2012 U-20 World Cup

[Vic]

2012 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup

Host: Japan

Date: August 18 - September 9

Matches: 32

Five venues: Hiroshima, Kobe, Miyagi, Saitama and Tokyo

Tournament ambassadors: Miyama and Sawa

The draw was yesteday. Group D has the Americans AND Germans who hold four of five U20 titles. Ouch.

Canada is in Group C:

Argentina

Canada

North Korea

Norway

We are cognisant that there is not much difference in the strength of the participating teams in youth football. The first game will always be tough, regardless of the opponent. At present our women’s national team and U-20s are training together.

Kang Hong Ri, Korea DPR Deputy Secretary General

We are fairly familiar with our opponents based on research, but have no experience of playing against them. Our toughest opponent should be Korea DPR.

Andrew Olivieri, Canada coach

All groups are tough groups in the final tournament. We played Korea DPR in 2008, they have been doing well in many tournaments. Canada are a well organised team and physically tough.

Jarl Erik Torske, Norway coach

Our toughest opponents are likely to be Norway. Our team is training everyday and planning domestic and international matches.

Salvador Stumbo, Argentina coach

North Korea were runners-up in 2010. No one ever has an idea how old the North Koreans are. Because of their women's league and funding Norway has great youth programs and a lot of players to choose from like Melissa Bjånesøy who scored in all matches and was the top scorer at last summer's European U19 championship. They also have a very good and experienced coach in Torske.

Argentina had José Carlos Borrello begin training with 28 players April 20th. Three girls from River Plate made the roster, shown here with Daniel Passarella, their club President. Perhaps he is more recognizable from the second picture when as captain he received an interesting object in 1978.

Argentina will one day be a superpower in women's soccer.

http://goalsforgirlsthemovie.org

[Vic]

Does anyone have any insight on Andrew Olivieri? Who appointed him, the word on the street in Montreal, etc. Seems odd a guy who started coaching a couple of years ago and was a goalkeeper coach is all of a sudden the U20 head. Strange Wikipedia coaching bio for a national team coach:

[h=2]Coaching career[/h]Olivieri was named as the Head Coach from Lakers du Lac St-Louis in 2008

[Soccer9]

He was called to join Herdman's coaching staff when Herdman came on board (as GK coach). He was liked, and the rest is history....

More importantly, Our U20's had bascially one prep camp before CONCACAF qualifying. They have not had anything since they qualified back in Feb. The end-May camp that was scheduled was cancelled due to budget issues apparently (...guess our senior team is getting all the funds). From what I hear the next camp will be in early July. The team will then probably leave 1-2 weeks early prior to the WC, and, thats it for preparations!

We love making our lives difficult. We need to get away from concentrating only on one team in a given year. Even the U17s are getting a better prep. for the U17WC.

P.S. Argentina coach saying Norway will be their toughest opponent.. hmmm? Dont agree.

[Vic]

If it was Herdman then if we get results with Olivieri he's a genius, if we don't it goes down as a question mark.

Between their national team and league infrastructure Norway have one of the best women's youth development systems in the world. At U19 last year they lost to Germany 8-1, but it was in the European final and you don't get there without savvy. They will be full measure.

Unfortunate to hear about the cancelled camp as it would have been really good timing for the tournament. We have some good U20s, hope they gel and find some luck. That said Norway won't be Argentina's toughest opponent. North Korea will.