Brazil champions

Brazil is the greatest footballing country in the world, and tonight they won the U-20 World Cup in Colombia, after defeating Portugal 3-2 after extra time. The credit for the Brazilians is all the greater considering that Portugal had not conceded a goal the entire tournament, and were 2-1 up. Oscar, the Brazilian youngster from Internazionale scored all three Brazilian goals, and he will surely be on the list for many possible clubs.
Brazil last won the tournament in 2003, and two years ago lost the final to Ghana. They are now back at the top after a tournament in Colombia that has been outstanding, and that surely has seen the emergence on new stars.
Congratulations to the Brazilian youngsters.

Colombian nightmare?

I was recently in the most wonderful country in the world, Colombia, where the U-20 World Cup is currently taking place. The atmosphere is great as Colombians greet the world with their usual smiles, hospitality and friendliness.

Except if you are Argentine...

I had made nothing of an incident between the Argentinean team during a match against Egypt and the fans in Medellín until, last Saturday, I was sitting in a bar ("The Eight Bells", in Usaquén) waiting for Colombia-Mexico to start, and was surely wanting to support Colombia. I arrived early, waiting for some friends and family, and the match showing was Argentina-Portugal. Although u-20 football fails to excite me as much as other football, I was surely (quietly) cheering for Argentina as the match went into penalty kicks. It started well for Argentina, when Portugal missed two, but Portugal managed to pull up, and won.

I looked around in astonishment as the entire pub in rose in a loud scream of joy. I had to ask one of my recently arrived friends: "Are there many Portuguese in this bar?"

"No, we just do not like Argentineans"

In the match that followed, I wanted to support my dear Colombia, but couldn't help but have a strong sense of spiteful revenge as a far more efficient Mexican side defeated the hosts 3-1, to the enormous disappointment of the fans who had been so delighted for Argentina's defeat.

I am not going to dwell into the 2000 lousy reasons that Colombians have given me for not liking Argentines, but it baffles me. The continental solidarity that makes Africa so wonderful is all but unexistant in a continent of "brothers and sisters".

I do hope that all these Colombians will have nightmares where Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortazar castigate them with verbally eloquent insults, while Carlos Gardel, Fito Paez, Andrés Calamaro and Gustavo Cerati threaten to beat them up with their guitars, while a giant Mafalda chews them up and spits them out onto a football pitch with Alfredo di Stefano, Diego Maradona, Mario Kempes, and Lionel Messi to polish the other other guys shoes.

Well, at least we all now know that Argentina's and Colombia's u-20 sides are the same shit. The semifinals of the u-20 World Cup will be as follows:

• France-Portugal
• Brazil-Mexico

A bright Mexican future

Mexico lost its third consecutive match of the Copa América today, and was for the first time ever eliminated in the first round of this tournament. However, there is much reason to be optimistic about the future if you are a fan of the North American nation. Just before the Copa América Mexico was awesome in winning the North American Gold Cup, with an excellent side with great attacking power. Now, this is not the side that Mexico sent to the Copa América: instead, they sent a largely Under-23 side that was further weakened when eight of its most talented players were sent home for misdeeds with ladies in Ecuador. Still, this weakened youth side was, in spite of losing all three matches, an interesting team, that caused all of its more experienced opponents many troubles.
There can be little doubt that if Mexico had shown up with its strongest side, results would have been different. However, these youths showed that they are already competitive at the highest level.
At the same time as these Mexican youths were playing in Argentina, an even younger Mexican youth side, its Under-17 team, was the triumphant winner of the FIFA World Cup for U-17 after defeating Uruguay's u-17 2-0 in the final.
In August, the FIFA World Cup for U-20 will take place in Colombia, and there can be little doubt that Mexico will be one of the teams to watch out for, and that if this trend continues, Mexico will be looking at a very bright footballing future!

Switzerland wins the 2009 U-17 World Cup

The 13th FIFA U-17 World Cup yesterday ended in Nigeria with a very dusprising 1-0 victory for Switzerland, the debutants of the tournament, who with this win their first international title. The victory was no less surprising as they were playing the defending champions of Nigeria in front of a very hostile home-crowd of 60,000 in Abuja.
But the Swiss youngsters seemed unmoved by the atmosphere, and are now deserved champions of the world!

HOST	Winner	Runner-up	Third	Fourth
China 1985	Nigeria	West Germany	Brazil	Guinea
Canada 1987	USSR	Nigeria	Ivory Coast	Italy
Scotland 1989	Saudi Arabia	Scotland	Portugal	Bahrain
Italy 1991	Ghana	Spain	Argentina	Qatar
Japan 1993	Nigeria	Ghana	Chile	Poland
Ecuador 1995	Ghana	Brazil	Argentina	Oman
Egypt 1997	Brazil	Ghana	Spain	Germany
New Zealand 1999	Brazil	Australia	Ghana	USA
Trinidad & Tobago 2001	France	Nigeria	Burkina Faso	Argentina
Finland 2003	Brazil	Spain	Argentina	Colombia
Peru 2005	Mexico	Brazil	Netherlands	Turkey
South Corea 2007	Nigeria	Spain	Germany	Ghana
Nigeria 2009	Switzerland	Nigeria	Spain	Colombia

Ghana World Champions 2009!

I lived in Ghana for many years, and it is with happy nostalgia that I have seen that the Ghana U20 team has won the 2009 U20 World Cup in Egypt, by defeating Brazil in the final, 4-3 after penalty kicks! This is the first time ever an African team wins this tournament, and breaks eight years of South American dominance in the tournament, although Ghana was also in the final in 1993, losing to Brazil, and in 2001 (in fact defeating Brazil in the quarterfinals), losing 3-0 to an outstanding Argetninean side in the final.
But Ghana are now World Champions!!!!!
In most of Europe the Cup has had very limited interest, which just shows that Europe has little interest in the stars of the future, beyond the ones they can pay millions to get outside Europe.
And this is a pity, as the U20 World Cup in Egypt has been excellent, and I do not believe the significance of Ghana's victory should be underestimated: after an outstanding 2006 World Cup (when I happily lived in Ghana), Ghana has now qualified for the 2010 World Cup as well. With players in the best European league, a strong domestic league, outstanding youth-talent, and what is arguably the best and most professional football organisation in all of Africa, Ghana has really become the only serious contender for being Africa's first World Champion.

It will be a long road to travel, but Ghana has taken a first step, and I am celebrating with all wonderful people of Ghana!

Egypt U-20 World Cup preview

The 2009 U-20 FIFA World Cup is about to start in Egypt. This table shows the history of the tournament that started in 1977 when the USSR won the first tournament:

Tunisia 1977	USSR	Mexico	Brazil	Uruguay
Japan 1979	Argentina	USSR	Uruguay	Poland
Australia 1981	West Germany	Qatar	Romania	England
Mexico 1983	Brazil	Argentina	Poland	South Corea
USSR 1985	Brazil	Spain	Nigeria	USSR
Chile 1987	Yugoslavia	West Germany	East Germany	Chile
Saudi Arabia 1989	Portugal	Nigeria	Brazil	USA
Portugal 1991	Portugal	Brazil	USSR	Australia
Australia 1993	Brazil	Ghana	England	Australia
Qatar 1995	Argentina	Brazil	Portugal	Spain
Malaysia 1997	Argentina	Uruguay	Ireland	Ghana
Nigeria 1999	Spain	Japan	Mali	Uruguay
Argentina 2001	Argentina	Ghana	Egypt	Paraguay
United Arab Emirates 2003	Brazil	Spain	Colombia	Argentina
Netherlands 2005	Argentina	Nigeria	Brazil	Morocco
Canada 2007	Argentina	Czech Republic	Chile	Austria
Egypt 2009

As can be seen, the South American giants of Brazil and Argentina have been the most awesome countries, with the latter winning the last two tournaments. However, disappointingly, Argentina will not be able to defend their title, as they didn't qualify, and Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela (who sensationally qualified for the first time ever) will have to carry the South American flags.

It is very difficult to predict these tournaments, but one always should look for the hosts, Egypt, who are grouped with Italy, Paraguay and Trinidad & Tobago. Other African sides, who traditionally have been strong but never won the tournament (as opposed to the u-17) include Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa, while some of the European sides with good traditions in the tournament include Spain (in an interesting group with Venezuela, Nigeria and Tahiti), the Czech Republic (grouped with Brazil, Australia and Costa Rica) and Germany.

All in all, a very interesting tournament for the football stars of tomorrow.

World Youth Championship 2005

The World Youth Championship (U-20) is presently being played in the Netherlands. This kind of tournament always gives a good insight to some of the football stars of the future. This year seems no exception, and we are both seeing some of the old teams performing well as well as witnessing some surprises:

• In Group A the hosts Netherlands are looking a strong contender for the title, having won their first two matches.
• In Group B China is showing that the future of Chinese football is coming with storm, having won their first two matches against Turkey and Ukraine, and only having Panama left to play.
• In Group C Spain is trashing all, with a score of 10-1 after two only matches.
• Group D is very exciting, with three very strong teams. Germany is ahead with 4 points, equal to the USA, having played excellently with their 16-year old Eric Adu, who is already playing his second World Cup. Argentina is just behind on the 3rd spot.
• Colombia is leading Group E, having won their first two matches. More surprising is that Italy is last, having lost their last match to Syria, who is trailing Colombia on 2nd spot.
• Brazil leads Group F, although closely followed by Korea and Switzerland.

The tournament will surely have some more exciting matches!