Youth Competitions

Even with the impressive young talent in spain, brazil & england, I don't see how the 2020s don't belong to us & france

French U23 talent:
FW - Mbappe / Martial / Augustin / M. Dembele / Diakhaby
W/AM - O. Dembele / Lemar / Maouassa / Coman / Saint-Maximin
MF - Rabiot / Sanson / Koziello / Lopez // Tolisso / Bakayoko / Cyprien / Tousart
DF - Mendy / Laporte / Umtiti / Sarr / Upamecano / Diop / Kimpembe / Zagadou / Doucoure
GK - Lafont

German U23s:
FW - Eggestein / Werner / Draxler / Goretzka / Arp / Kuhn / Philipp
W/AM - Sane / Brandt / Havertz / Abouchabaka / Gnabry / Yeboah / Schreck
MF - Weigl / Dahoud / Mbom / Geiger / Maier / Amiri / Neuhaus / Meyer / Akkaynak
DF - Süle / Kimmich / Tah / Torunarigha / GL Itter / Henrichs / Kehrer / Weiser / Passlack / Klostermann / Mittelstadt
GK - Früchtl

 

Lenglet deserves a good shout.

 

So many things can happen until 2020's, though. If Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo (Santos 2001 prospect hyped as the next Neymar) end up living to the hype Brazil could've a deadly attacking with Jesus, David Neres, Richarlison and Malcom (don't think Neymar gonna have the durability to still be one of the best at this point). And let's face it, it's not about on paper names. Argentina on paper shouldn't have struggled to qualify for the Russia WC, France should've won the Euros... probably gonna be the same contenders as usual, but too early to say this or that are clear favorites.

 

Neres has really impressed me in Holland but I'd like to see him in another league. The skills are there though.

 

Find it kind of odd seeing these two examples together as if they represent the same phenomenon. France was very unlucky to lose that final in overtime. Otherwise they completely lived up to all expectations. Argentina's problem was sustained but really more poor squad selection. I think a better example of paper names not translating to team success is someone like Belgium.

 

France was also very lucky that Jogi's poor team selection and our injuries helped them past germany.

 

And Germany was lucky DD's selection and injuries helped Germany stay in the match

 

Eh, it certainly helped us, but Sissoko had the month of his life and didn't hurt as much s EM-Müller & Can hurt us

 

We had Payet, Sissoko, Giroud, Evra, Koscielny and Sagna starting over Dembele, Coman/Martial/Lemar, Benzema, Kurzawa, Varane and Sidibe. Kante on the bench too.

Seriously.

 

I have spent a good bit of time wondering how that game would've looked if we had both played our top options available at the time in something like:

Lloris
Sidibe - Varane - Umtiti - Kurzawa
Kante - Pogba
Dembele - Lemar
Griezmann - Martial
--------------------------
Stindl - Müller*
Özil
Sane - Kramer - Kroos - Brandt
Hector - Boateng - Kimmich
Neuer

*Draxler​

 

You can probably write Benzema instead of Martial.

 

Benzema was never gunna get picked for that team, like Kruse for Germany. Regardless of whether they deserved to start for their respective NTs or not.

 

He could have. That sex tape thing and the interview a few weeks later sealed the deal. But he could have with a different manager (not saying it's right or wrong).

 

That's one of the reasons that I think it's too early to call one team a clear contender cause we don't know if managers gonna call the best players up and be able to mesh them together (that's one of the toughest parts of the process, see the Messi-Dybala dilemma) or if he has some preference for a lesser player like DD has a preference for Giroud over Martial, Laca, Benzema, Tite for Renato over Fabinho, etc. And even though Argentina had some weird squad selection from their managers, they still fielded a better team than most NTs in this qualifier.

 

And with a different manager Max Kruse would've been challenging Müller for the goal scoring crown in Rio, and be a WM legend by the time the team arrived in France. But given each team's respective manager, both players never stood a chance.

 

Moussa dembele celtic scored a first half hat trick for France in u21 qualifying today. What a player.

 

Knockout stages of the youth CL started today.

Paris went out to Barcelona 0-1 (Barca picked up a red card, too).
City went through on penalties vs. Inter (the game finished 1-1).

A couple big ones tomorrow...Spurs vs. Monaco, Bayern vs. Real Madrid and of course...Liverpool vs. Manchester United.

 

I honestly, read this 3 times wonder WTF is going on lool. Not realizing the thread I clicked on. Needless to say I was highly confused. LMAO.

 

Benny Woodburn! Liverpool leading 1-0. Liverpool all over United at this point. Adekanye and Jones looking bright.

EDIT: Also Tottenham knocked out Monaco earlier today on penalties. I also didn't realize that Feyenoord youth vs. Chelsea was today as well which should be a really good game; Feyenoord's academy is still very strong.

EDIT 2: Liverpool ended up winning 2 - 0. Some hairy moments though it's the right result. Both teams missed a fair number of chances. Woodburn bossed the match (as would be expected) and other standouts were Jones, Adekanye, Millar and Chong from United.

 

Dernerner... so Bayern have been knocked out by Real Madrid (2-3) and Chelsea are currently beating Feyenoord 3-1 (getting carried by their Dutch players! Familio-Castillo and Redan). Unfortunately Feyenoord missing their best player (Kokcu).

 

Soooo Porto knocked out Tottenham from the UEFA youth league today (2-0) and Barcelona are currently winning 2-0 over Atletico.

Tomorrow there are some pretty huge games with some of the favourites:

Liverpool @ Manchester City
Chelsea @ Real Madrid

 

Liverpool bow out to City on penalties. A back and forth game, but Liverpool had more chances to score. Curtis Jones again absolutely dominant performance, and the best player in the game by far. Unfortunately Woodburn still recovering from illness was really poor.

Chelsea currently playing Real Madrid and are up 3-2 but have received a red card. Daishawn Redan just can't stop scoring and has put 2 in (he also assisted the other goal and has since been subbed off).

 

U17 EM kicked off today in england.

Tomorrow the Germans & Dutch meet. Dunno who'll end up starting but the roster has some fun talents that I already .like...Batista Meier, Antonis Aidonis, Leon Dajaku, Fabrice Hartmann, Jonas Pfalz, Noah Katterbach, & Max Brandt...and some kids I want to see more of...Merveille Papela, Kevin Bukusu, Amid Khan Agha, Can Bozdogan, Kevin Grimm, & Per Lockl.

Not sure what to expect from the midfield but I like our wingers, Dajaku & backline.

 

Netherlands best Germany 3-0 in the group D opener at the U-17 Euros

 

Yeah, I missed the match but it looks like our midfield really cost us in that one, as all of the dutch goals came in the first half, before we made big changes at half-time.