U17 Women's World Cup: September 5-25, Trinidad and Tobago

[Vic]

There are 16 teams in the tournament (as many as there are women's teams on the island). Nine spots have been locked down with seven outstanding, but we can get a good handle on some of those.

New Zealand in OFC is a mere formality.

CAF had Egypt, Togo, Congo, Kenya and Sierra Leone pull out and are down to three of the four remaining semi-finalists: Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana and Tunisia. Nigeria play South Africa home and away mid-April and early-May in one semi, with Ghana and Tunisia in the other. The losers playoff for the final spot, and you would think the Nigeria/South Africa loser will handle Tunisia.

Europe is down to four groups of four with the winners going into a final group of four for the three UEFA spots in a similar Bronze Medal consolation for the final World Cup berth. The four groups are:

- Group 1: England, Netherlands, Italy, Serbia

- Group 2: Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, Denamrk

- Group 3: Sweden, Republic of Ireland, Poland, Ukraine

- Group 4: Germany, Norway, Austria, Finland

Money would be on Germany, Sweden and England.

So here's a likely 16, already qualified in caps, with likely candidates in proper case:

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO (Host) *

CANADA (CONCACAF-1) *

MEXICO (CONCACAF-2) *

BRAZIL (CONMEBOL-1) *

CHILE (CONMEBOL-2) *

VENEZUELA (CONMEBOL-3) *

SOUTH KOREA (AFC-1) *

NORTH KOREA (AFC-2) *

JAPAN (AFC-3) *

New Zealand (OFC)

Nigeria (CAF)

Ghana (CAF)

South Africa (CAF)

Germany (UEFA)

England (UEFA)

Sweden (UEFA)

* already qualified

The good news is as CONCACAF Champions we will likely avoid Brazil, South Korea and UEFA-1. Avoiding Brazil, who beat runner-up Chile 7-0 in the South American final is huge. South Korea who won AFC beating North Korea 4-0 in the final tied them 2-2 in group and just got by Japan 1-0 in their semi, so all three teams are of a similar quality with far less of an advantage. The three that go the distance and qualify out of the 40 teams in the UEFA tournament will be very strong, but you would think Germany will likely be the strongest out of Europe and avoiding them is definitely a bonus.

Hosts Trinidad and Tobago left Sunday for a South Korea training camp and games with the AFC Champions.

The draw happens before June 5th.

[Admin]

I have an unused plane ticket to that very country.

Hmmmm.

Guess that is a good reason to go.

[Trillium]

Pretty sure England wont be in the U17 World Cup the FA is still not fully onside with women's development, Look to the third team coming out of group two .. Denmark is my call.

[Vic]

If would be the trip of a lifetime if you went. It would not only be a fantastic experience, the weather would be outstanding and the island will be one big party.

Denmark went down 1-0 to the Irish in group and the Danes only advanced on wildcard and will have a hard time getting past the Swiss (who beat the Italians).

In New Zealand in '08 the English took out a very, very highly skilled Japanese team in the quarters and lost to the Germans in the Bronze match. Early last year they went through a slump but I'm not sure this is the same team and even if it is their program is pretty solid and I would expect them firing on all cylinders. The support of their women's program may not be up to that of their men's, but barring the Germans, Americans and the odd communist country, I doubt any other women's program in the world provides that level of club and country training and resources. Of the 24 in camp earlier this year, seven are from Arsenal, with four Aston Villa, a couple Everton, Chelsea, Reading, Wolverhampton, Leeds, etc. (as well as two quality Americans). They are in the group of death with the Dutch, Italy and the Serbs but whoever comes out should progress to one of the three spots.

[Vic]

The Germans, Spanish and Dutch are all 2-0 in their groups and the Germans and Spanish have already booked their tickets (and in convincing fashion) for the final group of four, from which the top three advance to the U17 World Cup in Trinidad in the Fall.

England can knock out Holland by winning their final game against them tomorrow. A tie or a Dutch win and the Netherlands are in and England is out.

The final group is a day behind and Sweden won easily in their first game but will be kept honest by the Irish.

Germany:

* just a wild guess but shooting high on the German net doesn't look like a great idea.

Holland:

[Vic]

The Dutch send the English packing with a 2-1 win. Trillium wins the prognosticator award for the bold prediction, although his crystal ball is a little glossy for the surprising Spanish side shredding the Danes.

Germany, Spain and Holland are booked for the UEFA finals with the last spot decided by the Sweden/Ireland game Thursday, with Sweden needing only a tie and holding a +7 goal differential advantage. It will be double-elimination from there with all four having two chances to advance to the World Cup.

[Guest Ed]

Mr Blatter will not be happy with those Dutch kits.

[Vic]

There is no law requiring shirts to be tucked in, but many associations advise it (read implement it as their own law of the game). In this case it's pretty non-flattering compared to the un-tucked and tailored length jerseys of their senior women.

[The Ref]

Chile's U17 will be traveling to the U.S. in May to play some friendlies in preparation for Trinidad & Tobago. The team is coached by Ronnie Radonich.

[Martyr]

Pretty sure England wont be in the U17 World Cup the FA is still not fully onside with women's development, Look to the third team coming out of group two .. Denmark is my call.

Sorry this is coming a couple of weeks after this was posted... but I only just noticed it. "the FA is still not fully onside with women's development".

- Senior National Team players on £16000 or so per year.

- Starting up an 8 team professional 'Super League' with the FA directly funding £70000 for each team for the first 2 years.

- 52 Girls FA funded Centres of Excellence run by professional clubs and county FAs nationwide.

- On the back of this there is a robust scouting network for identifying potential international players for U15 to Senior.

Ok. They aren't Germany... but give them some credit!

[Soccer9]

Anyone have some news on what our preparations will be for the U17 WC?

[Vic]

Magic. Trailed for an hour to the Swedes and then a PK and a free kick eight minutes apart and 20 minutes of locking down the back and Ireland steals bragging rights from England. The World Cup will be three of Germany, Spain, Ireland and the Netherlands.

[Jacko]

Anyone have some news on what our preparations will be for the U17 WC?

I am not sure what preperations are in the works but it really won't matter since there is little hope of this team progressing from the first round. The following article beautifully sums up the mindset of the team and coaches.

http://www.winnipegsun.com/sports/soccer/2010/04/03/13458421.html

How the heavens must shook when these girls decided to give up their cell phones the night before the biggest game of their live. What an ultimate and extraordinary sacrafice they made.

What a joke. The coach, if he had any sense would have confiscated them at the start of the tournament.

[Chance]

I am quite sure those girls have made countless sacrifices over the years to get to the level they are at now.Of course the press will pick up on the most "catchy" little piece of it all and make a story out of it.That is what the press does,attract readers and create a response,positive or negative.

Calling it a joke and questioning the coach is plain silly.I mean the man came home with gold...what more do you want !!

[lensois]

Anyone have some news on what our preparations will be for the U17 WC?

Camp coming up in Vaughan May 28-June 6th

[Vic]

That's great, it would be nice to hear of a Summer tour with some of the participants to get the experience under their belts. They could do South America but the quality would be higher in Asia with both Koreas, Japan and the Kiwis.

[Soccer9]

I agree Vic. That would be so much better than just playing US Universities or Local T.O. boys teams....

BTW, Do you know when the draw takes place?

[jasonm]

T&T 2010 draw approaches

(FIFA.com) Friday 16 April 2010

The draw for the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Trinidad and Tobago 2010 will take place at the Hyatt Hotel in Port of Spain on Wednesday, 5 May 2010 at 19.00 (11.00 CET). Franz Beckenbauer, Chairman of the FIFA U20 and U17 Women’s World Cup Committee, Jack Warner President of the Trinidad and Tobago Organising Committee and Tatjana Haenni Head of FIFA Women’s Competitions will be in attendance.

The Draw will determine the fixtures for the group stage of the competition, which will be played in Arima/Malabar, Couva, Marabella and Port of Spain In Trinidad and Scarborough in Tobago, from 5 to 25 September 2010.

9 of the 16 teams participating in the tournament are already known : Trinidad and Tobago who have qualified automatically as the host country; Japan, Korea DPR and Korea Republic (Asian zone); Canada and Mexico (North, Central America and Caribbean zone); Brazil, Chile and Venezuela (South American zone). The African Zone will play their final qualification matches until 28th, 29th or 30th May, the European zone from 22 to 26 June; and Oceania zone from 8 to 16 April.

The Draw ceremony will be preceded by a Press Conference in the Hyatt Hotel (Room Diamond and Topaz) at 18.00 during which the Trinidad and Tobago OC, represented by Jack Warner and Even Pellerud, Head Coach of the U17 Women’s Team, and FIFA representatives, Franz Beckenbauer and Tatjana Haenni, will provide an update on the tournament preparations.

Extensive coverage of the Draw and the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Trinidad and Tobago 2010, as well as general background information on the event (match schedules, results, standings, team profiles and reports), will be available on the tournament’s official website: www.FIFA.com/tri2010.

[Vic]

The May 5 draw will leave four of the teams unknown.

The UEFA semi-finals are June 22 and the final and bronze are June 26 to determine the three spots. The final is 4:30pm and live on Eurosport, which you can usually find on justin.tv. It's in Switzerland which is GMT/UTC +1 (six hours ahead of EST, nine ahead of PCT).

CAF ran their semis a week or so back and the second legs are May2. After that the losers schedule a home-and-away for the final spot.

Ghana 7 - 0 Tunisia

Nigeria 5 - 0 South Africa

So it will be Tunisia or South Africa for the final spot.

New Zealand won the Oceania final beating Tonga 18-0.

SOUTH KOREA

NEW ZEALAND

BRAZIL

[Soccer9]

(From FIFA website)

The official draw for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Trinidad and Tobago took place at the Hyatt Regency .....

hotel in downtown Port of Spain on Wednesday 5 May, throwing up a number of intriguing match-ups for the group stages. The tournament will open with a clash between Trinidad and Tobago and Chile on 5 September at the Hasely Crawford stadium in Port of Spain.

Group A is shaping up as the most competitive of the 16-team competition, which will run from 5 to 25 September, with the hosts, the holders and Chile and Nigeria squaring off. The tournament – only the second world women’s finals in this age category – will take place in Arima/Malabar, Couva, Marabella, Port of Spain (Trinidad) and Scarborough (Tobago). The top two finishers from each group of four will move on to the quarter-finals.

The teams were drawn into the following groups:

Group A: Trinidad and Tobago, Chile, Nigeria, Korea DPR

Group B: UEFA 3, Mexico, CAF 3 (Tunisia or South Africa), Korea Republic

Group C: New Zealand, Venezuela, UEFA 1, Japan

Group D: UEFA 2, Brazil, Canada, Ghana

***********************************************************

I am assuming that UEFA 2 means the finalist in their regional tournament in June. Assuming Germany will take it all, that leaves either Netherlands or Spain in our Group D!

[Sam]

Considering this tournament is taking place in our region any hope we'll get TV coverage. Goltv please?

[Vic]

This is bad. On a scale of 1 to 10 about a 10.

If Ghana win the CAF final over Nigeria you have:

Group A: Host (weak), AFC 2, CONMEBOL 2, CAF 2

Group B: UEFA 3, CONCACAF 2, CAF 3, AFC 1

Group C: OFC 1 (weak), CONMEBOL 3, UEFA 1, AFC 3

Group D: UEFA 2, CONMEBOL 1, CONCACAF 1, CAF 1

In the women's game UEFA, CONMEBOL and CONCACAF are the three strongest confederations!!!!!

- T&T doesn't play a #1.

- Germany gets three of the weakest teams.

- Mexico lost the CONCACAF final and got CAF 3, UEFA 3 and don't have to play Brazil.

Someone should be straight-out fired.

[Vic]

May not be Nigeria in Group A: Official protest.

[18 Yards]

Well done and thank you Vic...you are all over it. So would you call Canada is in the group of death? It seem the Canadain U17 team has some talent, my fingers remain crossed for those ladys.

[Vic]

Not just group of death, it's the worst inequity I've ever seen in a FIFA draw.