alright so far we have:
New Zealand (hosts)
Fiji (OFC)
Austria,
Germany,
Hungary,
Portugal, Serbia and
Ukraine (UEFA)
To come we have:
AFC - 4 spots. Decided between 9–23 October
CAF - 4 spots. Decided between 8-22 March
CONCACAF - 4 spots. Decided between 9–24 January
CONMEBOL - 4 spots. Decided between 14 January – 7 February
Anyone else joining me on the Fiji bandwagon?
I hope Serbia is playing in one of the venue on our tour. El Gap may explode.
BYOF?
Anyone else joining me on the Fiji bandwagon?
Latest report on the official FIFA tournament website is on the Fiji team. Sounds like they're going to be pretty well prepared:
http://www.fifa.com/u20worldcup/news/newsid=243794...
Anyone know anything about this "OFC President's Cup" in NZ later this year mentioned in the article?
alright so far we have:
New Zealand (hosts)
Fiji (OFC)
Austria,
Germany,
Hungary,
Portugal, Serbia and
Ukraine (UEFA)
To come we have:
AFC - 4 spots. Decided between 9–23 October
CAF - 4 spots. Decided between 8-22 March
CONCACAF - 4 spots. Decided between 9–24 January
CONMEBOL - 4 spots. Decided between 14 January – 7 February
Thank God Russia didn't qualify to avoid any difficult political scenarios especially if Ukraine and Russia had ended up playing eachother.
Much as I support the Tall Blacks (I used to play football and basketball - I'm not called "Big Pete" for nothing!) I felt sorry for the Ukraine after the Tall Blacks beat them in the recent World Basketball Championships in Spain and knocked them out of the tournament.
Anyone else joining me on the Fiji bandwagon?
Latest report on the official FIFA tournament website is on the Fiji team. Sounds like they're going to be pretty well prepared:
http://www.fifa.com/u20worldcup/news/newsid=243794...
Anyone know anything about this "OFC President's Cup" in NZ later this year mentioned in the article?
From memory it is involving Amicale, Singapore U23s, Busaiteen FC from Bahrain, Auckland City, Fiji and one other. Can't remember now.
Looks like a Cayman Island team
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11303256
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_OFC_President's_Cup#cite_note-3
Auckland City playing a Cayman Island team? That sounds like next level big brown envelope territory.
Australia missed out last night. came third in their group behind Uzbekistan and UAE. Semi finalists qualify.
Australia missed out last night. came third in their group behind Uzbekistan and UAE. Semi finalists qualify.
Bummer. There goes possible derby.
Myanmar through apparently. 1-0 over UAE.
joined by North Korea, Uzbekistan and Qatar. That is an unlikely group of 4.
Myanmar....joined by North Korea, Uzbekistan and Qatar. That is an unlikely group of 4.
Mynamar and North Korea not so unlikely on previous history though:
From the latest u-20 tournament newsletter:
"Myanmar have won the AFC U-19 Championship seven times (second only to South Korea) whilst North Korea have secured three wins with the most recent being in 2006 and 2010."
And Uzbekistan's senior team are currently in the top four in Asia and ranked above Australia.
Qatar = "loadsamoney"
CONCACAF final round of qualifying coming up in a few weeks (9 - 24 January in Jamaica): four best teams go to NZ:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_CONCACAF_U-20_Ch...
Format: Two groups of six
Group winners contest the Final
Second and third placed teams from each group play-off to decide the remaining two qualifiers for NZ 2015: "The second-and third-place teams from each group are re-seeded by group stage results, with the best team facing the fourth-best team, and the second-best team facing the third-best team."
GROUP A (click on any team name for details including squad lists)
Jamaica(H)
GROUP B
How they qualified for the CONCACAF Finals:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_CONCACAF_U-20_Ch...
USA, Mexico, Canada = automatic as North American reps
Caribbean qualifying: Trinidad & Tobago and Cuba topped their final round group;
Haiti and Aruba topped their final round group
(Trinidad & Tobago beat Haiti 3-0 in the Caribbean Final; Cuba beat Aruba 2-1 in the 3rd/4th play-off)
Central America qualifying:
"The Central American qualification competition was organised by the Central American Football Union (UNCAF). The competition was contested by the seven UNCAF teams in a round-robin tournament, hosted in El Salvador,[5] where the top four teams qualified for the 2015 CONCACAF U-20 Championship.[6][7]'
Qualified (in order of ranking):
Panama (UNCAF Champions)
Failed to qualify: Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Belize.
South American Qualifying Tournament 14 January - 7 February Uruguay
"The 2015 South American Youth Football Championship (Spanish: Campeonato Sudamericano Sub-20 Juventud de AméricaUruguay 2015, Brazilian Portuguese: Campeonato Sul-Americano Sub-20 Juventude da América Uruguay 2015)"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_South_American_Y...
A lot riding on this tournament because it decides the qualifiers for three finals tournaments:
"(1) The top four teams will qualify for the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup in New Zealand.
(2) Excluding Brazil, the best team will qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil and the second best team will compete in a play-off with a representative of North, Central America and the Caribbean.[1][2]
(3) The tournament will also provide four participants for the Pan American Games in July 2015,[3] with the third- to sixth-placed teams qualifying.[2] "
Participants:
(Click on any team name for details including squad lists)
Two groups of five:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_South_American_Y...
The top three teams in each group go to the Final Stage Group.
The top four teams after the Final Stage Group go through to NZ 2015.
CONCACAF qualification has started. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_CONCACAF_U-20_Ch...
As has South America http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_South_American_Y...
USA with win, draw, loss so far.
Argentina v Peru today. must win for Arg?
omar abdulrahman really is class. I would love to see him at a higher club level soon.
Excite. Wonder if they'll bring anywhere near as many people over as they did for the playoff.
Not looking good for the Flying Moose (Canada).
Interesting to see Panama doing really well, top of their group and beat US. Of course Panama were hellishly close to playing us in World Cup playoff, so they must be doing something right there at the moment. Just read that before this quaification tournament Panama were tipped as the 'dark horse', have a lot of established professional players & depth in current under 20s. Go Panama!
Mexico and Panama confirmed. Playoff between Honduras & Guatemala, and USA & El Salvador for the final 2 spots. No Flying Moose.
some really good teams coming down to NZ in just over 4 months!
Good page for keeping up to date with South American qualification.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_South_American_Youth_Football_Championship
Honduras and USA have won their play off games today to qualify for the Under 20s...so that's Mexico, Panama, USA and Honduras from Concacaf
Final stages of South American qualification starts today
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_South_American_Youth_Football_Championship#Final_stage
some really good teams coming down to NZ in just over 4 months!
Yeah. Can't wait to see who's playing where. Will be doing some serious driving in June I suspect.
The only surprise in CONMEBOL qualifying so far is that Chile were knocked out in the group stage, finishing bottom of their group (below Venezuela).
Results in the first round of the six team Final Group Stage yesterday:
Argentina 2 Peru 0
Paraguay 0 Colombia 0
Uruguay 0 Brazil 0
Argentina's top-scorer with seven goals so far in five games in the tournament is Giovanni Simeone, son of Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone (106 Argentina caps, hundreds of games in la Liga and Serie A). Aged 19, Giovanni is a first team player at River Plate.
Argentina's other top striker is Angel Correa signed in December by Atletico Madrid from Auckland City's Club World Cup opponents San Lorenzo (he had left San Lorenzo after winning the 2014 Copa Libertadores but couldn't sign fully after he failed a medical and required heart surgery in June). Has been compared to Sergio Aguero and Carlos Tevez.
An amazing come-back: from heart surgery in June 2014 to starting player for Argentina u-20 in January 2015.
The rest of Argentina's squad play for Argentinian clubs except for Maximiliano Rolon of Barcelona and Tiago Casasola of Fulham.
Brazil have a very young squad with thirteen 17 and 18 year-olds. All play in Brazil except for Udinese central midfielder Lucas Evangelista who signed for the Italian Serie A club for four million Euros in August 2014.
Most of Brazil's first choice players are first team players at their Brazilian clubs.
All Squads:
Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Colombia confirmed as the 4 CONMEBOL representatives. Just CAF to go in March.
Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Colombia confirmed as the 4 CONMEBOL representatives. Just CAF to go in March.
Yikes! 4 semifinalists right there.
Excellent 4 teams from South America...promoters dream with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia. Good stuff!
Excellent 4 teams from South America...promoters dream with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia. Good stuff!
Couldn't agree more, an ideal opportunity to build interest in the tournament, and the forthcoming draw, by announcing the qualifiers from both the Americas' groups.
Unfortunately the U20 marketing team seem to be asleep at the wheel.
We're excited too!
You can help us promote these great qualifiers by sharing that post on Facebook.
Also looking forward to finding out which teams play where at the Official Draw on Tuesday- live on Sky Sport 1 from 530pm.
Brazil, Mexico, Germany & us at Nth Harbour plz. Just to get things rolling.
