We are getting close to this summers Under 20 World Cup with games being played across Canada. FIFA and Canadian organizers announced today that even though none of the pools have been set yet - so we don't know who is playing where or when - that over 500,000 tickets have already been sold.

Combine that with the Toronto FC debut in the MLS - where they have already sold over 13,000 season tickets and it is pretty obvious soccer is going to have a fairly significant profile up here this summer.

The draw will be held this afternoon at 4:30pm EST

The host Canadians will kick off the Under 20 World Cup on Canada Day - July 1 - in Toronto against Chile. They then will move west to play the rest of their pool games in Edmonton. Apparently Portugal will have home field advantage in their pool - with two of their 3 pool games to be played in Toronto. Undoubtedly Toronto's large Portugese community will be out in force for those games. The USA play their games in Montreal and Ottawa.

Here are the pools.

Group A: Canada, Chile, Congo, Austria
Group B: Spain, Uruguay, Jordan, Zambia
Group C: Portugal, New Zealand, Gambia, Mexico
Group D: Poland, Brazil, Korea Republic, USA
Group E: Argentina, Czech Republic, Korea DPR, Panama
Group F: Japan, Scotland, Nigeria, Costa Rica

The full schedule can be found here.
http://www.fifa.com/en/comp/U20M2007/tourn...2007-11,00.html

It's just too bad I'll be in Portugal for the whole month of July lol

The Under 20 World Cup kicks off this weekend with all 52 games televised here in Canada. This is the largest single sport event to ever have taken place in this country! An estimated 550 million people are expected to watch the tournament worldwide. Games take place in Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto. Advance ticket sales are through the roof and have already topped 940,000 of the 1.3 million tickets available!

Canada's first game is appropriately on Canada Day - July 1 - here in Toronto vs Chile. Canada then moves to Edmonton for the remainder of its round robin games.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/fifau20/schedule/

Let the madness begin!

Its interesting the range of stadiums being used for this tournament: from the 10,000 seat outdoor Swangard Stadium in Burnaby, BC. surrounded by trees, to the 50,000+ Olympic Stadium in Montreal. The finals will be at BMO field in Toronto, which seats only 20,000. Other cities: Edmonton, Ottawa and Victoria.

Scenic Swangard in BC:

Hey Mark - now I'm really psyched. I just got invited to Canada's opener this Sunday night at BMO Field against Chile. I'm sure it will be a wild crowd with undoubtedly thousands of Chilean supporters likely in atttendance too. What a GREAT way to spend Canada Day night.

And of course right after the game the huge Canada Day fireworks display right next door to BMO Field at Ontario Place. Should be a fantastic night!

GO CANADA GO!

It's a strange choice to play the final in a smaller stadium.

Montreal get mostly games of the group Brazil, USA, Poland, Korea. USA-Brazil is in Ottawa.
The captain of Brazil is injured.

Brazil is touted as one of the tournament's favourite; a bit of an upset in Brazil loss 0-1 to Poland.

Stunning 1-0 upset by Poland over Brazil. All other first day games were draws: USA-South Korea (1-1), Argentina-Czech Republic (0-0), North Korea-Panama (0-0). Today: Canada-Chile, Jordan-Zambia, Japan-Scotland, Nigeria-Costa Rica.

Yikes, Canada took a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of Chile in their opening game.

Hey Mark. It really was a disappointing night for the Canadians. It truly was a fantastic atmosphere in the lead up to the game - with Chilean fans filling about 1/4 or more of BMO Field. They were cheering more than an hour before the game and the Canadian fans responded. The place was rocking. The anthem was awesome with everybody singing it - very loudly. We were high in the 200 level near midfield on the west side and I have to say - what an amazing view you get from there. Not only of the play but a great view out over the lake and of the city skyline. Very cool!

But then the Canadian team played a very passive style - with never more than 2 men forward - even after Chile had a 2-0 lead.

Chile were clearly the better and more skilled team - but I was disappointed with the no offence approach of the Canadian coaches. All that did was take the Canadain fans out of the game.

You can't use that stadium name during the tournament, it goes against sponsor rules or something.

I don't know if Canada has a real chance or is there only because of hosting. Perhaps unbiased opinion would say Canada has not a big chance of advancing, while local opinion is more hopeful.

Freddy Adu gets a hat trick in the USA's 6-1 victory over Poland. Brazil redeems itself with a 3-2 victory over South Korea (although I'm watching the first half on replay and Korea is dominating). Although I'm not a big soccer fan, this tournament is very entertaining. I watched Austria-Congo yesterday (Canada's next opponents) and that was a good game. South Korea-Brazil is a good match.

The Portuguese captain is out due to injury. Brazil moves to the next round as a best third and will face Spain. USA plays Uruguay.

Austria (2A) vs. Gambia (2C)
USA (1D) vs. Uruguay (3B)
Spain (1B) vs. Brazil (3D)
Japan (1F) vs. Czech Rep (2E)
Chile (1A) vs. Portugal (3C)
Zambia (2B) vs. Nigeria (2F)
Argentina (1E) vs. Poland (2D)
Mexico (1C) vs. Congo (3A)

Canada is doing a good job hosting the event, but Team Canada looked terrible in all 3 losses (Chile, Austria, Congo).

And of course the Canadian Soccer Association - who are about as inept a sports organization as there is on the planet - who have they signed to coach the Men's National team? The coach who just led the National men's team to the semi-finals in the Gold Cup and had the team playing brilliantly? NO - of course not! Instead they have signed the man who just blew it completely as coach of Canada's junior team. A team that did not score a goal through 3 games and who every knowledgeable observer was quoted as saying they did not employ a winning strategy. In other words - the coach blew it!

And that is something that was VERY clear to me in the game I went to at BMO Field against the Chile team. The number of times a Canadian player would cross the ball into the middle in the Chilean box only to see the one poor Canadian forward given no chance against 4-5 defenders + the goalie. It was a poorly conceived - sit back and defend strategy that completely backfired on the Canadians - who would never change the strategy -and move forward - until it was too late!

That is the coach's fault, which does not bode well for the future of Canada's National Men's team - does it?

I don't know if it's the coach's fault. If it is then yes it doesn't look good for the senior team.

I'm thinking maybe people had too high expectations for the team. With Canadian soccer history I didn't have high hopes. Perhaps those who follow them know if they played well below their usual performance and whose fault it is.

In the last Canada game a player had to replace the goalkeeper. Must have been a thrill for him.

Was it the first time the host country didn't score a goal? Something like that. Reminds me of Canada having the title of hosting the Olympics and not winning a gold medal.

With some of the big name teams (Brazil, Portugal) ousted, and the Asian teams knocked out, the quarter finals set up like this:

14 July - 14:15 (TORONTO) Austria vs. USA
14 July - 17:45 (EDMONTON) Spain vs. Czech Republic
15 July - 14:15 (MONTREAL) Chile vs. Nigeria
15 July - 19:45 (OTTAWA) Argentina vs. Mexico

First two teams to make it to the final four are the surprising Austria (defeating the USA 2-1 in extra time) and Czech Republic (defeating Euro champs Spain 1-1 (4-3) in penalty shots).

Austrian goal scorer Erwin "Jimmy" Hoffer

Despite the early exit of big name teams (Brazil, Portugal) and total absense of others (England, France, Germany and Italy all failed to qualify), the tournament has been a big success. "In total, 1,008,53 people have attended games so far, at an average of 24,000 per match."

After 90 scoreless minutes, Chile explodes for 4 goals in extra time to defeat Nigeria 4-0 in Montreal in front of 40,000+ fans. Chile has yet to surrender a goal in the tournament and must now be considered a favorite, although tonight's match features two tournament powerhouses, Argentina vs. Mexico, the winter to face Chile in the semis. The other semi will be a weaker matchup, Austria vs. Czech Republic.

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Argentina prevails 1-0, setting up a South American semi-final (Argentina vs. Chile) on Thursday following the European semi-final (Austria vs. Czech Republic) on Wednesday.

The surprise in the semifinal is Austria. Let's see if they can reach the final.

The Chile - Argentina semi here in Toronto tomorrow night should be a classic considering the soccer rivalry of those two neighbouring countries. Both teams have looked brilliant through much of the tournament and I'm fairly certain whoever wins will be overwhelming favourites in Sunday's final.

Argentina outplayed Chile 3-0 to advance as the favorite in Sunday's final. Chile felt they got some bad officiating and there was some yelling (and tears) at the game's end. Chilean goalie Toselli set the U-20 record for longest shutout in the tournament (491 minutes), surpassing Brazilian Taffarel's 484 minutes in 1985.

The Czech Republic previously defeated a listless Austria 2-0 to advance to the final.

The South American teams seem the obvious favorites for the gold and bronze medal matches. Interesting that the final 4 teams came out of only 2 of the original 6 groups, with finalists Argentina and the Czech Repblic both coming from group E, and consolation teams Chile and Austria coming from group A.

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Czechs celebrate:

It actually got VERY ugly at the end of the Chile - Argentina game with police stepping in to keep Chilean players away from the officials after the game. And the officiating was brutal. The German referee fell for every dive - and there were many - that the Argentine players took. And some of his foul calls on Chile were an absolute joke! Argentina were the better team - but their constant acting - as if they had been mortally wounded - everytime a Chilean even brushed them - was an absolute disgrace. Go Czechs Go in the final - as far as I am concerened after witnessing that display by the Argentinians last night.

Unfortunately the way they lost did not sit well with Chile and after the game things got VERY UGLY. The real nastiness started outside the stadium after the game in a battle between Toronto police and the Chilean players and some of their fans. 9 players were temporarily taken into custody and reports are that pepper spray and a tazer were used by police on the Chilean players. A very ugly incident with Chilean diplomatic officials now demanding an investigation into the chaos accusing the Toronto police of over reacting. What a black eye for the event.

Here is a brief excedrpt from the CTV News story posted below.

A reporter with The Canadian Press said he heard people yelling near the Chilean team bus after the game. A scuffle then broke out between four or five people, and quickly escalated. "Next thing you know, the bus just unloads and there's eight, 10 players come off the bus and there's just fists flying everywhere, between the cops, the security guards, a couple of ladies were involved that were security," said reporter Nathan Denette.

"It looked like a big dogfight. People throwing fists and cops with their billyclubs out and then all of a sudden it got out of control." A police officer then used a Taser to subdue one of the people in the melee, though it was unclear if he was a player or an official with the Chilean team. "As soon as that happened, it got even worse," Denette said. Hundreds of angry and chanting fans were kept at a distance, separated by a fence. FIFA and Canadian officials looked on in shock.

Police soon got a handle on the situation, handcuffing team members, many of them bloodied and screaming, and escorting them back into the dressing room where they remained detained for several hours.


http://www.thestar.com/Sports/Soccer/article/238069

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...?hub=TopStories

It is time that FIFA did something about all this diving. Start giving out yellow cards - with the help of video review if necessary - for those guilty of diving. Something has to be done - because last nights game became almost unwatchable - the Argentine antics were that bad.

Can't say that I've been following this tournament much, although I might have gone to a game if Calgary had been chosen as one of the venues. I get the feeling that some Canadians think they are becoming more sophisticated and "worldly" by trying to embrace football, although for me there are other ways to accomplish that (travel, learning languages and just reading the news from other countries). I have nothing against the sport per se and welcome its increasing popularity here, but the constant diving and exaggerated reactions by some of these drama queens is a bit much to take (hockey already has its share of this nonsense too), as was so evident in last year's World Cup. And apparently the Chile-Argentina game a few days ago was rampant with this kind of behaviour, as Travelpat alluded to in his post. As for the ugly incident after the game, the Toronto police need to come clean with exactly what happened and if there were indeed over-reactions by some officers, disciplinary action should be taken. The Chilean government has actually sent a letter of protest to the Canadian government and many Chileans are alleging police brutality. I'm in no way defending the cops in TO, but I do find this reaction in Chile to be rather ironic, considering that country's history of far-worse police/military oppression and brutality as recently as 15-20 years ago. But maybe because Chileans are enjoying a much freer society now, they are particularly sensitive to anything that even vaguely reminds them of the Pinochet era.

Although the Czech Republic scored the first goal of the match (an amazing shot by Fenin with his back to the goal), Argentina struck back 2 minutes later, and scored the winner at the 88th minute to claim the U-20 World Cup title.

Chile defeated Austria 1-0 in the consolation match to take the bronze.
Ar-gen-ti-na!