U17 World Cup 2023

Prize for hosting 2023 u17 WC: a delightful lunch with New Caledonia.

 

The qualifying groups for AFC couldn't have been more unbalanced if they tried.

Group A: Thailand, Yemen, Malaysia, Laos PDR
Group B: ROK, Iran, Qatar, Afghan
Group C: Aussies, China, Saudi, Tajikistan
Group D: Japan, India, Viet Nam, Uzbekistan

Luckily the top two from the tougher groups (B & C) meet the top two from the easier groups (A & D) in the round that really matters - the quarterfinals.

 

We saw same joke groups in u17 Conmebol qualifiers: ARG u17 was ensured qualification by packing its group with horrible squads, including the u17 WC host at the time (PER):

Group A: BRA, CHI, ECU, URU, COL
Group B: ARG, PAR, VEN, BOL, PER

ARG u20 had recently failed in qualifiers, so Conmebol had to rescue its u17 squad somehow.

 

Ok, the tin foil hat is out.

You're comparing final group stage with preliminary group stage.
ARG still had to play 5 games in a HEX group after this one, so one can't "rescue" a team through C'Bol qualifying like you say.

 

It is fairly easy.

ARG FA: Yo Conmebol, that was some messed up stuff you did. How may I supposed to qualify to u20 WC, if you put me in a competitive group? I crashed out big time.

C'BOL: Sorry brah, lemme make it up to you. How about if I put your u17 squad in a group that you cannot miss? Check it out:
- Fighting VEN (whose coach just quit a few days ago)
- Valiant PER (current u17 WC hosts, just happy to do some tourism)
- Mighty BOL (yeah, right)
, and PAR.
Can you manage that?

ARG FA: I still need to be best 4th among six, in the final round though.

C'BOL: What do you want from me? While you face teletubbies in group phase, two competitive teams get eliminated early from the other group.
Just be better than two bottom-feeders in the hex round.

ARG FA: I don't know man, youth qualifiers are hard bro.

C'BOL: Just keep Mascherano out of coaching in u17 qualifiers and you will be OK.

 

I know you're trying be funny but the joke falls flat because it hinges on the luck of the preliminary draw being a significant factor in who qualifies, which it simply isn't. Argentina would have qualified regardless as they won their prelim group and then finished well above one of the top 3 teams in the other group. If anything, the final round showed that it was slightly harder to advance from Argentina's prelim group.

 

@BocaFan life ain't funny sometimes. In fact, it was actually sad seeing Conmebol packing BOL+PER+VEN into one u17 group. Talk about *luck of the draw* there.

Those practices will hurt Conmebol as a whole in the long run. Protectionism is highly inefficient in competitive settings.

 

This is so stupid and devoid of evidence... For the U20 Argentina was so ridiculously unlucky they drew not only the strongest team from every pot but also the worst schedule (resting out the first matchday) but you don't see us theorizing Conmebol wanted to harm Argentina or any other team.

It was esentially (given the draw format) 4 coin tosses going wrong then 4 going right for Argentina between the U20 and the U17. Nothing else.
Besides, as you were already told and ignored, Argentina (and Venezuela and Paraguay) ultimately had no problem beating the 3rd placed team from the other group.

 

What are you talking about? ECU (3rd best from the other group) had smooth sailing thru the 2023 u17 hexagonal round: zero losses, 2 draws, 3 wins.

Perhaps you meant CHI (2nd best from the other group)? Everyone took a dump on CHI during that hex round.
Maybe I should try excusing CHI's poor hex run by noting that ECU moved that round to Quito, or that CHI's group calendar had "also the worst schedule (resting out the first match day)".

Nerfing one group while overloading the other does not help bring the best teams into a hex round. I seriously doubt that URU/COL would have done as badly as CHI in the hex round, if Conmebol had spread them out between groups instead of nerfing group B.

I guess it's all baby steps for Conmebol. Their *randomized draws* for youth qualifiers changed after Conmebol executives were jailed in Switzerland (May 2015), under extradition orders from US law enforcement. Maybe they need another shakedown from the outside.

 

Yes, I forgot Ecuador actually finished 3rd in the preliminary group stage. I had Chile in mind.

How do you know that exactly?? Chile defeated both of them and was defeated by everyone after that. Pretty straightforward. I guess you're just assuming that based on the performances that Uruguay or Colombia usually show at other levels?

As for the geographical issues, altitude affects everyone that isn't Ecuador or Bolivia, not just Chile. Everyone played the group stage in Guayaquil as well.

Really, you're not making any sense on this topic. Not everything is a conspiracy.

 

So China finished bottom of their U17 AFC championship group below Tajikistan, on goal difference. Conceded 8 against Australia and Saudi Arabia. Not a good look for Xi Jinping's "football vision".

 

Yeah, final 4 spots for the 24-team field will be determined in the next few days with the following single-elimination matches:

Iran v Yemen
Thailand v Korea Rep
Saudi Arabia v D2 (most likely Uzbekistan/Japan)
Australia v D1 (most likely Japan/Uzbekistan)

 

In a bizarre twist, FIFA appointed Indonesia as the host for this tournament.

FIFA really are shameless!

 

So, a 2nd-tier OFC team has a likely chance of routing a WC host.

IDN did not participate in u17 qualifiers (2023 u17 Asian Cup), after being eliminated 1-5 by MAS in pre-qualifiers (Oct 2022).

FIFA might need to intervene in the WC draw, so that IDN does not get smacked around by OFC.

 

At least the weather should be nice compared to May/June.

 

Temperatures are the same all year around. June-Sep is the dry season; Dec-Feb is the rainy season. So, not big difference but would have been slightly drier in May than Oct.

 

Heartbreak for Yemen this morning (well, evening there) as they narrowly missed out on their first U17 WC in 20 years on penalties, to Iran.

 

Let's see if they can reach 1,000 fans in every game.