Group A is only second behind Group F in terms of toughness. France, South Korea and Mali usually do well at youth levels and Colombia, while on paper maybe not strong, will have the home support as they seem enthusiastic about this tournament

Group B is tricky, though I was not convinced with Portugal in the European U19 Championships. New Zealand/Solomon Islands probably won't do too much damage either. Again, I tend to rate the African sides in this tournament more highly than I would at a senior World Cup

Group C should be a walk for Spain, the other three in my opinion all have equal chances at second

Group D is the group of life. I didn't watch the draw live but when I saw Croatia got this group I was shocked. Guatemala did eliminate the USA and this draw was front page news over there, but I don't know if they can handle Nigeria and Croatia. Not sure about the Saudi's either

Group E: Brazil and Egypt for me, Austria did eliminate Netherlands from this competition but they didn't have an overly impressive U19 Euros. Panama will be whipping boys I'm afraid

Group F is the 'group of death' on paper, but I'm not sure England will bring their strongest team. The last U20 World Cup they barely brought a "B" squad. Argentina vs. Mexico should be good and the North Koreans are always tricky

 

Group B Again, I tend to rate the African sides in this tournament more highly than I would at a senior World Cup

Group C should be a walk for Spain, the other three in my opinion all have equal chances at second

Group F is the 'group of death' on paper, but I'm not sure England will bring their strongest team. The last U20 World Cup they barely brought a "B" squad. Argentina vs. Mexico should be good and the North Koreans are always tricky

Watched some of the African Youth Championship and really this set of current teams are absolutely nothing compared to Ghana two years ago. They can be competitive for sure but they really look a level down from when Ghana made history and became the first African side to win U20 World Cup.

Ecuador were very decent in the South American qualifying. Not a top team but pretty good. Would make them clear favs to get second spot.

Maybe it is just words but there was talk of English youth teams taking these sort of competitions much more seriously than in the past citing Spain as an example of getting that winning mentality at this level and then that progressing onto senior level. Remains to be seen whether they back up those previous comments but if they do and send their best possible side then they will be competitive in that group for sure.

 

Is there a website of this tournament with squads and stuff?

 

Not yet, teams didn't call the squads yet.

 

About Argentina...

I am not as optimistic as I was for the previous editions. The squad is pretty underwhelming if compared to the 07 one.

Player to watch out for? obviously Erik Lamela.

Besides him though, I am not really too pumped up about others. Maybe Roberto Pereyra. The likes of Lanzini, Iturbe, Hoyos and others are fine talents, but haven't shown too much to be too excited about.

Probably Pezzella will show his class among defenders. Battaglia could be a pleasant surprise if given enough minutes.

 

I have looked at the last French side selected, squad is influenced a lot by Olympique Lyonnais Lacazette, Grenier, Kolodziejczack or Enzo Reale. There is also Gael Kakuta and Yanis Tafer or even Gilles Sunu. Pretty interesting squad. I just don't know the keepers...

 

Thats a great side, they were my favs to win all along in that U-19 tourny since day 1, really loved how that team played there and they're really deep, and they're together for quite a while now. Really nice to see them grow up like that since that U-17 Euro in 08. If they meet Spain in another final in this one it'll be awesome. Really are arch rivals 1-1 between them so far.

I hope my boy Bakambu is still there doing his thing, was my fav player on that team, even though they always got him off the bench. Fofana was great aswell - are those guys actually playing in thier clubs btw?

That team is just full of jets though.. thier athletic ability was just outstanding.

 

F*ck, we're kicking off against Brazil & it's not just our first game, it's the tourney's inaugural :scared:

Neymar against Hegazy is one daunting scene already....

We're very average btw, extremely if I'm being blatantly honest.

 

Doubt Neymar will play with the U-20 side tho.. the Copa America is at around the same time.

 

This tournament is barely heard of/mentioned in England. It kind of shows where we are when it comes to youth development. The last one we sent a really poor squad after something like 40 players withdraw from the squad. Am I right in saying that globally, this tournament is pretty big?

 

It's respected much more in other countries than in England but as you said that is England's problem. As mentioned before there were noises that the youth teams were going to actually get in line with the rest of the world and actually compete seriously at youth levels now instead of being unhealthily focused on the big money EPL all the time. The FA are so weak in regards to EPL clubs which is a shame. Would be beneficial to english football in the long run to get in line with the rest.

 

When is the tournament starting?

 

Love the tournament logo, this is not cliché at all. If it was held in France we would have a frog's leg kicking a ball.

 

France squad list for the U20 world cup :

Goalkeepers :
Pierrick Cros (Sochaux)
Benjamin Lecomte (Lorient)
Jonathan Ligali (Montpellier)

Defenders :
Lionel Carole (Benfica/ POR)
Maxime Colin (Boulogne-sur-Mer)
Sébastien Faure (Lyon)
Timothée Kolodziejczak (Lyon)
Johan Martial (Brest)
Chris Mavinga (Genk/ BEL)
Loïc Nego (Nantes)

Midfielders :
Francis Coquelin (Lorient)
Gueida Fofana (Le Havre)
Florian Lejeune (Istres)
Enzo Reale (Lyon)

Strikers :
Cédric Bakambu (Sochaux)
Clément Grenier (Lyon)
Antoine Griezmann (Real Sociedad/ ESP)
Gaël Kakuta (Fulham/ ANG)
Alexandre Lacazette (Lyon)
Gilles Sunu (Lorient)
Yannis Tafer (Toulouse).

 

It's pretty much the same core of players from what I can remember though, offensively it's exactly the same(Bakamburoud

 

Brasil:

Goleiros
Aleksander - Avaí
Cesar - Flamengo
Gabriel - Cruzeiro

Zagueiros (CBs)
Bruno Uvini - São Paulo
Frauches - Flamengo
Juan - Internacional
Romário - Internacional

Laterais (RBs/LBs)
Alex Sandro - Santos
Danilo - Santos
Gabriel Silva - Palmeiras
Galhardo - Flamengo

Volantes e meias (Midfield)
Allan - Vasco
Casemiro - São Paulo
Fernando - Grêmio
Alan Patrick - Santos
Dudu - Cruzeiro
Felipe Anderson - Santos
Oscar - Internacional
Philippe Coutinho - Inter de Milão
Roni - Criciúma

Atacantes
Diego Maurício - Flamengo
Henrique - São Paulo
Negueba - Flamengo
Roberto Firmino - Hoffenhein-ALE
Willian José - São Paulo
Sebá - Cruzeiro

 

Still can't believe Wellington got snubbed... him and Casemiro are prolly the best midfield partnership in the Brasilerao right now both eligable to play in the tournement and he doesn't get a call.

Carpengiani crying in the press sure did the trick lol.

 

Information

 

Croatia unfortunately will not have there 2 best players in Sime Vrsajlko and Ante Vukusic as there clubs will not release them..both players have europa or champions league qualifiers..

 

If anybody is interested (doubt it p) here is Croatia's provisional squad.

Goalkeepers: Matej Delac (Chelsea, ENG), Dominik Picak (Lokomotiva Zagreb), Michael Paradzikovic (Cibalia), Simon Sluga (Rijeka)

Defenders: Vedran Celjak (Sampdoria, ITA), Renato Kelic (Slovan Liberec, CZE), Dario Rugasevic (Cibalia), Matej Jonjic (Hajduk Split), Roberto Puncec (Varazdin), Tomislav Glumac (Zadar), Mislav Komorski (Lokomotiva Zagreb), Marko Leskovic (Osijek), Ivor Horvat (Lokomotiva Zagreb)

Midfielders: Arijan Ademi (Dinamo Zagreb), Filip Ozobic (Spartak Moscow, RUS), Frano Mlinar (Lokomotiva Zagreb), Zvonko Pamic (Bayer Leverkusen/Freiburg, GER), Franko Andrijasevic (Hajduk Split), Ivan Blazevic (Inter Zapresic), Mario Situm (Dinamo Zagreb), Mateo Kovacic (Dinamo Zagreb), Mario Ticinovic (Hajduk Split), Marko Bicvic (FC Basel, SUI), Dejan Glavica (Varazdin)

Forwards: Ivan Lendric (Zrinjski Mostar, BiH), Andrej Kramaric (Dinamo Zagreb), Filip Skvorc (Varazdin), Anton Maglica (Osijek), Antonio Jakolis (Sibenik), Marin Zulim (Zadar)

As spidey mentioned, Vrsaljko (Dinamo) and Vukusic (Hajduk), arguably the two most valuable players were not released by their clubs. Petar Sliskovic of Mainz I think is on standby. These players made the semi-finals of the U19 UEFA Championships so there is some talent but obviously none of these guys will "wow" outsiders on paper. The guys who play for Lokomotiva are all Dinamo Zagreb youth players, they are essentially Dinamo's reserve team.

- Goalkeepers is not the most impressive. Delac was bought by Chelsea but he has struggled to play on loan at Vitesse and hasn;t looked good with the U21s. All the other guys are juniors
- Defense was the strong point at the U19 tournament, Vrsaljko is missing but a guy like Renato Kelic is one to look out for. Komorski is also a solid defender. Most importantly these guys are playing at the professional level with the exception of Celjak who was in the Samp primavera
- Midfield is so-so, some talented players but many of them didn't have a great club season. Kovacic is 17 years old, I would assume if he makes the squad he would be the youngest player at the tournament.
- Forwards: Vukusic is missing but Lendric will probably take his place, he was the top scorer of the BiH league. Sliskovic is on standby but he would be a good asset. Kramaric has talent but barely plays

Easy group on paper, Nigeria are the favorites in my opinion, but Croatia's preparations for this tournament do not fill me with alot of confidence. While most players are starting to train already, the team will be together for two weeks and have no friendly match scheduled. They will arrive in Colombia only 5 days before their first match. Overall the squad did achieve good results in the U19 tournament where they played Spain, Italy, Portugal and France, some of the top European youth setups but I wouldn't boast about too many of these players

I think Austria are also having some problems with some of their players not being released, don't know how this is possible as this is a FIFA tournament

 

Ah well never mind.

Think of Brazil. They are missing two players like Neymar and Lucas from the team that actually qualified them to this World Cup.

Poor Brazil eh. They will have to make do.

 

Croatia doesn't have a population of almost 200 million people and more importantly, so the pool of talent is incomparable.

Ozobić is a good player, he'll surely show up.

 

He is injured and might not play. Just started running a few days ago. Hopefully he will be fit to play. Never seen Ozobic play but he was supposedly Croatia's best player at the under 19 euros.

 

Yes Zoric it was slightly tongue in cheek comment.

Feel very sorry for Brazil

 

loosing Lucas and Neymar, and getting Coutinho and Negueba.. thats what I call depth lol.. bastards :righton:

 

My pick is Colombia.

 

You dissapoint me Josh, I was betting with myself that the post you'll make will surely have James Rodriguez name in it!

With a full squad they do look good tho, with James and Cardona.

I'm readin the games have been sold out, and it's gonna be like 40k spectators in quite alot of games.. gonna be a great atmosphere, and with the crowd behind them it'll give Colombia a serious boost.

 

Hey Josh whats Portugal's team like?

They tied colombia and Italy in the Toulon tournemant, and in last years u-19 beat italy 2-0, only to lose to spain 2-1 with a last second winner by spain, and then somehow got crushed by Croatia 5-0(wtf happened there?)

 

They haven't announced their squad yet.