U-17 World Cup update

Round of 16
Spain 3-0 North Korea
Tunisia 1-3 France (OT)
Peru (PK's) 1-1 Tajikistan
Ghana 1-0 Brazil

Argentina 2-0 Costa Rica
Nigeria 2-1 Colombia
England 3-1 Syria
Germany 2-1 USA

I watched USA's match with Germany. The American youngsters are typical of how the USA national team used to be: mediocre skills up front, no creativity in the midfield and a defense capable of stiffening when need be but utterly useless at transitioning to counter attack. I sure hope they improve, they're the future of American soccer.

This was a predictable outcome, the American kids are all fine athletes, they're good runners, but the German kids are soccer players and it was just a matter of time before they put it in the back of the net. Not to say that Germany was overly impressive, I kept waiting for a playmaker to emerge from the midfield and he never appeared. Their scorer, Sukuta-Pasu, had some skills but he was really the only one on the team that stood out, which is surprising. I would expect German teens to be as good as anyone in the world and, while they were better than the Americans, it wasn't a thrashing by any means. USA did scrounge together a goal, a nice unexpected poke by Mykal Bates in extra time. But it was too late, as USA had just surrendered a 2nd goal (nice finish by Sukuta-Pasu but it was horrible defense that led to the score).

I thought the ref and the linemen had pretty poor performances; they didn't particularly favor one side over the other, but they were overly sensitive at times and then let them beat the crap out of each other at others. One unfortunate blown call: just before halftime an American was absolutely plowed in the box, a clear penalty call which would've given USA their best chance all day. I'm not sure why the ref didn't blow the whistle. It looked like a foul live but, man, on the replay it was an easy call, a brutal hit from behind. Oh well.

Round of 8
Saturday, Sep. 1
Spain-France
Peru-Ghana

Sunday, Sep. 2
Argentina-Nigeria
England-Germany

There are some good looking match-ups there. I have no real perspective from which to judge but just for my own amusement I'll take Spain, Peru, Argentina and England. We'll see.