2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup held in South Korea

[lefty]

good going fellas ........but dat el salvador goal my word d complete lack of marking was abysmal to say the least, if no where else, dis team has looked solid defensively but dat was shockin ....still

[vb]

On a positive note, yuh boy win some money on this game. :-)

[coache]

I must say a much improved performance ..I must commend the Coach and his staff in making the appropiate adjustments...The improvements were made in all phases of the match..the score line should have been at least four goals in our favour...

Finishing was our downfall and sometimes we were a bit impatient with our possession.. but all in all an excellent performance.

Congratulations on the win.

[FF]

Good result and good adjustments in the end. But as usual we have nothing to show for it and we going home.
Was it a useful exercise?
Were there useful lessons?
Will there be a change in approach?

Or will it be the same thing again? Or I asking answers?

[Tallman]

WATCH: Post-game interview with Captain Jabari Mitchell following Trinidad and Tobago U-20s 2-1 win over El Salvador

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/wrJ-JnkRkuc" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/wrJ-JnkRkuc</a>

[frico]

It's pure slackness why we didn't top the group,so bloody near and yet so far away,one ah these days we will have reason to smile.

[Flex]

U-20s beat El Salvador but exit.
T&T Newsday Reports.

TRINIDAD and Tobago’s Under 20 footballers defeated El Salvador 2-1 yesterday but it was still not enough to qualify for the quarter-finals of the CONCACAF Championships being held in Costa Rica.

The young Trinis, playing with their backs against the wall and needing victory to have a chance to qualify, took a 47th minute lead when skipper Jabari Mitchell took a pass near the edge of the penalty area, dribbled past one defender and smashed a left-footed shot past the El Salvador goalkeeper.

But a goal by the El Salvadorans temporarily dampened the T&T boys spirits.

They however rejuvenated themselves and Kathon St Hillaire was sent through the El Salvador defence in the 72nd and he drilled a first time right footer past the ‘keeper.

Despite their victory which put them on four points, TT were made to wait on the result of the game between hosts Costa Rica and Bermuda.

A draw or a win for Bermuda would have sent TT through along with El Salvador (six points) who topped the group. But Costa Rica, who found themselves trailing 0-1 early in the first half, drew level before the break and got the go-ahead goal after the interval to squeak through 2-1.

T&T drew their opening game with Bermuda 1-1 before losing 1-0 to Costa Rica on Thursday.

“This was by far our most positive game and result in the tournament so far and I am very pleased for the entire squad. They worked very hard for it and they went into this match with the right mindset and it showed out there on the pitch. They gave everything and got the just reward with the victory,” Head coach Brian Williams told TTFA Media.

“Now it’s for us to see if Bermuda can put on a strong performance and cause the upset against Costa Rica in the second match,” he added after T&T’s match.

Group C Results

Trinidad and Tobago 2 (Jabari Mitchell 46, Kathon St Hillaire 71) v El Salvador 1 (Jose Contreras 49).

Costa Rica 2 (Tehvan Tyrell 43 Own-Goal, Randall Leal 50) v Bermuda 1 (Oneko Lowe 26).

El Salvador vs Trinidad & Tobago Highlights

Teams

Trinidad and Tobago: 20.Montel Joseph; 2.Isaiah Garcia, 5.Taryk Sampson, 4.Shane Sandy, 3.Kori Cupid; 8.Kierron Mason (11.Noah Powder 68), 13.Micah Lansiquot; 16.Rushawn Murphy (7.Morgan Bruce De Rouche 79), 10.Jabari Mitchell (capt), 14.Josh Toussaint (15.Kathon St Hillaire 71); 9.Nicholas Dillon.

Unused substitutes: 1.Denzil Smith (GK), 6.Simeon Bailey, 12.Joshua Sitney, 17.Stephon Marcano, 18.Joshua Leach, 19.Taofik Lucas Walker.

Coach: Brian Williams

El Salvador: 18.Alan Carrillo; 2.Oscar Menjivar (19.Josue Rivera 73), 3.Roberto Dominguez (capt), 4.Ronald Gomez; 16.Diego Chavez, 6.Diego Cartagena, 17.Walter Ayala, 20.Amilcar Bermudez; 11.Jonathan Aguilar (14.Marcos Rodriguez 14 [8.Hector Quinteros 62]), 10.Marvin Marquez, 12.Jose Contreras.

Unused substitutes: 1.Mario Gonzales (GK), 5.Josue Santos, 7.Kevin Reyes, 9.Brayan Paz, 13.Fernando Castillo, 15.Denilson Vidal.

Coach: Eduardo Lara.

Standings.

P  W  D  L  F  A  Pts
El Salvador  3  2  0  1  5  3  6
Costa Rica  3  2  0  1  3  2  6
Trinidad and Tobago  3  1  1  1  3  3  4
Bermuda  3  0  1  2  3  6  1

[asylumseeker]

Let's be honest, losing to Bermuda was a failure. It compromised progressing to the next stage. As an opening match featuring a familiar opponent (that was one of the closing opponents in the preceding qualifying round), what occurred was below expectations and below acceptable.

No two ways about it. Having Bermuda in our group was a gift and we choked.

[Cocorite]

We had the easiest group, probably the easiest opponent in our group to open up with, and we had Costa Rica on the ropes. We should have won this group. Our ambitions are too low.

T&T football is supposed to be much higher based on our history and culture. . .


Men like Contro understand this and many don't quite know what T&T is capable of. . .

Until we know our strengths we will continue to accept waaaay below our potential

[Storeboy]

Let's be honest, losing to Bermuda was a failure. It compromised progressing to the next stage. As an opening match featuring a familiar opponent (that was one of the closing opponents in the preceding qualifying round), what occurred was below expectations and below acceptable.

No two ways about it. Having Bermuda in our group was a gift and we choked.

You are absolutely right. We had a right to beat an inferior opponent, Bermuda. El Salvador and Costa Rica are not superior to us. What continues to kill us is our poor preparation.  You cant wait till the week before and squeeze in friendlies, often against inferior opponents. This is a team game and requires months of games so the team can gel. It is not unfamiliar that we play our best games at the end of tournaments. The same holds for the senior team.

[maxg]

Let's be honest, losing to Bermuda was a failure. It compromised progressing to the next stage. As an opening match featuring a familiar opponent (that was one of the closing opponents in the preceding qualifying round), what occurred was below expectations and below acceptable.

No two ways about it. Having Bermuda in our group was a gift and we choked.

You are absolutely right. We had a right to beat an inferior opponent, Bermuda. El Salvador and Costa Rica are not superior to us. What continues to kill us is our poor preparation.  You cant wait till the week before and squeeze in friendlies, often against inferior opponents. This is a team game and requires months of games so the team can gel. It is not unfamiliar that we play our best games at the end of tournaments. The same holds for the senior team.

Hard luck T&T. Great improvement along the course of this cycle.  The solutions to our football problems are breathtakingly simple. Its frustrating to watch these big-belly incompetents fack up this side from since U-15. Great job by the coaching staff to improve performance with few resources at their disposal.

Not so simple... definitely not few resources or lack of preparation.. camp in Guyana, CFU test in Panama, regular training sessions for months at home, and camp in Colombia. Could be lack of acumen, by selects or adjustments/preparations/philosophy by coaches. Sometimes the in your face easy choices or decisions are not always the most productive or best in the long run.
ps: I learned that the hard way, and as such, sometimes the best route is the most difficult one.

how much prep compared to us anybody had (especially Bermuda - pop: 65,000 and they big sport investments, with pros playing all over the place had).. Nah..preparation ain't all the answers

[ZANDOLIE]

 Maxg CR was well prepared. As I stated before in the last 6 months or so CR competed against their peers in Argentina, Qatar, Morocco, Mexico and a few others. Bermuda is taking its football very seriously and had already beaten us. In fact this team was so bad Jamaica beat them 5-1, Panama beat them 5-0 (at U-17 level). That they just lost to panama 1-0 and beat el salvador is a testament to the impact of better preparation AND better coaching.

Does the TTFA enters these tournaments just to make up numbers or expose players to 3 international games? That is a very low standard. I would think the expectation is to win the tournament or at the very least qualify. Can you say that our preparation was enough to win or give us a qualification edge over CR, Mexico, the U.S. and the best in CONCACAF?

[ZANDOLIE]

Let's be honest, losing to Bermuda was a failure. It compromised progressing to the next stage. As an opening match featuring a familiar opponent (that was one of the closing opponents in the preceding qualifying round), what occurred was below expectations and below acceptable.

No two ways about it. Having Bermuda in our group was a gift and we choked.

You are absolutely right. We had a right to beat an inferior opponent, Bermuda. El Salvador and Costa Rica are not superior to us. What continues to kill us is our poor preparation.  You cant wait till the week before and squeeze in friendlies, often against inferior opponents. This is a team game and requires months of games so the team can gel. It is not unfamiliar that we play our best games at the end of tournaments. The same holds for the senior team.

in the lat 10 years we had only one team that had full preparation from U-15 right up to U-20. They had challenging pre-tournament international games before every CFU and CONCACAF qualifer, and trained together for extended periods of time. This team also qualfied for world cups in 2007 and 2009. God only knows why the TTFA seems incapable of reviewing their own process and make it the gold standard for preparation. Even if they can't meet all the training goals, at least establish a baseline of training, exposure and conduct standards.

[Flex]

Williams recaps Under 20 Qualifying effort in Costa Rica
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/0EOEEdOCnyE" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/0EOEEdOCnyE</a>

[Tallman]

WATCH: Hear from Trinidad and Tobago U-20 Head Coach Brian Williams, Manager Dunstan Williams, Captain Jabari Mitchell, and Defender Kori Cupid as they reflect on their experiences at the recently concluded CONCACAF U-20 Championship in Costa Rica.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/b-iyMcPR38E" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/b-iyMcPR38E</a>

[asylumseeker]

FIFA U-20 World Cup Groups

Group A: Korea Republic, Guinea, Argentina, England
Group B: Venezuela, Germany, Vanuatu, Mexico
Group C: Zambia, Portugal, Iran, Costa Rica
Group D: South Africa, Japan, Italy, Uruguay
Group E: France, Honduras, Vietnam, New Zealand
Group F: Ecuador, USA, Saudi Arabia, Senegal

[Cocorite]

No Brazil?

[chelsealife]

No Brazil?

They finished second to last in qualifying

[asylumseeker]

No Brazil?

Contributing factors: Too many draws and not being able to preserve (or build on early) leads. They gambled with fire last time around and this time it caught up to them.

[asylumseeker]

No Brazil?

They finished second to last in qualifying

Yes, but undefeated in 4 out of the 5 final deciding matches compared to their immediate competitors having lost 2 of the 5 (that is, undefeated in 3). It's a fine calculus.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am an advocate for CONCACAF modelling the structure of the CONMEBOL tournament.

Why?

For teams like T&T that play very few age group internationals, the CONMEBOL structure permits growing and learning through the tournament. In the present status quo, by the time we learn, we are eliminated. Our players don't get to level the playing field. It's always on to the next generation.

Then, if you look at Uruguay (the most dominant team in the tournament), they have Amaral repeating in the age group after having participated as a contributor at the previous U-20 WC. The first-class experience he has amassed is hard to dismiss.

One would have expected Brazil to pull it off, but in this category at this stage of WC qualifying they are fielding the best available, but perhaps not necessarily the best. For instance, Gabriel Jesus (Man City) wasn't part of the proceedings but it's not like they are scraping the bottom of the barrel.

[Deeks]

It would have been great if levi Garcia had played. He may have made a difference in that bermuda game, and possibly CR game. But we will never know.

[asylumseeker]

Venezuela win Korea Republic 2017 opener
FIFA

Venezuela 2 Germany 0

Venezuela won the opening match at the FIFA U-20 World Cup Korea Republic 2017 with a 2-0 victory over Germany at the Daejeon World Cup Stadium in Group B.

After a goalless first half where Venezuela's attack - featuring the exciting quartet of Adalberto Penaranda, Yeferson Soteldo, Sergio Cordova and Ronaldo Pena - looked particularly dangerous, Vinotinto found the breakthrough quickly after the interval. Two quick-fire goals by Pena and Cordova proved too much for the Germans.

Pena scored the first goal of the tournament with an industrious effort in which he won the ball in the attacking third before rounding Dominik Reimann and finishing with an open net at his mercy. Just three minutes later it was Cordova's turn, as he rounded off a move instigated by Penaranda.

[asylumseeker]

England played about 35 minutes of absolute tata, then scored a spectacular header against the run of play. A half still left to play but the Argentines looked a bit shell-shocked going in to the changing room. Frankly, it's hard to exaggerate how poor England were in first half ... and as I post, they score again. De football gods eh ...

Meanwhile, Mexico are doing the expected ... leading Vanuatu.

First time in my life, I've seen a referee leave the field to watch video replay off the field. And off that, ARG gets a red card.  It will be interesting to see whether FIFA goes the route of using video assistance on a permanent basis.

[Brownsugar]

Aye this going on??  I wonder where I could see it.....any links.....

[Deeks]

England played about 35 minutes of absolute tata, then scored a spectacular header against the run of play. A half still left to play but the Argentines looked a bit shell-shocked going in to the changing room. Frankly, it's hard to exaggerate how poor England were in first half ... and as I post, they score again. De football gods eh ...

Meanwhile, Mexico are doing the expected ... leading Vanuatu.

First time in my life, I've seen a referee leave the field to watch video replay off the field. And off that, ARG gets a red card.  It will be interesting to see whether FIFA goes the route of using video assistance on a permanent basis.

FIFA does a lot of the experiment on the "lower Level" or lower age tournaments for both men and women. What I did not like was how they forced the last Women's WC in Canada to be played on turf field. Not that I have a big issue with turf field per se. But they would not have dear to do that to the men's tournament.

[asylumseeker]

England played about 35 minutes of absolute tata, then scored a spectacular header against the run of play. A half still left to play but the Argentines looked a bit shell-shocked going in to the changing room. Frankly, it's hard to exaggerate how poor England were in first half ... and as I post, they score again. De football gods eh ...

Meanwhile, Mexico are doing the expected ... leading Vanuatu.

First time in my life, I've seen a referee leave the field to watch video replay off the field. And off that, ARG gets a red card.  It will be interesting to see whether FIFA goes the route of using video assistance on a permanent basis.

FIFA does a lot of the experiment on the "lower Level" or lower age tournaments for both men and women. What I did not like was how they forced the last Women's WC in Canada to be played on turf field. Not that I have a big issue with turf field per se. But they would not have dear to do that to the men's tournament.

As you mention the non-natural grass issue ... some very strong opinions are being heard from Eredivisie players regarding artificial surfaces and FIFPRO is very attentive to the matter. Six clubs in Holland use them.

Red card incidents are one of four areas in which VAR will have applicability during this tournament. The decision was rendered quickly in this case, but I'm sure there will be more challenging situations down the road. Match had a total stoppage time of 5 minutes.

Viewing a recording of Guinea playing South Korea. Doh know how it ends yet, but the Guineans are surgical serial dribblers. One in particular is a drunken master.

[asylumseeker]

Aye this going on??  I wonder where I could see it.....any links.....

Not sure, but the line-up for today/Sunday is as follows:

Zambia v Portugal @ 1a.m. TT time
Iran v Costa Rica @ 4 a.m.
South Africa v Japan also @ 4 a.m.
Italy v Uruguay @ 7 a.m.

Bitter will likely come to the rescue with a link.

[Deeks]

Surprise Venezuela 2- Germany 0!  ??

[Deeks]

Vanuatu almost surprised Mex. Lost 3-2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFCxItp1Xqk

[Deeks]

South Korea looks so clean and orderly it is "sickening". WC clips from Skyscrapercity.com.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1984231&page=4