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U20 Qualifying Groups Announced


Keegan

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And wow, we got the best group by far...

Groups for CONCACAF U20s

A: USA, Costa Rica, Haiti

B: Canada, Nicaragua, Cuba

C: Jamaica, Panama, Puerto Rico

D: Mexico, El Salvador, Curacao

Obviously we'll have to play one of the 2nd place teams if we finish first to qualify. So either Costa Rica, Jamaica or El Salvador look likely...

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So do 8 teams qualify from the group stage. If we make it past group stage would we be playing teams from group A?

I don't think that hasn't been announced yet. Mexico is the host so I'd guess they would play the 2nd place team from our group for a nice qualifying fiesta. Hopefully that would leave us with El Salvador who would be my pick to play.

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I dunno how I would feel about ES. I would almost be more inclined to favor a match up against Jamaica. They don't appear to be strong at the youth levels as they are in the senior side (probably due to capping brits). Also, I can imagine a lot of ES players at the U20 level are now starting to get minutes in their domestic league (or are on the verge), which is stronger than the domestic league of Jamaica.

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From http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/11/21/concacaf-u-20s-usa-canada-learn-group-stage-opponents looks like group B will cross over with group A, meaning we have to take out the US or Costa Rica in the quarterfinals. Won't be easy and we can't be lulled into a false sense of security by scraping past our group opponents.

Ouch. Costa Rica has been really good in the past 2 U20 World Cups, they made the semis in 2009 and the round of 16 in 2011.

With that said we have been getting results pretty consistently against them with our youth teams in recent years. Let's hope that continues.

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How many teams qualify? Costa Rica is probably the 3rd worst team to have to face in the knockout stages, they have a domestic league and seem to be producing good young players. Thats a general comment obviously though, and I know nothing of the relative strength of a CR squad right now, either way I feel pretty good about this group of players for us, with the u-17 experience and all the academy players and talents we should be in every game even vs a team like Mexico.

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Back in July in Panama's final qualifying game for the 2013 CONCACAF U-20 Champs in Guatemala against Guatemala, a fight happened at the end which resulted in 18 players getting a combined total of 94 games banned. 3 Guatemalans got banned for 12 games, 7 Panamanians and 1 Guatemalan got 6 games, 1 Panamanian and 2 Guatemalans got 2 games and 3 Panamanians and 1 Guatemalan got a single game.

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Last December our U18's (93's) went down to CR and won 2-0 and drew the other game if my memory is correct. No idea what kind of squad we faced.

CR won their qualifying group by defeating Nicaragua 3-2 and then drawing hosts Honduras 0-0. Nicaragua defeated Honduras 1-0 to finish second. FWIW that Honduran team would have been missing Andy Najar and Anthony Lozcano and comprised partly of their underwhelming 94's that didn't qualify for the U17's .

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Last December our U18's (93's) went down to CR and won 2-0 and drew the other game if my memory is correct. No idea what kind of squad we faced.

CR won their qualifying group by defeating Nicaragua 3-2 and then drawing hosts Honduras 0-0. Nicaragua defeated Honduras 1-0 to finish second. FWIW that Honduran team would have been missing Andy Najar and Anthony Lozcano and comprised partly of their underwhelming 94's that didn't qualify for the U17's .

The U18 team last year was actually 95s and below IIRC.

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