2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup

[ricoFlame]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Czech's are flopping around too to be fair.

hey, if that's how you see it, good on ya. it's not how it is though. the flops have been at like a 4-1 ratio.

[sadora]

way to go, winning late in the game like that.

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by Hesla

From the ARticle

"They hit me with an electrical current and I fainted," player Isaias Perralta told Chilean media. "When I regained consciousness, I saw 10 police officers were hitting me and throwing acid in my face."

Wow..... throwing acid eh!!!

Probably meant pepper spray... give him a break... Canadian police acted like total rookies and now the world has something else to make fun of Canada for regarding this tournament.

[moon]

Originally Posted by Thunderball

Probably meant pepper spray... give him a break... Canadian police acted like total rookies and now the world has something else to make fun of Canada for regarding this tournament.

People are going to make fun of us because the Chilean team acted like idiots and then made baseless and asinine accusations against the TO police?

[Thor]

Originally Posted by Thunderball

Probably meant pepper spray... give him a break... Canadian police acted like total rookies and now the world has something else to make fun of Canada for regarding this tournament.

Outside of Chile no one cared, it was a non issue 2 days later in any soccer nation that would have even heard of the story.

Not to mention no matter how badly that ref ruined that game, the behavior of the young Chileans was aggressive and the police treated them the same as any crowd of angry people.

Police are trained to be aggressive early on when signs of a full out brawl show up, its to avoid it getting worse and out of hand.

Its not pretty, but its effective.

Not to mention the Fifa officials who watched this incident from the start reported back to FIFA president that the players for Chile were at fault and that the TO police reacted as to be expected in that situation.

Now as for todays game, it was a good quality game. The diving wasn't as bad as I feared.. A glowing difference with Czech who rarely dramaticize falls/fouls vs the Argentine's who react with a lot of dramatic flare.

But Argentina is one very talented team that fully and completely deserved to win this tournament.

Thats what people will remember about this tournament, unless you live in Chile

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Thor

The diving wasn't as bad as I feared.. A glowing difference with Czech who rarely dramaticize falls/fouls vs the Argentine's who react with a lot of dramatic flare.

I guess you have never seen the Czechs play hockey.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Thunderball

Probably meant pepper spray... give him a break... Canadian police acted like total rookies and now the world has something else to make fun of Canada for regarding this tournament.

Tell the Chilean losers to grow up next time. Bunch of childish punks with self inflated egos who think that the rules don't apply to them because they are star athletes. They got what they deserved.

[ricoFlame]

Originally Posted by Snakeeye

Tell the Chilean losers to grow up next time. Bunch of childish punks with self inflated egos who think that the rules don't apply to them because they are star athletes. They got what they deserved.

exactly, the nation (chile) should be ashamed, not outraged.

[Thor]

Originally Posted by troutman

I guess you have never seen the Czechs play hockey.

Quite often.

Point is there are particular countries famous for diving when a strong breeze hits.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by ricoFlame

hey, if that's how you see it, good on ya. it's not how it is though. the flops have been at like a 4-1 ratio.

I didn't say it was even, I just said they were flopping too. Argies tripped over ever blade of grass. Can't blame teams for flopping though if the refs are going to be that stupid. Worse reffed int'l soccer event I've ever seen.
Way to go Bladder!

[Thor]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

I didn't say it was even, I just said they were flopping too. Argies tripped over ever blade of grass. Can't blame teams for flopping though if the refs are going to be that stupid. Worse reffed int'l soccer event I've ever seen.
Way to go Bladder!

I think the Refs minus a few games did quality work.

When you look over 30 something games and critique them and only remember a handfull the ref's did their job well.

This was an exceptionally successfull tournament, world cup no less... for Canada.

Record attendance, fans from all nationalities sitting in the same sections (you have no idea how shocked my EU friends were to this..)

Canada should be immensly proud of this tournament, the FIFA officials, organizers, volunteers, ALL deserve praise.

The refs, did their best, minus a handfull of games and minus a brutal game with Chile.

Everyone remembers the few, ignores the great competition and fair play in the vast majority of games. (im guilty of this to at times.)

[ricoFlame]

Originally Posted by Thor

The refs, did their best, minus a handfull of games and minus a brutal game with Chile.

that is simply part of the game, and the fact that there was only 1 really bad game for the officials is truely great.

look to the asian cup that is going on right now in indonesia, in the quarterfinals, uzebekestan was robbed of a goal where a player was actually onside by several feet but called offside well after the play had developed. that awful and completely incorrect call cost them the game and forced them from the tournament. but unlike the chileans, the went off with their heads held high and took the loss rather than going crazy. afterwords, their coach said that everybody makes mistakes and that today just wasn't their day, refusing to blame the officials. all this despite the fact that they played superb fotball and deserved the win over saudi arabia. what class, perhaps the chilean football federation should look into hiring this guy to teach their players and officials how to act in a manner befitting that of footballers representing their nation abroad.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Thor

I think the Refs minus a few games did quality work.

When you look over 30 something games and critique them and only remember a handfull the ref's did their job well.

This was an exceptionally successfull tournament, world cup no less... for Canada.

Record attendance, fans from all nationalities sitting in the same sections (you have no idea how shocked my EU friends were to this..)

Canada should be immensly proud of this tournament, the FIFA officials, organizers, volunteers, ALL deserve praise.

The refs, did their best, minus a handfull of games and minus a brutal game with Chile.

Everyone remembers the few, ignores the great competition and fair play in the vast majority of games. (im guilty of this to at times.)

Canada should be very proud. That's 2 successful tournaments in Canada now (Women's Under 19 and now this). I hope the Women's World Cup omes to Canada in the future. Any major tournament in North America will be a success and break records because we are so multicultural and rich. Attendance-wise, the Asian Cup for example is a disaster because nobody can afford to go to any games and there is no interest in games that don't involve the hosts.

It's not just the major incidents that I remember, all the matches had no flow to them. It's like hockey games having 20-30 power plays. Too much diving and way too many fouls. They say in the best games, you dont remember the ref. In this tournament, the ref had way too much tv time.

How many times did you hear Craig Forrest say, "Come on, that's not a foul! A perfect tackle, let them play ref!"

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Canada should be very proud. That's 2 successful tournaments in Canada now (Women's Under 19 and now this). I hope the Women's World Cup omes to Canada in the future. Any major tournament in North America will be a success and break records because we are so multicultural and rich. Attendance-wise, the Asian Cup for example is a disaster because nobody can afford to go to any games and there is no interest in games that don't involve the hosts.

It's not just the major incidents that I remember, all the matches had no flow to them. It's like hockey games having 20-30 power plays. Too much diving and way too many fouls. They say in the best games, you dont remember the ref. In this tournament, the ref had way too much tv time.

How many times did you hear Craig Forrest say, "Come on, that's not a foul! A perfect tackle, let them play ref!"

One of the reasons this tournament was such a success was the ticket prices. I could not believe how affordable the tickets were. Cheap tickets were around $10, and when we went to the Q-Finals, sweet lower bowl tickets were $29 including all the charges. Who couldn't afford to go? Even with the commute from Calgary, it was well within what one would be willing to pay... especially considering that the junior Summit Series in Red Deer has tickets in the $70 range.

One big problem with this tournament is that these players are a little too young, and with that, have some issues with flow and poise that needs time and experience to develop. Even just upping it to U-21 (like UEFA does) would push out some 16-17 year olds and replace them with much more improved and professional 20 year olds. This would also mean the big teams of Europe would be more likely to attend with their best. Having a U20 and a U21 tournament means making some tough decisions, and essentially, splitting your talent into two teams (which is what the big teams did, and why they didn't qualify). Having the ability to watch the youth of Italy, England, France, Germany and the Netherlands would have completely obliterated the attendance record that was set. Like I said before... too much filler from the weaker confederations, not enough Europe. In the end, it was down to the usual suspects anyway... top European teams and top South American teams.

I think we can all do what Blatter suggested and forget that controversial little Police/Chilean team melee happened.

The other real big problem was the reffing. Unbelievably bad... you'd think they were in their teens too... falling for everything, and when they weren't encouraging players to dive by being so gullible (The biggest encouraging factor to diving is getting away with it, toss some yellow cards for diving around, and let the boys play more and it won't happen nearly as much)... they were calling the most assinine things and ruining what precious little flow there was.

With that, I enjoyed all 3 games I saw live (New Zealand-Mexico, Canada-Congo, Spain - Czech Republic) and it was probably the highest quality soccer tournament we'll see in Canada for a very long time.

[ricoFlame]

sometime, maybe a long way of, but some time, Canada will be awarded a world cup. just have to continue to be successful hosts of these smaller FIFA tourney's. that will be a proud day for canada and canadian football.

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by ricoFlame

sometime, maybe a long way of, but some time, Canada will be awarded a world cup. just have to continue to be successful hosts of these smaller FIFA tourney's. that will be a proud day for canada and canadian football.

We have to be able to field a competitive squad though. I have a feeling that will be a factor in deciding who hosts in 2014 or 2018 (I believe that's when it could be North America's turn again). No one wants to see a host country in by default miles out of their depth, which they can definitely be accused of in this tournament (I wouldn't say they were out of their depth totally, seeing as they would likely be one of the four teams from CONCACAF anyway... a testament to this tournament's glaring issues).

With that, the focus now needs to be on proper training and development. Canada has proven that they can host these events, and if there's a big enough tournament, like the World Cup, there is the money to overhaul their stadia and have eight proper host cities.

[ricoFlame]

Originally Posted by Thunderball

We have to be able to field a competitive squad though. I have a feeling that will be a factor in deciding who hosts in 2014 or 2018 (I believe that's when it could be North America's turn again). No one wants to see a host country in by default miles out of their depth, which they can definitely be accused of in this tournament (I wouldn't say they were out of their depth totally, seeing as they would likely be one of the four teams from CONCACAF anyway... a testament to this tournament's glaring issues).

With that, the focus now needs to be on proper training and development. Canada has proven that they can host these events, and if there's a big enough tournament, like the World Cup, there is the money to overhaul their stadia and have eight proper host cities.

i thought that FIFA did away with the host country automatic qualifier for the world cup, at least it was discussed by FIFA in the last few years. i thought that the japan/korea was the last world cup to include the host.

Edit: nevermind, i see that south africa has an automatic qualifier for world cup 2010, so evidently this still continues. i know that they had discussed this issue, perhaps it never got approved by FIFA. oh well.

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by ricoFlame

i thought that FIFA did away with the host country automatic qualifier for the world cup, at least it was discussed by FIFA in the last few years. i thought that the japan/korea was the last world cup to include the host.

it was discussed... but to my knowledge, they opted to keep it. Germany did not have to qualify for 2006... but judging by their standing and talent, that really wasn't a big deal. The rationale seems to be a business one... that attendance would not be as good if the hosts were not there. They just have to make sure that hosts could qualify if they had to. Typically, the hosts could make it on their own, for example the recent hosts, Mexico, Italy, USA, France and Germany are World Cup regulars... and arguably Korea and Japan are too, if only cause of the relative ease of their confederation.

South Africa is the first host since the 1950s that is not a world cup regular and may not have been able to qualify on their own.

[ricoFlame]

oh right, world cup '02 was the last time that the defending champions received and automatic qualifier. now i remember.

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by ricoFlame

oh right, world cup '02 was the last time that the defending champions received and automatic qualifier. now i remember.

Oh yeah... that really was a lame idea... personally, i think if the defending champs can't even qualify... then they clearly aren't that caliber anymore and don't deserve any favors.