Morocco World Champions!

 Morocco has been crowned World Champions at the U-20 World Cup in Chile. In the final they faced a confident Argentina side, but the Moroccans sealed the match in the first half. Yassir Zabiri scored the first goal on a splendid free kick in a situation that perhaps should have been a penalty, but in the end it did not matter... Zabiri himself made it 2-0 on a great volley following a great pass from the tournament's best player, Othmane Maama.

After this Argentina pushed forward but without patience or a cool head. A lot of shots outside of the target and corner kicks that led to nothing. In the meantime the Moroccans let the Argentines have the ball, but stood back solidly and with a cool head. 

In every way Morocco deserves this great title, and adds to Morocco's extraordinary strides in world football, and they will be a country to watch in the World Cup next year, when we will hopefully be able to see some of these great youngsters that won the title today. 

Bad day for Mexico

Yesterday I decided to relax with some beers and football, as Mexico were playing two matches. Firstly, the young Mexicans were facing Argentina in the quarterfinals of the U-20 World Cup. The Mexicans were not bad, they tried to play the Argentineans, but Argentina went ahead by Maher Carrizo, who caught a rebound from the Mexican goalkeeper after only 9 minutes in what was effectively Argentina's first shot on goal. The rest of the game Argentina were in control despite Mexico playing well. In the second half the new Inter Miami player Mateo Silvetti completely outran two Mexican defenders to make it 2-0 and seal the match. It was a pity that two Mexican players got red cards in the dying minutes of a match they had already lost; but Mexico had a great tournament and can hold their heads high.

Argentina will face Colombia in the semifinals. Colombia defeated Spain 3-2. 

The bar I was at slowly filled out with Colombians, who came to watch the friendly match between Mexico and Colombia. These friendlies should be important for Mexico, who has not gone through qualification, as they try to find a squad for the World Cup here in Mexico. In the meantime, Colombia have qualified strongly and by far outplayed the Mexicans: 4-0, with goals by established players Luis Diaz and Jefersson Lerma, but also Bologna's defender Jhon Lucumi scoring his first goal for Colombia, and Internacional's Johan Carbonero scoring in his debut for Colombia.

Colombia is looking strong (and look at their strong u-20 side), but Mexico is hopefully going to improve before they receive the world in 2026.

 

U20 World Cup in Chile

The U-20 World Cup is taking place in Chile. A group with Spain, Brazil, Mexico and Morocco should be considered a group of death at any level, and yesterday I watched the final group match between Morocco and Mexico. Morocco have been flying and defeated Spain and Brazil 2-0 and 2-1 respectively, and before the match against Mexico were sure to win the group no matter the result as Mexico arrived in the match with two 2-2 ties. 

Mexico ensured the second spot by winning 1-0 on a penalty goal by the 16-year Tijuana player Gilberto Mora (also the youngest goalscorer in the history of the Mexican top league). In the meantime Spain won 1-0 against Brazil, who are surely disappointed to be eliminated in the group stage.

Morocco and Mexico are through, and so are Argentina and Japan, with three victories, as well as Ukraine, Chile, Paraguay and Italy. There are still matches left in the last groups before we have all the teams in the last-16 of a very interesting tournament.

England World Champion!

Before today's u-20 World Cup final in South Corea we knew we would have a new World Champion. Neither Venezuela or England had ever been in a final at youth level. Venezuela had never been in a final at all, showing the incredible strides Venezuelan football has made in the last 15 years, while England had not been in any final since their legendary World Cup triumph in 1966.
So whoever won it would be special. Both teams had reached the final unbeaten, with Venezuela having a strong scoring and attacking record.
The Venezuelan side nevertheless seemed more stricken by the occasion than the English lads, who dominated first half, also taking the lead on a goal by Dominic Calvert-Lewin from Everton. This was in the face of a poor Venezuelan defense, who was saved by goalkeeper Wuilker Farinez.
In the second half the Venezuelans put more pressure on an English side that also seemed to grow more nervous, and there were many mistakes as the match progressed. It was more intense than beautiful, and only English goalkeeper Freddie Woodman seemed cool when he saved a penalty kick from Adalberto Penarando (the big Venezuelan star was a frustrating sight today), and became the best goalkeeper of the tournament and a hero for England.
England won 1-0 and are World Champions.
I was supporting Venezuela, but it was a well-deserved victory for England, who should take advantage of having such a talented pool of players. In the meantime, Venezuela made it to a final, and lost it. They have a base of players to fight for their first World Cup, perhaps in 2022, but I would not count on it.

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

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!