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

Today:
Venezuela vs Japan
Korea vs Portugal

Asia to stake its claim to their first ever title. And South Korea may just have what it takes...

 

Nope, player claimed he was hit in the back of the neck, not face, and then switched which place on the back of the neck the agonizing injury took place supposedly. On top of that, the first yellow wasn't even a shoulder challenge, it was a touch. Beyond absurd. Btw, curious, how the heck did Guinea and South Africa represent CAF in this? Both sides, especially Guinea looked awful. Were they missing players, or were their CAF opponents missing key players? Feel bad for Ecuador. I think Ecuador was probably the 2nd best, at worst third best team in the group, but they're going home. It's a shame for the tournament as they would have added a great deal to the knockouts that Saudi Arabia will not.

 

I didn't think South Africa was dreadful. Their finishing was, but the overall football wasn't that bad.

As for who qualified:
Nigeria messed up qualification in Sudan. With Osimhen, Kelechi Nwakali, Orji Okonkwo and Samuel Chukweuze from the dominant U17 World Cup champion side, they really should have made the tournament..
Senegal (3 wins, 1 draw and a loss vs Zambia) and Zambia (5 wins) were obviously the top two teams from those who qualified, while Mali, Egypt and Cameroon were really dissapointing.

There also seems to be some sort of choke factor at play. Teams like Guinea have been here before and they seem to lack the self-belief to perform, while teams like Nigeria, Ghana and so on have swagger.

Zambia just simply has an excellent team and the win vs Portugal sure helped their confidence levels grow. That said they seem to let in to much poor goals, which could be costly against teams like Germany. That said Germany doesn't like African teams and last time around they were eliminated by an African team.

 

Japan slightly better, but still 0:0 at the break.
Its not entirely unfeasible for no CONMEBOL team making the 1/4 final.

 

Extra time

 

ugh-oh... today is looking like it might be an Asian-annihilation...

 

This is football, not Starcraft

 

I do not have a way to watch the game, but the FIFA commentary and stats seem to indicate that Portugal have the better run of play. Is that correct?

Also, why the winner of NZ/USA have to play with 2 days fewer rest than Venezuela in the 1/4 finals? It would seem that the Korea/Port and Venez/Japan combination would have afforded only one days difference before todays' games, and could have been an acceptable 1/4 finals.

What am I missing here?

Edit: Perhaps it has to do with the formulation of a 16-team knockout phase, and keeping teams from the same group away from each other?

 

Disrespectful. CAF has had multiple finalists and Semi-finalist at U20 level in the World Cup. The last edition of the tournament it was an All African Semifinal, on top of that all African teams advanced from the group.

So if you are going to talk crap about Africa at the U20 World cup, don't be an idiot.

 

And this is racist, inaccurate and disrespectful.

 

Pay attention little guy. My post was in reply to zahzah saying UEFA "obviously" has too many slots at this competition. If UEFA has 5 and CAF has 4 and UEFA outperforms CAF than who has too any slots? Racist? Okay I'm sure you would love it to be, but how the hell did you come to that conclusion? Is it because CAF is not known to send players above age?

 

Watched the whole Japan match just to see that soft headed goal in extra time. Not sure what the keeper was doing. Either way Japan only had one real striker and he got injured against Uruguay, so that was that I guess.

 

Korea should have paid off the refs like they did in 2002.

Corea CAGOU!!!!!! Hahaahhaha

 

I expect a good game from Germany and Zambia as it could very well be high scoring.

Costa Rica vs England? If England use their same formation against Korea then they should win easily with three in the in midfield. Still, Costa Rica wil get chances.

 

I think Costa Rica is a decent side, and youth tournaments are less predictable, but I see England winning rather comfortably. I don't mean by several goals but rather by controlling most of the match.

Germany-Zambia, well I'm actually looking forward to this match as I just get the feeling it's going to be exciting. Can't pick a winner.

 

According to Sports Betting, now Venezuela is the third favourite to win the WC, after France (1st) and Uruguay (2nd).

England is now 4th.

Great performance for La Vinotinto

 

Shouldn't generalise because Zambia is not known for fielding over age players. In fact last year at they implemented MRI to filter U17 recruits.

Anyway I believe in destiny and Portugal revenged Korea for 2002 with great fluid attacking.

Zambia hopefully will also revenge Germany for the Seoul 88 Olympics Quarter Final loss.

 

CAF and UEFA have very similar results at the U20 World Cup, despite UEFA getting more shots with having more teams. There is nothing at all that justifies UEFA having 6 slots at this level. 5 OK, but not 6. It's strikingly obvious.

 

Okay, so you take 1 away from uefa and you give it to whom? Conmebol? Give them 5 out of 10 teams in a tournament of 24, doesn't seem rational does it? Perhaps AFC? Well I think it's safe to say I need not explain. Give it to concacaf? Same issue as Conmebol except with weaker teams. So perhaps CAF? Though performing much better at youth tournaments, still lacking behind uefa and Conmebol despite what your heart wants to believe, reality suggest differently. So you say we can do without teams like the Netherlands, Croatia or Serbia in favor of Morocco, Egypt or the Ivory Coast, I don't think so. Do you seriously believe if we flipped it and CAF had 6 teams qualifying and UEFA 4, that CAF would also have 5 separate winners? So instead of using the word "obvious" think about just saying "in my opinion".

 

I completely agree with you, I'm only countering his argument that it's obvious UEFA has too many slots based on results. You need to represent the world and also sell the game as much as you can, but you can't dilute the product so much that it becomes hard to watch. Personally I'm fine with UEFA having 5 slots.

 

Merit-based if it's U20 level CAF would have as much spots as UEFA.