Youth Competitions

[HajdukSplit]

Euro U21 squads released, tournament starts next Wednesday

Under-21 EURO: all the confirmed group stage squads

 

[HajdukSplit]

Mexico and the USA advance to the semifinals of the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying with Mexico winning the group after their 1:0 win today. The other group will be decided tomorrow with Honduras playing Canada, both on 4 points, draw will see them both through and the winners of the match will win the group and avoid hosts Mexico. Haiti-El Salvador is the other game with both sides needing to win and probably by multiple goals. Only two teams from CONCACAF qualify for the Olympics

 

[Peen]

Came away unimpressed by the final, by both teams. England looked more solid and looking better in front of the net.
Mount is a nice little player.

Evilo the first on the Mount train

 

[Evilo]

Yup, I loved Mount from the first time I saw him.

 

[cgf]

Raebiger with a goal against City's u19s, though Leipzig is down 1-2 after an hour in their youth league clash

 

[cgf]

Only half watching, but Brugge's u19s have looked good. Leipzig is having a lot of trouble containing their attacking play.

Klefisch makes more sense in a back 3 than at the 6 (IMO), but he's still "eh".

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Barcelona and Bayern both got destroyed in the youth league. Barcelona lost 4-0 at Benfica. Same score line at home for Bayern against Kiev.

 

[cgf]

Barcelona and Bayern both got destroyed in the youth league. Barcelona lost 4-0 at Benfica. Same score line at home for Bayern against Kiev.

Yeah Bayern is still pointless in the youth league. Not the best of campaigns from them or Leipzig so far

...though in Bayern's case it's because most of their top talents in that age group are playing for the u23 or senior teams, and so they are only sending the even younger kids or 2nd tier U19 talents*.

*at least for the kiev match. As Sieb & Arrey Mbi were there for the opener against Barca, but not Rhein, Tillman, Motika, etc.

 

[koyvoo]

Poor Liechtenstein U21’s have given up 9 goals in the first half of their qualifying match vs Portugal.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

5-1 in the Youth League for us over Ajax. This one was televised, but I wasn’t able to see any of it. Great victory though.

 

[Ajacied]

5-1 in the Youth League for us over Ajax. This one was televised, but I wasn’t able to see any of it. Great victory though.

Pretty evenly played game. Dortmund was just effective on the counters. Physically Dortmund was further ahead. But this was to be expected with Ajax consisting mostly out of 15/16 year olds.

 

[gary69]

Reason Bayern youth lost today heavily against Benfica is that their center forward has not been sold yet. He is still unsold.

 

[Ajacied]

5-1 in the Youth League for us over Ajax. This one was televised, but I wasn’t able to see any of it. Great victory though.

Ajax now beat them 1-0 in Dortmund.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

U20’s World Cup Qualification for next year’s tournament is going on in CONCACAF. This is also the tournament that’ll count for Olympic Qualification in 2024. Tournament is being held in Honduras, so don’t rule out the hosts, but USA, Mexico, and Canada are the three favorites to qualify. This is the US roster. Many players not allowed to participate by their clubs, but still some good players.

 

[KlausJopling]

U20’s World Cup Qualification for next year’s tournament is going on in CONCACAF. This is also the tournament that’ll count for Olympic Qualification in 2024. Tournament is being held in Honduras, so don’t rule out the hosts, but USA, Mexico, and Canada are the three favorites to qualify. This is the US roster. Many players not allowed to participate by their clubs, but still some good players.

Even without the best players available this team should be good enough. But we said that the last couple Olympic qualifying tournaments. Disappointed US soccer didn’t fight harder for the top players to be released. They can’t afford to miss 3 Olympics in a row.

 

[luiginb]

The European U19 Championship just started as well, with France killing hosts Slovakia 5-0. Romania (with 8! players from my hometown team) is drawn in the same group as France which makes me very nervous, and are playing Italy in a couple of minutes.

 

[luiginb]

Undeserved loss for Romania against favourites France, 1-2 in the end. France's football is very physical (half the team are over 1,85 and look like they're 28, not 18), they seemed to close the match early, went 2-0 up inside 20 minutes, but their technical and concentration limitations made Romania come back, and also score a deserved equalizer in the 85th minute, wrongly overturned for offside (no VAR).

 

[KlausJopling]

U-20 Concacaf fun

9 Costa Rican players and 1 US player suspended after post game scuffle

 

[KlausJopling]

CONCACAF U-20 tournament is done. US won the tournament in the end with ease (31-2 aggregate). Stories are the US finally getting back to the Olympics (that lost generation of last decade finally gone). Mexico failing to qualify for both Olympics and U20 World Cup (it has not been a great last year or so for Mexican soccer). Guatemala qualifying for the first U20 since they hosted 10 or so years ago.

But the big story is Dominican Republic. Qualifying for the U20 World Cup and the Olympics is massive for them. They have never qualified for a World Cup at any age group. The senior team has never even made it to the final stage of World Cup qualifying or even qualified for the Gold Cup.

Qualified for FIFA U20 World Cup: US, Honduras, Guatemala, Dominican Republic
Qualified for Paris Olympics: US, Dominican Republic

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Sevilla needs to be heavily disciplined by UEFA.

Abdoulaye Kamara has been racially abused two games in a row in the UEFA Youth League by Sevilla players. It’s now happened twice in a week by Sevilla players.

One more time and they should be banned from UEFA competitions. This isn’t a few stupid fans. These are their players doing so.

 

[Peen]

wonder if pavel is coaching the team

 

[HajdukSplit]

Draw for next summer's U21 Euros which serves as UEFA's qualifying for the Olympics (France already qualified, meaning only three spots open). The tournament is hosted by Romania/Georgia somehow as they aren't neighbors, anyway, Georgia making their debut

A: Georgia, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands
B: Romania, Spain, Ukraine, Croatia
C: Czech Republic, England, Germany, Israel
D: Norway, Switzerland, France, Italy

 

[bluesfan94]

Draw for next summer's U21 Euros which serves as UEFA's qualifying for the Olympics (France already qualified, meaning only three spots open). The tournament is hosted by Romania/Georgia somehow as they aren't neighbors, anyway, Georgia making their debut

A: Georgia, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands
B: Romania, Spain, Ukraine, Croatia
C: Czech Republic, England, Germany, Israel
D: Norway, Switzerland, France, Italy

To be fair, they only have the Black Sea in between them, which is currently nice and calm and peaceful.

Not knowing anything about the relative strength of youth sides versus their senior counterparts, Group B looks pretty easy while Group A looks rather difficult.

That said, I haven't heard much about Belgium's next generation although I recognize some of the names from their recent callups.

 

[cgf]

To be fair, they only have the Black Sea in between them, which is currently nice and calm and peaceful.

Not knowing anything about the relative strength of youth sides versus their senior counterparts, Group B looks pretty easy while Group A looks rather difficult.

That said, I haven't heard much about Belgium's next generation although I recognize some of the names from their recent callups.

I dunno if they're all on the U21 team, but Kroatia's got a lot of talented kids right now and right there with the top nations.
- Gvardiol, Sutalo, Stanisic, & Vuskovic in defense.
- Sucic, Bulat, & Franjic in the central midfielder.
- Simic, Beljo, & Ljubicic as striking options.
- Baturina, Biuk, Kacavenda, Vidovic, & Zvonarek as creative midfielders/wingers.
That's a lot of kids with the talent to play regularly for CL teams in their primes...some at the very top level.

 

[bluesfan94]

I dunno if they're all on the U21 team, but Kroatia's got a lot of talented kids right now and right there with the top nations.
- Gvardiol, Sutalo, Stanisic, & Vuskovic in defense.
- Sucic, Bulat, & Franjic in the central midfielder.
- Simic, Beljo, & Ljubicic as striking options.
- Baturina, Biuk, Kacavenda, Vidovic, & Zvonarek as creative midfielders/wingers.
That's a lot of kids with the talent to play regularly for CL teams in their primes...some at the very top level.

Fair; I just consider Croatia to be a (slight) step down from Portugal, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, and England. I put them on par with Belgium, but Belgium is with portugal and the Netherlands while Croatia is only with Spain.