Colombia 2011 - U-20 World Cup

[panchester07]

I couldn't find any section to place this topic so i decided south america because of colombia being in that continent but mods' if you want then you can move it to a more specific one if you wish.....

To the good stuff..... Who's watching the tournament? I've been watching certain games like Spain, England, Argentina, Brazil, and of course my national team Panama. Unfortunately we got knocked out today.. Today in the morning before the uni i bought the paper, and in the sports section (always crowded with football news ) read our manager was super confident.. He got asked by a brazilian journalist if loosing today to Brazil meant he wouldn't be the Coach any more and he replied "i don't know, but we are gonna loose, today we will surprise" ... many players had similar attitudes, and its that a Pastor visited them and inspired them, and they had a lot of motivational speaches by different staff memebers, so psycologicaly they where waaaay bosted and confident, which lead to them scoring the first goal, but unfortunatly it got rightfully called offside.. Panama kept having good counterattacks with 7-8 quick passes.. But brazil took control of the game and beat us 4-0... We hit the crossbar at the end, but we lost and are knocked out early....

Anyway lads...who do you guys reckon will take the trophy home?

Spain is favorite because lets face it, they won the european u-21 with thiago and co, and now won the u-19 tournament with defoljou and co(obviously so many more players) .. the u-20 looks tight with canales... and they simply are winning everything.. Marca, had a quote:

"footballl is a game of 11 vs 11 where Spain always wins"

Brazil? Who started shaky and are lacking neymar, but have a local squad and made it through with 7 points?

Argentina? They have the most world cup titles in the u-20 division than any other nation, i think its 6 they have?

Germany? I don't even know if they are playing but they probably are, and they are always favorites!

Uruguay? Have been doing awesome tournaments as a nation..Won the copa america, exelent world cup, and second in the u-17 tournament down in mexico.. they're football programs are working brilliantly and are obtaining succes...

Others?? Which ones? What team, players, do you like? Discuss!

[scottS4]

i have to admit i'm not following the u20 world cup this year. after the womens wc, the copa america, the u17 wc and the concacaf gold cup, i've seen enough tournament soccer for the summer. i'll probably watch the semis and final though.

did you know any of the players on the panama squad? do you think you could have played for them?

[collin]

panchester i am dissapointed in you, you should have been on that panama roster!

[panchester07]

panchester i am dissapointed in you, you should have been on that panama roster!

i'm still 18, so i'm young enough to play the next one.... so lets cross our fingers that the world doesn't end next year, and i'll try to pick up the highest level and work hard as hell, but my real obstacles is my parents want me to work, study, and if i have a little time left play football, which is becoming incovenient, but i'll hold on tight to me dream EF will be a motivation for me, and you'll see me on the TV in two years hopefully.

i have to admit i'm not following the u20 world cup this year. after the womens wc, the copa america, the u17 wc and the concacaf gold cup, i've seen enough tournament soccer for the summer. i'll probably watch the semis and final though.

I have to admit, i've fell in the same trap of not watching it so much, because yeah we've had to many tournaments, and panama played 3 out of them 5 so i've been watching too much football.. But to be honest, if the WC U-20 where the first tournament of the year, i definetly would have watched all the matches .... anyway, i do think national football is more precious and much more exciting than club and can cause much deeper emotions on people than club.. so i'm going to force my self to watch more games, it can't be that hard...

did you know any of the players on the panama squad? do you think you could have played for them?

Yes actually played with a few, Jose Diego Alvarez number 20 is a good friend of mine, you have no idea how much i yell when he has the ball.. and that kid is amazing, in the world cup he was one of the best for Panama, but in real life if you mark him, get pissed, and focuss you still can't take the ball for him, he has long strides and is skilled as fu** he'll beat you 9 out 10 times its amazing.. and a few others have played for my Club on higher divisions atleast a year or so. its cool to see them play there and have the feeling the played against you.. at the same time a part of you is like, they weren't that good man, why do they brind them to the world cup... if they could went, so could I, and its gonna motivating and annoying for you.

[collin]

panch how competitive is it getting into the u20 national team? i know panama is a smaller country so it must be a little more convenient then somewhere like brazil or argentina. Do you think you stand a chance?

[desire10]

Man that's amazing panch! Did the kids in the U20's that you know off train a lot, or have they mostly been in academies and stuff?

I've been watching most of Australia's matches in Colombia. Man we suck! Haha no we're a good side, but our communication, particularly in our own box is awkward, it's like none of them speak the same language, which makes no sense with them all being Australian :p.

We're never building from the back up, as soon as we're under pressure we'll hoof it to forward line.

I've noticed that the altitudes at the stadiums tend to affect the flight of the balls a bit also.

[panchester07]

Man... What an exciting match right now --- Colomgia 3-2 Costa Rica 2.... I love international football filled with action and drama.... Colombia was heavily favored, and even is favorite to win the whole thing, and they had 1 foot out of the tournament when Costa Rica flipped the table and was up 1-2.. Then the colombians tie 2-2 and last minute (doubtful) penalty by James Rodriguez to win 3-2 at the ned.... On twitter many have said that the pk was a gift by the ref to colombia... Fights, cussing, intensity, i ok international football iss whats up imo!!!

Couldn't watch Argentina - Egypt unfortunately.. But apparently it was intense as well..! That stadium was filled with fans and every time they scored it looked like the stadium was gonna fall down!! What a treat!