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U-19 Uefa Championships Semifnals [R]


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Does anyone know if they'll be showing the U-19 Uefa semi finals anywhere on TV today?? Serbia-Montenegro vs. England and France vs. Germany are the games. I know all the matches are being shown on Eurosport tv but I don't know of any establishments that carry Eurosport tv.

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England into European U-19 final

Matt Fryatt scored all three goals for England Under-19s

A hat-trick from Walsall's Matt Fryatt gave England a 3-1 win over Serbia and Montenegro in the semi-finals of the European Under-19 Championship.

Fryatt scored the opener on 18 minutes at Lurgan and made it 2-0 with the game entering the final 10 minutes.

An 86th minute strike from Marinkovic set up an exciting finish but Fryatt pounced in stoppage-time to settle it.

England opponents in Friday's final will be France or Germany who meet on Tuesday at Ballymena (1930 BST).

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Its the UEFA U-21's that are taken more seriously. All qualifying matches coincide with World Cup Qualifyers, or Euro qualifyers, depending on the cycle. The U-19 tournament is a lesser tournament that isn't followed as much.

The U-21's are used to determine Olympic qualifying teams and the U-19's are used to decide WYC qualifying teams.

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Analyst raises an excellent point, since every other year the UEFA U-19 championship provides the qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 World Cup, however in England (and I can only speak about what I really know here) the attitude/approach to the International U-20's is simply a matter of pragmatism with respect to the demands of the professional game.

A prime example of this is that on a windy night in Sportui Park, Celje, Slovenia on April 28 2004, England lost 2-1 to Slovenia in UEFA (U-19) qualifying. This result effectively meant that Ukraine (who were in their qualifying group but did not beat England and fared better vs Slovenia)) qualified at their expense for the UEFA championship and automatically gained one of the 6 European spots for the FIFA World Cup (Holland bagged a 7th as hosts of course).

Now it could be argued that England didn't take that game very seriously or alternatively England are just not as good as they think, however they did the best with the following available players: Turnbull (goal), Giddings, Gardner, Raven, Proffitt, Brown, Jarvis, Long, Blackstock, Sankofa and Ifil.

Whilst promising, not exactly a sparkling lineup, HOWEVER, would Alex Ferguson have released Wayne Rooney (who was eligible) for that game at the end of April in a domestic EPL season? (NOT LIKELY!).

In fact, theoretically England could have fielded an 11 eligible for the recent U-20 WC at that age group in the April Slovenia qualifier who had all had Premiership experience (many full international sides could not do that for instance).

So it all boils down to pragmatics, players such as Christiano Ronaldo [Portugal], Rooney, Bradley Wright Phillips, James Milner, Wayne Routledge, Lukas Podoslki [Germany] etc., are all established (or close to it) 1st team squad professionals by the age of 19 who are NOT going to get released in April to go and play a youth international qualifier.

The English FA do take the youth internationals seriously, but their hands are tied by their professional clubs and lets face it the EPL lowest age scoring record keeps dropping (Jimmy Vaughan, 16, of Everton now the holder I believe).

For these reasons the U-20 WYC will always be missing top U-20 players from Europe. After all in stark contrast to the World Cup itself, the FIFA U-20 WYC has 6 slots for UEFA, 4 for Asia, 4 for CONCACAF, 4 for CONMEBOL, 4 for Africa, 1 Oceania plus the hosts. For the U-20 WYC in 2007 there will be 5 teams from CONCACAF for instance, including Canada, i.e. only one less than UEFA.

I suspect that top European countries who don't push their younger players through to the top club teams quite so aggressively or desperately perhaps in some instances (arguably Spain?) are more likely to be able to field stronger teams in UEFA qualifying and thus be seen to take the U-20's more seriously.

The South Americans tend to hold on to their younger prospects until 20 or so before the top ones head for Europe in droves.

Finally, even had England qualified for the last WYC I actually doubt Wayne Rooney would have come in at the last moment as Ferguson is a strong believer in rest and recuperation during the off season (he was not present for the Toulon U-20 tournament for instance). The latter tourny was a kind of consolation event for teams like France, Portugal and England to compete in instead of the WYC.

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quote:Originally posted by Ashton Gate

Or will the 2003 World Cup do? (since Nedved actually didn't specify which sport)

I APOLIGISE. I should have said, At any international tournament in Soccer has England been victorous sine 1966.
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quote:Originally posted by Ashton Gate

Or will the 2003 World Cup do? (since Nedved actually didn't specify which sport)

I APOLIGISE. I should have said, At any international tournament in Soccer has England been victorous sine 1966.
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