News: 2023 Concacaf U-17 Championship Thread (Feb. 11-26 : Guatemala)

Is there any information about the timing or hosting of the CONCACAF finals?

 

I am all for rotating the hosting of this throughout the regions, but there needs to be field standards. The fields in Honduras -- which is not exactly a small soccer country for the region -- are pretty awful.

It's not just a youth issues, but CONCACAF were really serious about improving the region, one major focus would be improving the field level and refereeing level for the region.

Many countries can't afford widespread facilities, but any country hosting should be able to have 3-4 decent fields. We don't need hundred million dollar stadiums here but I shouldn't be able to see bumpy ground on TV.

 

How much of the bumpy fields is because of so many games in a short time combined with seasonal rain? As hard as playing on worse fields are I think it really helps long term for these kids to get a taste of uncomfortable conditions and I imagine team bonding improves when isolated like this. Dual nats will have a hard time leaving this bunch.

 

Tough to tell. The fields looked pretty bad day one, and I'm not sure all of it is torn up or rains.

I think the challenge for CONCACAF is that while there is a certain romanticism to playing the game in rain or on local, crappy fields, etc., at some point, it absolutely holds back every nations in terms of soccer development, even including the team getting the extra advantage because of it.

I get that many of these nations will always be at a talent deficit to the US, but there's not a ton of incentive or ability to train more skilled players if your strategy for many or most games involves mucking it up, kicking people, etc.

It's one thing to play defensive; it's another to basically allow this level of crutch. It's not doing anyone any favors. It's one element that keeps the overall quality of play lower.

I hope it works out that way.

 

And CONCACAF validates it and allows it by not calling fair games. If I see another stern hand movement by a CONCACAF Ref to deal with a legal human assault I'm going to vomit. It just comes down to fouling and rolling around when you get fouled. Its ugly and doesn't help any level of the sport in the region.

 

Right. I get that a lot of the island nations don't have the population to compete ... but like Guatemala has 17 million people! And yes, the economic development there is going to hold them back, but it's also not helping them to basically create a version of soccer that de-emphasizes skill and emphasizes shithousery.

 

St Vincent and the Grenadines sounds like a band. In fact there is a band just called St Vincent.

 

The most interesting part of the qualification tournament to see who gets to play at the full qualification tournament will be which dual-nats get called in, and provisionally cap-tied. I suspect there will once again be a number of them on these teams.

 

No pressure, but this is the one remaining CONCACAF soccer championship of which we are not the current holders. This includes the Women's tournaments but not beach or futsal.

 

To that end, worth noting that PR is in what would seem to be a winnable group, not that I really know anything:

Group B: Puerto Rico, Aruba, Martinique, Anguilla, US Virgin Islands​

https://www.concacaf.com/under-17s-men/article/2022-concacaf-u-17-qualifiers-schedule-confirmed/

The DR also has to battle through this competition, despite its U20 success, but they're hosting.

 

As noted, the CONCACAF subqualifiers are happening now. The DR put up 8 goals yesterday.

🎥 All the activity of #CU17 Day 1 is here! 👀

🔗 Recap 👉 https://t.co/5Aw5OtDLEN pic.twitter.com/npqzQjd7qW

— Concacaf (@Concacaf) August 31, 2022

https://www.concacaf.com/en/under-17s-men/schedule-results/

 

I believe it's preferable to ask it like "WHY ISN'T THE ROSTER OUT YET!?!?"

But... with that said, sometimes smaller associations announce rosters fairly early. Heck, for all I know some are already out. Provisional rosters were already due and the deadline for the final squads is coming up around the start of February I believe.

 

I'm sure there has been discussion of this elsewhere but I can't recall where -- have we seen streaming or TV information yet? (I will look too.)