FIFA 2023 U17 Finals Thread (All Teams, Tournament News)

Not sure where this goes but the US U17 team will go down to Brazil early next month.
The matches against the Brazil U17 team are October 4th and October 6th and will be be played in Socoraba.

https://www.cbf.com.br/selecao-bras...s-contra-estados-un?csrt=18187352518125494142

 

In very inept fashion I wanted to be surprised, so I plugged on the draw, then got an upload from someone that summarized in a minute, so finding the fifa link just now on youtube, I grabbed that, watched 15 minutes before it suddenly hit me that it was the '17 U17 draw lol. then while trying to figure it out I accidentally saw it w/o streaming it. Highly annoying. Needless to say. not a great draw.

We got:

1. probably the toughest Pot 1 side possible in France.
2. in fairness, South Korea technically is ranked middle of the road for pot 2, and honestly, seeing Argentina, Ecuador, England and Germany in there, I think I'd prefer South Korea to any of them. Not sure about Mali.

4. It's kind of fun to finally get to see Burkina Faso in a tournament and we're actually playing them. I've been looking forward to seeing them in a tournament for a long time so I'm excited to get to play them. But ouch, even them, lost in the SF's to the eventual champs on penalties.

All opponents are legit.

 

South Korea is going to be a massive test to open the tournament. They are always a difficult team to play at any level, extremely disciplined and usually quite dynamic.

 

This is a tough draw. Not gonna lie, we have about a 50% chance of making it out. We will have to come out ready to compete immediately.

 

I'm skeptical we make it out simply from the perspective that I didn't think they were all that impressive in qualifying, not great the other week in that tournament in Czech Republic either, though without Keyrol.

Not a great draw, at all, Burkina Faso was basically right there with the best of CAF, South Korea always seems good, and then France, who, its hard to see us having a chance at Yikes.

A first place finish probably would give us Senegal, Argentina or Japan, a 2nd place finish pairs us on the other side of the bracket with A with either Ecuador, Morocco, Panama or the hosts (Indonesia). Pretty funny. We have a better pairing, probably, if we finish 2nd than 1st, and I see no chance we win this group (though with teens, anything's possible).

Feels like 2019 redux. We could get thrashed unless the handful of fun weapons we have here and there show out.

From that perspective, no matter what we probably get some fun matchups against some legit sides, if we move on, kind of like with the senior squad where I figured we'd get Netherlands, in this case I tend to think we'd get Ecuador, which makes for a nice U17 tour France (Europe), Burkina Faso (Africa), South Korea (Asia), Ecuador (South America). But who knows, the most likely scenario w/that draw is probably 3rd of 4th place unless some guys really blow up, then its probably 2nd.

Regardless, we all knew this was a "meh" group, not really deep, but housing potentially a few special players kind of like the '19 edition. If we promoted 3-4 of these guys to full seniors, its a win, even if the tournament results stink like every single one since 2005 other than '17. It's definitely worth noting at the U17 level, our competitiveness in the tournament has been non-existent for 20 years. We had a nice little run from '99 to '05, but since '05 the only bright spot was '17 (technically we did advance out of the group from '07-'11, but none of those squads or rosters were impressive and none made a deeper breakthrough then simply advancing). Maybe it get turned around in '25. I'm just not seeing it this cycle, but one can hope.

 

My expectations for this team were low after the quals to start with, so unless there is hidden talent somewhere or half of the team has athletic growth it's better to have 3 strong opponents even we go out after that than advance from a weak group, and be slaughtered after that.

 

This talent of this age group is a lot better than what you see in the call-ups from Segares. Segares is not a good coach. He's trying to create a system, and ignoring many of the best players in the age group because he doesn't perceive that they fit his system. His system doesn't work either, judging by results.

 

Who would you call up?

 

On a positive side poor showing forced him to pool Figueroa from a deep bench and, hopefully, the kid will stick with us.

 

Where do I start?

Goalkeepers: Eyestone and Rick are a good place to start for guys that should get more of a look.

Right-Backs: Presthus would make this team so much better. He’d be the best attacker on this team, and would do so from RB. He’s not really a RB, but anyway he’s good at RB too because he’s so good going forward. There are a bunch of factors that have kept him from getting called up this cycle. They are starting to clear up a little, but now it’s time to give him a chance before the cycle ends.

Center-backs: Akinmboni is a good place to start. He’s gotten very few call ups all cycle. It’s puzzling why. We dropped the ball on Stefanovic. Maybe he would’ve always picked Canada, but that was a huge oversight by Segares to not make him a priority from day 1. Banks too. He’s been in some camps, but what I’ve seen of him is better than all those that have been regulars at CB this cycle. Puzzling why he hasn’t been a priority. On the margins, maybe Dash Papez and a few 07’s too, but start with the first three.

Left-back: He’s not given almost any chances to the ‘06 LB’s, which is a decent group. Whether it’s Alanis (small technical LB), Reid-Brown (athletic defensive LB), Buebendorf (flashy high-upside LB), Jones (bigger, slower, technical LB), to name just a few, he’s decided he doesn’t like any of them.

Defensive Midfield: Well, he let Granados get away to the Spain U-17’s. He’s good enough for Spain but not USA? Then you’ve got someone like Corcoran that for a variety of varying reasons was not going to be given a look this cycle.

Central Mids: Two players I rate that he’s given very few chances are Wellings and Moreno. I get the reasons. Wellings performances have been hit or miss (mostly miss), but talent wise he’s up there with any of these players. Moreno, I get it too. 0 defensively, not really a 10 either. You basically have to build the team around him because of how small and unathletic he is, but there are plenty of bad athletes that he rates, and none are the match winners that Moreno is.

Attacking Mids: It’s kind of ridiculous how Olney isn’t rated by him right now. He’s outperformed every U-17 player in the pool that’s playing MLS Next Pro this season. I don’t sense it’s going to change, although Olney hasn’t been 100% ignored all cycle, to be fair. Borso is another I just don’t get why he’s not given a chance. I think he’s a good deal better than almost every attacking mid that’s gotten significant playing time for this team this cycle.

Wingers: He’s somewhat coming to his senses. We need speed. I won’t blame him for what’s happening with Gitau or Darboe. Those dudes situations took them out of contention, but I will blame him if he doesn’t take both Jamison and Berchimas to the U-17 WC. We need more speed. Been a huge issue all cycle how slow this team is.

Center Forwards: This drives me crazy too. He has no use for players like Sipic and Placias that have been great in the past year because they wouldn’t fit his system. He wants another interchangeable small attacker. They aren’t that. Glover too, probably just another that is too much of a traditional #9, even though he’s another having a terrific season. He doesn’t want true #9’s.

This isn’t to say all those players I named will pan out. It’s just that he’s ignored a lot of the best players at his disposal, and seeing the U-17 National Team struggle doesn’t give a good representation of the U-17 pool. He has his system and views, but a lot of our best 06’s (and 07’s) apparently don’t fit what he’s trying to implement.

 

Perusing the squad lists on Wikipedia, I noticed that New Caledonia is bringing two twin 08s to the tournament - Baptiste and Nicolas Kutran. I couldn't find much on them individually, but they had an older brother named Ruben Kutran who made it as far as the Bordeaux reserves before being forced to retire due to a heart condition - one that would take his life in a pickup match with friends.

https://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/nouv...en-kutran-a-laisse-son-empreinte-1356186.html

He represented New Caledonia in U17 World Cup Qualifying, but unfortunately did not qualify for the tournament. Now his younger brothers will represent their nation in Indonesia. There have to be a lot of intense and mixed emotions for the family.

 

Guardian Next Gen players (06s only) at the U17 World Cup:

Allen Obando, Ecuador
Abdelhamid Aït Boudlal, Morocco
Marc Guiu, Spain (just scored on his Barcelona debut)
Jon Martín, Spain
Kauã Elias, Brazil
Vitor Reis, Brazil
Gaku Nawata, Japan
Karol Borys, Poland
Claudio Echeverri, Argentina
Fidel Barajas, Mexico
Cruz Medina, USA
Paris Brunner, Germany
Noah Darvich, Germany (club team is Barcelona)
Almugera Kabar, Germany

 

Canada lost to Argentina 2-1 in a warm up game today. Biggest take away? The amount of players on Argentina's u17 team that have sleeve tattoos already. Wasn't ready for that.

 

Argentina is really missing a sponsorship opportunity. I would what a company would pay to be the official tattoo ink of the Argentina National Teams. Why not go for it? I remember the Dallas Cowboys having an official brick, Acme, some years ago.

 

https://www.frontrowsoccer.com/2023...gQuhifwm2LsFU_RkBb-fnmniJC8DWCTFIWVhpf-f4GCL8

U-17 WORLD CUP:
FOX to televise all games, including USA, on FS1, FS2

 

It helps that all the games are extremely early, they don't have any other inventory for 4 AM

 

US Soccer with a nice outline of the US team and the tournament overall ...

https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...ournament-preview-history-five-things-to-know

The USA launches its U-17 World Cup campaign on Sunday, Nov. 12 vs. Korea Republic, takes on Burkina Faso on Wednesday, Nov. 15 and finishes the group stage on Saturday {Nov 18} vs. France. All three matches will be played at Jakarta International Stadium in the nation’s capital and will be broadcast on FS1 and Telemundo platforms.

 

Is there any $5-10 app you can buy a 1-month subscription for? Everything I'm seeing is it's thru cable/channel streaming services.

I could do the temporary preview and watch live on Fox Sports sometimes, except this is on in the middle of the night. I'd need to watch it later somewhere by rule.

 

🇺🇸 𝙁𝙐𝙉 𝙁𝘼𝘾𝙏 𝙁𝙍𝙄𝘿𝘼𝙔 🇺🇸

Ahead of the #U17WC, get to know the 21 players reppin' the #U17MYNT! pic.twitter.com/V1gGztWsoD

— U.S. Soccer YNT (@USYNT) November 10, 2023

 

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