I started an identical thread in the Peru forum, but since I am a very proud Peruvian, I guess we can update the qualifiers. So far, Solomon Islands has qualified, as has New Zealand who will make their trip back to Peru next year. The AFC U16 starts tomorrow. I expect Japan, Vietnam, S. Korea and Iran to qualify. MOD EDIT: @SiempreCrema is a very proud Peruvian. The inept, corrupt officials in the Federation, not so much Tl;dr for anyone opening this thread at the beginning, Peru failed a pre-tournament inspection (FIFA claims it was over the venues, the FPF that it was over the tax-exemption guarantees) and the hosting rights were thus awarded to Brazil.
Really disappointed in Japan. They are winning 4-2 at half time but they are only doing so because they are taking advantage of bad clearances from Thailand. The latter has been more precise and putting in better counters. Malaysia so far has been the best team in the group.
True, but I hope the kids don't expect the same treatment that Tuiloma and co. got last year with all the free press and the free escorts
Surprised Iran lost. Now they have an uphill battle. I can't imagine Vietnam being an easy task for them. Oman beat Yemen 2-0 as well, now Vietnam takes on India. That's the game I'm going to try and catch.
Asia has reached the quarter finals of their championship. With 4 nations qualifying the quarter final winners will all be at Peru. Games are Japan v Oman North Korea v Tajikistan Indonesia v Australia South Korea v India
Indonesia is 33rd in AFC in the FIFA Rankings. Will the U-17s make their senior team better in a few years?
Oh boy, I can already see the Peruvian tabloid press and "comedians" having a racist field day with the Korean team... Maybe Japan gets a break b/c there's a larger Japanese community in Peru - I hope they don't mind getting bombarded with Fujimori references ad nauseam
We won't host the World Cup due to the whole Oviedo scandal. I was so excited but we'll lose the host, I guarantee it.
Not super relevant to Peru but Japan and Tajikistan will play in the final of the under 16 AFC Championship after Japan turned around a 1-0 half time deficit against Australia to win 3-1 and Tajikistan beat South Korea 7-6 in a PSO after a 1-1 draw.
Yes. Their best finish at a major competition before the tournament was third place at the 2006 AFC U-16 championship.
Looks like the tournament will no longer be played in Peru... disappointing for the hosts, but who will the new host nation be? Hmm... Qatar maybe?
Yeah, hope none of you had hotel reservations lined up already...actually, forget that, Peru's an awesome place to visit regardless Rumors over there is that Brazil will do the honors. Might as well get some use out of those white elephant WC stadia that are collecting dust now (e.g. Brasília, Manaus).
What a mess. Does Peru still get an automatic slot? Should Brasil or whatever Federation steps in get an automatic slot? If not, Attendance could be horrid if Brasil's sub 17 is as bad as their sub 20 .
Concacaf starts their qualifying today. 35 teams entered. The top 16 were exempt from qualifying. The bottom 19 are in 3 groups of 5 and 1 group of 4. One group starts today, one starts tomorrow, one starts April 1, and one starts April 2. The last group ends April 9. The 16 teams exempt from qualifying play in four groups of 4, with two groups on May 1, 3, and 5; and two groups on May 2, 4, and 6. In the Round of 16, four matchups are a second place team against a third place team and four matchups are a group winner exempt from qualifying against a qualifying group winner. "Qualifying" isn't a good term because the teams in it don't have to play another round, they just get fewer spots in the Round of 16. If you call this "qualifying," then World Cup qualifying in the five other confederations is part of World Cup qualifying in UEFA because UEFA gets the most World Cup spots. The Round of 16 is on May 8 and 9. Therefore the teams in qualifying will have a break between the group they won and the Round of 16, whereas the teams exempt from qualifying will play continuously and must play 5 games in 11 or 12 days to qualify including the Round of 16 and Quarterfinals. Concacaf has 4 spots. Each quarter of the bracket has a first, second, and third place team exempt from qualifying and a qualifying group winner. I'd say the easiest path for a qualifying group winner is from Group B, which has Antigua and Barbuda, Dominican Republic, Dominica, Belize, and Montserrat. The winner will have to beat the winner of Group G and second from Group E or third from Group G. Group G has Honduras, Haiti, El Salvador, and Guyana. Group E has Mexico, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Bermuda. The qualifying groups are A through D and the Group Stage groups are E through H. If Mexico wins their group, the Group B winner could qualify without playing any Concacaf team that qualified for World Cup 2018 or USA.
And a few days later CONMEBOL qualifying began. Peru are hosting. Groups could be a tad uneven. One never can tell for sure for this young age range but Brasil, Colombia, Uruguay and Argentina all in the same group. If Brasil finish top 4 in the final qualifying round then the 5th place team qualifies.
There are 2 groups of 5. The top 3 in each group advance to the final group of 6. Those 6 teams will play 9 games in 22 to 25 days depending on if they start in Group A or Group B and if they have the first matchday off. https://www.fifa.com/news/four-south-american-berths-fill-brazil-2019-3020897 is titled "Four South American berths to fill for Brazil 2019."
So qualifying just ended in CONMEBOL. Tournament was hosted by Peru. Hosts got off to a good start and won their first round group. Chile and Ecuador also advanced in that group. The other first round group was a bit more dramatic. Brasil had 7 points after 3 matches and somehow failed to advance! On the final day of the first round Brasil played Argentina and all Brasil had to do was not lose by more than 2 goals. They failed at that. lol 3-0 Argentina, and so the Argies advanced with Paraguay and Uruguay. Brasil qualify anyway though of course, as hosts for the 2019 U-17 WC. I wonder if it has ever happened before that a team with 7 points in a group of 5 did not finish in the top 3(?). Argentina took their momentum to the final round where they and Chile qualified easily. After the top 2, it was a pretty tight group. Peru with the big win on the final day over Uruguay, meant they qualified and Uruguay failed! Paraguay also qualified. So, in summary, the 4 new qualified teams are: Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and Paraguay. Next up is CAF qualifying. We will know in a couple of days the 4 representatives from CAF.
Single round-robin groups of 5 are rare. They happened in the UEFA Cup five times from 2004-2005 through 2008-2009. Before 2004-2005, there wasn't a Group Stage. When it became the Europa League, they went to double round-robin groups of 4. No club with 7 points missed the top 3. In 2004-2005, Rangers were fourth with 6 points with a 9-7-7-6-0 distribution, and they had the best goal differential in the group and sixth best goal differential of the 40 clubs!