2019 youth tournaments

Busy summer for youth football. I really enjoy following the big tournaments to see some new exciting players and a lot of quality games.

Caught two matches of the U17. Italy won 12 matches in a row including France in the semis, but lost to Netherlands in the final 4-2. Don't know any of these players of course but the hype man for Italy was S. Esposito, while the top scorer overall was Aouchiche from France. Netherlands deserved winners in that final.

At the moment the U20 WC is going on, much better level ofc. Watching Argentina-Mali right now on extra time, very nice match. Sadly now Mali are 1-2 down due to an own goal by Diaby. Argentina's striker who also shone in the Sudamericano last year (hat trick vs Venezuela) is a 1.90m CF called Adolfo Gaich "El Fuhrer del gol". Yes this is a real nickname in Argentina that commentators say. He scored his third goal of the tournament tonight.

Winner plays Italy, QFs are in the weekend.

The best youth tournament by far for european teams is imo the U21 Euro. Last one (2017) was great. I remember posting about Ceballos, Lobotka & Skriniar, Bernardeschi, etc. This edition starts in 2 weeks.

Mali through, Boubacar scored at the very end of the 2nd ET.

5 penalties scored by 5 regens
Boubacar
Diaby
Sissoko
Koita
Traore
Drame

didnt catch the whole match but from what i saw,Sékou Koïta was impressive for Mali

Meanwhile Spain are winning against Italy (Euro Under 21 tournament, so quite interesting )
Ceballos has just scored
It's played in Bologna

Robespierre wrote:Meanwhile Spain are winning against Italy (Euro Under 21 tournament, so quite interesting )
Ceballos has just scored
It's played in Bologna

Damn. Thanks for posting, I almost missed this game.

U21 Euros are very interesting, last German win of the tournament was very surprising, and impressive.
I remember how much I liked Pellegrini then.

Much more interesting than the Women's WC to me, personally.

Also remembering how good Ceballos was already 2 years ago, incredible how Real bought him just to ruin him.
Unbelievable that this talent doesn't get to actually play. He needs to get out of Real ASAP.

Ceballos hasn't been ruined. He's still great every time he plays. Zidane just prefers more the more technical and pleasing-to-watch players like Vazquez and Casemiro etc.

Great goal Chiesa

Mancini looks amazing

but then I remember also last time around another Italian kid defender looked amazing, he went to Juve and that was the last aynone heard of him.. was it Caldana?

3-1
I never could imagine it after first 20 minutes

Hapless_Hans wrote:Mancini looks amazing

but then I remember also last time around another Italian kid defender looked amazing, he went to Juve and that was the last aynone heard of him.. was it Caldana?

Caldara, he went straight to Milan. Looks great but got a season ending injury so we will see him again next season.

Mancini is (like Caldara before him) the CB of Atalanta. Next in line for the NT defense after Romagnoli probably.

Hapless_Hans wrote:Mancini looks amazing

but then I remember also last time around another Italian kid defender looked amazing, he went to Juve and that was the last aynone heard of him.. was it Caldana?

ye mancini looks calm and good.
u mean caldara .. if ur referring to him ye he was in Atalanta and was really good and juve bought him spend a year with atalanta and came back but juve and milan made a deal to have bonucci return back to juve with higuian and caldara going the other way.. if im not mistaken

chiesa looks so legit! the speed omg its blazing .. spain couldnt even counterattack at one point he just ran all the way back to get the ball lol

Robespierre wrote:3-1
I never could imagine it after first 20 minutes

Feels great to destroy Spain. Excellent looking generation finally.

Hapless_Hans wrote:Also remembering how good Ceballos was already 2 years ago, incredible how Real bought him just to ruin him.
Unbelievable that this talent doesn't get to actually play. He needs to get out of Real ASAP.

I remember us chatting here during the Italy-Spain match when Ceballos ran the show. I said then that Madrid was a mistake. Too much talent to be sitting on the bench for a whole season.

this italy u21 looks really good but im worried about zaniolo hopefully he is not badly injured

rincon wrote:

Robespierre wrote:3-1
I never could imagine it after first 20 minutes

Feels great to destroy Spain. Excellent looking generation finally.

Hapless_Hans wrote:Also remembering how good Ceballos was already 2 years ago, incredible how Real bought him just to ruin him.
Unbelievable that this talent doesn't get to actually play. He needs to get out of Real ASAP.

I remember us chatting here during the Italy-Spain match when Ceballos ran the show. I said then that Madrid was a mistake. Too much talent to be sitting on the bench for a whole season.

ye i agree with the amazing ball control he has ... he looks more of a barca type player than madrid tbh XD

Oh right it's the one Juve gave away to get back Bonucci

Let's be honest, Juve's squad strategy has been absolutely horrible in recent years, is it to do with Marotta leaving?

Hapless_Hans wrote:Oh right it's the one Juve gave away to get back Bonucci

Let's be honest, Juve's squad strategy has been absolutely horrible in recent years, is it to do with Marotta leaving?

i cant speak for juve fans for i am milan fan but their sporting decisions are made right to the top of hierarchy along marotta nedved Andrea Agnelli maybe then they saw that they didnt have any defensive concerns...

Was it that the Italy U21 CB pairing two years ago was Rugani and Caldara?

That's why I was so puzzled that Jjuve got rid of the other one so effortlessly

In recent years Juve's squad strategy built a CL finalist team that has won consecutive scudettos so no, if we are being honest it has been great. It also got us a bunch of young players to ensure smooth transitions, and a Ronaldo.

Every deal we made in recent years was sanctioned by Marotta. This is the first summer with Paratici as boss.

Hapless_Hans wrote:Was it that the Italy U21 CB pairing two years ago was Rugani and Caldara?

That's why I was so puzzled that Jjuve got rid of the other one so effortlessly

Yes that was the pairing. We had Chiellini, Benatia, Barzagli and Rugani, and had the opportunity to bring Bonucci back. So they gave Caldara to Milan as part of the Higuain/Bonucci deal. Hopefully it was a correct bet.

rincon wrote:

Hapless_Hans wrote:Was it that the Italy U21 CB pairing two years ago was Rugani and Caldara?

That's why I was so puzzled that Jjuve got rid of the other one so effortlessly

Yes that was the pairing. We had Chiellini, Benatia, Barzagli and Rugani, and had the opportunity to bring Bonucci back. So they gave Caldara to Milan as part of the Higuain/Bonucci deal. Hopefully it was a correct bet.

^ and caldara at milan has been injured almost the whole season.. first half of the season gattuso said like he didnt want to put too much pressure on caldara.

next season it could change because, milan has been getting rid of old players. paolo seems to rate caldara really high and speaks high of him and under new manager this could change though
caldara is legit though

Jovic killing a promising counter for Serbia. Confirmed scrub.

edit: Now Austria hits the post, then another player scores from the rebound. 0-1

Oh dear

Choudhury with a completely over the top leg breaker tackle in England's box

penalty

and a red card?

Yep. Sent off. Bamba has to be stretchered off

Aouar sends the pen against the post

France can't convert the second penalty in this game, still 1:0 England