...

 

There's poor scheduling. Before the Quarterfinals the USA-New Zealand winner will have two fewer days rest than the Venezuela-Japan winner.

 

Oh boy, another case of speaking too soon. 5 of 5 UEFA teams through and 2 of 4 CAF teams through, yet it's "obvious" UEFA has too many slots. UEFA has 5 seperate tournament winners and CAF has......you guessed it, 0. Well hopefully the Zambia u28 team can save face for CAF.

 

Ooops, CAF does have 1 winner in Ghana. I completely missed that, I think I'm so accustomed to CAF doing nothing my eyes missed it.

 

A bit surprised to see the Saudis walk away with a draw against the US. With Ramadan ongoing you have to figure at least some of their players are fasting.

 

France vs Italy is a rematch of the U19 UEFA finals from a year ago.

 

Controversially playing up a man for a long stretch of time helps out the fasting from sunup to sundown thing a bit I imagine.

 

I didn't see the foul. Was the VAR used?

 

Oddly enough. I don't believe VAR was even considered.

 

You should also view how he got the first yellow, it was given for "touching" a players shoulder. I kid you not. Touching. One of the greatest referee abominations I've seen in major competitions in years. It was that bad.

 

He received a second yellow for that?!?? Bloody hell, that's ridiculous imo.

 

Would need a different angle. It did have a hint of elbow in the face. Looks like a possible yellow to me

 

The announcers said the Saudi player acted as if it was an elbow in the face, but it wasn't. The announcers also said during another game that VAR can only overturn straight red cards. A second yellow card is not reviewable.

 

Going back to your comments about Italy, there was a play in Japan-Italy also where it looked like the Italian player pretended he got hit in the face, and a yellow was shown to the Japanese player. But I can't expect them to ever review a first yellow case when they won't even review a 2nd yellow like in the Saudi match.

 

Nevermind the rules don't apply to the first yellow anyway so not sure what I was talking about. But seeing how the refs seem to buy all these little acting jobs, it doesn't give me much hope in any case.