Spain beat Holland 3-0 in Seville, while France beat Germany 2-1 in the Nations League semis. That means Spain qualifies for the Olympics. Since France qualifies automatically, the two semifinal losers will play to determine the third team. That Holand-Germany match will be played in front of what will likely be a sellout crowd in Holland. These one-leg elimination matches with one team getting home advantage seems quite unfair. Meanwhile in Asia, Australia are as good as qualified after winning their first leg in Uzbekistan 0-3. Second leg back in Melbourne. Japan and North Korea finished 0-0 in the first leg of the other final played in Saudi Arabia. Second leg in Tokyo. These women are racking up serious frequent flyer miles!
In the big match, Germany beat Holland 2-0 so they qualify along with France and Spain. Japan and Australia qualify from AFC.
https://www.goal.com/en-my/lists/li...proach/blt7ad149f3e12424f9#cs1a985af195bf9bdc It seems more of a kind gesture of curtesy to invite Messi but MLS is not going to want to have Messi miss a bunch of Leagues Cup matches and MLS Cup matches due to Copa America or Olympics.
France get favourable Olympic draws; Mbappe waits for clearance to play: https://www.insideworldfootball.com...le-olympic-draws-mbappe-waits-clearance-play/
Argentina -Morroco may be the toughest ticket to get for the games. Even harder than the France ones.
It was kind of inevitable for France to get a favourable draw on the men's side (albeit, men's youth tournaments are highly unpredictable) but they got by far the easiest group on the women's side (which is more predictable). You have 3 Gold medal contenders all in group B for the women's tournament.
With only 12 teams in the women's tournament, concentration of talent in the groups is inevitable, especially with the growth of how many team are in the "top tier" over the past four or five years. Last time around, you had ENG/CAN/JPN in group E and USA/SWE/AUS in group G, for example. Heck, if COL keeps improving, I'd say each of the three groups this year has 3 gold contenders
Yeah, I know.... the tournament should really have 16 teams. Apart from the fact that the WC finalists are not included, some CAF nations are getting quite strong now, and C'BOL is deeper than 1 team, as you mentioned. That said, its a stretch to call Canada a Gold medal contender. I know they won it 4 years ago but they've regressed a lot since (plus were quite lucky to win it then).
The AFC under 23 Asian Cup kicks off in a few hours to decide the Asian reps in the men's tournament with Australia v Jordan and Qatar v Indonesia in group A. Top 3 teams qualify and the 4th place team plays off against Guinea on May 9 in France. Qatar is hosting the tournament.
Group A of Asian Under 23 has been decided with Qatar and Indonesia advancing to the quarter finals and Australia and Jordan eliminated. I didn't watch any of the games but when you can't score a goal in three games you deserve to be eliminated, even if you only concede one. Good luck to all the other teams. Groups B and C will be completed tonight with South Korea and Japan already qualified from Group B, and group C still open with Saudi Arabia needing draw against Iraq to be safe. Thailand play Tajikistan in the other match. Both teams need a win to have a chance although Thailand is better placed.
I watched the highlights of both of Indonesia's games and I was suprised by the quality of their attacking play. Most of their goals came from well engineered moves rather than re-starts.
KSA 1-2 Iraq Thailand 0-1 Tajikistan Iraq and Saudi Arabia advanced, Tajikistan and Thailand eliminated. Uzbekistan will play Vietnam tommorow to decide the group winner of Group D.
Qatar 2-4 Japan. Japan to the semis. I predict the same four as the 2023 U20 Asian Cup (Iraq Japan Korea Uzbekistan)
Not if Indonesia has anything to say about it, they've been a bit of a surprise this tournament and are playing very well against Korea. Any AFC team that can make the SF just has Guinea's U23 team standing in the way to an Olympic berth. Anyone have a read on how strong that team is?
They must have been in 1988 as well because they hosted the Games in Seoul. However they will not be going to Paris because they lost 11-10 on penalties to Indonesia after a 2-2 draw AET. Incredible to think that Indonesia are so close to qualify for the Olympics.
Would be a great boost for their footballing fortunes They have to win ONE of the next three qualifying games, against Uzbekistan/Saudi Arabia, Iraq/Vietnam, or Guinea. That's like 3 chances to go through. On paper they're probably facing uphill battle on all three, but they just beat one of, if not the, strongest teams in the tournament and by odds alone they should be able to squeak by one game of those three. Very much hoping Indonesia continue this good run, it's been a while since we've seen another nation emerge from AFC.
Some weird teams in this Olympic tournament. Dominican Republic, Israel, now possibly Indonesia as well...
I think its Iraq/Japan/Viet Nam, which makes it a bit tougher looking. I see that Guinea eliminated Nigeria in their qualification path and only had to settle for a playoff because they lost in a shootout. So, they are probably pretty good.
The African teams are never usually at full strength during these tournaments so you always get weird results. The qualifiers are never usually a true reflection of the top teams. Not sure what to expect from Guinea, but much will depend on whether or not they can get their euro based players for the playoff.
Iraq and Uzbekistan qualify for the semi finals. Iraq play Japan and Uzbekistan play Indonesia. The two winners take the first to spots for AFC at the Olympics. The winner of the 3rd place game gets the 3rd spot and 4th plays Guinea for the final spot in Paris.
Unlikely because the AFC-CAF playoff is on 5 May so it falls outside a FIFA mandatory-release window.
A slight digression but that is why I argued for the OFC U16 Championship to be allocated 3 places at the expanded 48-team annual U17WC because you increase the number of high-stakes games with the losing semi-finalists having another chance to qualify via the third-place playoff. Increasing the number of high-stakes games at the younger age-levels helps to prepare players everywhere for when they enter the senior ranks, particularly those who are good enough to play senior NT football.
Israel have already reached the final of the 2022 EURO12 and the 2023 U20WC so their qualification is not particularly suprising. Dominican Republic benefited from Concacaf using its 2022 U20 championship for 2023 U20WC and 2024 Olympics qualification.