U17 EC QF: ENG & ITA KO; FRA, SRB & SPA qualify

Holland won their group & was the first team to qualify for the finals.



Ireland won their group too



even better they knocked out Portugal



and Germany



Groups to be played (until March 31st):

2: Swi, Cro, Bel, Den
3: Eng, Isr, Fra, Rus
4: Svk, Cze, Ser, Swe
5: Sco, Wal, Svn, N-I
6: Ita, Spa, Aus, Rom

Whatever happened to the great German conveyer belt of talent?

the Bojan identity wrote:Whatever happened to the great German conveyer belt of talent?

The players who won the game for Holland (against Hungary) were: Geoffrey Castillion and Rodney Sneijder

both from the Ajax conveyor belt of talent

Holland U17 starting line up:

3 Ajax players, 2 PSV players, 5 Feyenoord players & 1 player Chelski robbed from Feyenoord.

Jeroen Zoet (PSV), Tim Eekman (Feyenoord), Imad Najah (PSV), Jeffrey Bruma (Chelsea), Lorenzo Burnet (Ajax), Ricky van Haaren (Feyenoord), Rajiv van la Parra (Feyenoord), Jordy Clasie (Feyenoord), Geoffrey Castillion (Ajax), Rodney Sneijder (Ajax), Jerson Cabral (Feyenoord).

The biggest conveyor belt is in Rotterdam.

@ De Guzman

Yes we acknowledge the Rotterdam conveyer belt of talent

Your views on Castillion & R. Sneijder

the Bojan identity wrote:@ De Guzman

Yes we acknowledge the Rotterdam conveyer belt of talent

Your views on Castillion & R. Sneijder

None, seen too little of them. How tall is Midgetinho?

De Guzman wrote:

the Bojan identity wrote:@ De Guzman

Yes we acknowledge the Rotterdam conveyer belt of talent

Your views on Castillion & R. Sneijder

None, seen too little of them. How tall is Midgetinho?

He’s the average height of his age. My cousin who follows the youth football, tells me he will be better than the original Sneijderman

Castillion I will warn you will be the new Kluivert.

How is Jeffrey Bruma doing at Chelski

La Parra is robbed as well....by the giants of Caen...

But still...we produce the REAL deal

Juligen wrote:

the Bojan identity wrote:Whatever happened to the great German conveyer belt of talent?

What the hell is going on though : we used to be completely Cr@p at all those U-something thingies...

And you used to make a big impact at the senior tournements instead. How times change

Allez les rouges wrote:And you used to make a big impact at the senior tournements instead. How times change

Germany still has the best U-19 though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unterseeboot_19_%281936%29

Scotland have won their first 2 matches in group 5 & only need a draw v Slovenia who trail them by 2 points.

Remaining qualification fixtures:

21/03 Grp 2 Switzerland 15:00 Denmark
21/03 Grp 2 Belgium 15:00 Croatia
22/03 Grp 5 Wales 20:30 Northern Ireland
22/03 Grp 5 Slovenia 20:30 Scotland
24/03 Grp 2 Croatia 15:00 Switzerland
24/03 Grp 2 Denmark 15:00 Belgium
25/03 Grp 3 England 16:00 France
25/03 Grp 3 Israel 16:00 Russia
26/03 Grp 6 Spain 11:00 Romania
26/03 Grp 6 Italy 13:00 Austria
26/03 Grp 4 Slovakia 14:30 Serbia
26/03 Grp 4 Czech Republic 14:30 Sweden
27/03 Grp 3 England 16:00 Russia
27/03 Grp 3 France 16:00 Israel
28/03 Grp 6 Austria 11:00 Spain
28/03 Grp 6 Italy 13:00 Romania
28/03 Grp 4 Slovakia 14:30 Sweden
28/03 Grp 4 Serbia 14:30 Czech Republic
30/03 Grp 3 Israel 16:00 England
30/03 Grp 3 Russia 16:00 France
31/03 Grp 6 Spain 13:00 Italy
31/03 Grp 6 Romania 13:00 Austria
31/03 Grp 4 Czech Republic 15:30 Slovakia
31/03 Grp 4 Sweden 15:30 Serbia

Stuivenberg's faith reaps reward

Albert Stuivenberg has coached the Netherlands to their second consecutive UEFA European Under-17 Championship finals – and the celebrations in Apeldoorn were sparked by a tannoy announcement.

Progress confirmed

Going into the final day of Elite round Group 7, not only did the Dutch mini-tournament hosts need to beat Hungary, but they also needed leaders Bosnia-Herzegovina to fail to win against Norway. Stuivenberg's side, who lost 1-0 to Bosnia-Herzegovina on Matchday 1 before recovering to defeat Norway, kept up their end of the bargain with a 2-0 victory. Then came the announcement over the Sportpark Orderbos PA system: "Bosnia-Herzegovina have lost, the Oranje will go to the European Championship."

'Kept faith'

Stuivenberg already knew what had happened. "On the bench we were kept up to date with the situation in the other match," he said. "When we heard that Norway had a 2-0 lead, we knew almost for certain it could not go wrong. I always kept the faith. As long as there is a chance, you have to go for it. That we qualified is of course fantastic."

Improvement

Having just missed out on the semi-finals a year ago in Belgium, Stuivenberg will aim to improve on that in this year's tournament in Turkey in the first two weeks of May, and will discover their group stage opposition on 3 April. The coach is delighted with how his side bounced back from the Matchday 1 setback, saying: "The boys deserve a huge compliment. They dealt with the disappointment of the opening loss in a great way, and played well against Norway and Hungary. Now we will play against the best nations of Europe. That will only make these players better."

Meanwhile the Scots have qualified too. They'll join hosts Turkey and Ireland & Holland, who have already qualified. Croatia is odds on fav to claim the 5th spot; today they only need a draw v the Swiss to win their group.

That leaves groups 3,4 & 6 to be played/decided.

3: Eng, Isr, Fra, Rus
4: Svk, Cze, Ser, Swe
6: Ita, Spa, Aus, Rom

25/03 Grp 3 England 16:00 France
25/03 Grp 3 Israel 16:00 Russia
26/03 Grp 6 Spain 11:00 Romania
26/03 Grp 6 Italy 13:00 Austria
26/03 Grp 4 Slovakia 14:30 Serbia
26/03 Grp 4 Czech Republic 14:30 Sweden
27/03 Grp 3 England 16:00 Russia
27/03 Grp 3 France 16:00 Israel
28/03 Grp 6 Austria 11:00 Spain
28/03 Grp 6 Italy 13:00 Romania
28/03 Grp 4 Slovakia 14:30 Sweden
28/03 Grp 4 Serbia 14:30 Czech Republic
30/03 Grp 3 Israel 16:00 England
30/03 Grp 3 Russia 16:00 France
31/03 Grp 6 Spain 13:00 Italy
31/03 Grp 6 Romania 13:00 Austria
31/03 Grp 4 Czech Republic 15:30 Slovakia
31/03 Grp 4 Sweden 15:30 Serbia

Portugal & Germany have already been knocked out; Wonder which big nations from group 3 & 6 will follow.

The Swiss U17s beat Croatia U17 on homesoil 0-1 (match couldn't be played yesterday because of poor weather) & join Ireland, Scotland, Holland & hosts Turkey for the U17 EC 2008.

Group 3 (played in Israel):

France U17 v England U17 1-1
Israel U17 - Russia U17 3-1

England 1-1 France
58' Rodwell 1-0 78' Mezui 78 1-1


UEFA U17 Elite Round Tournament
Tuesday 25 March 2008
Rishon Le Zion, Tel Avi


England were just two minutes away from a crucial opening win in the Elite Round Tournament on Tuesday.

The young Lions looked set for a victory over France after Jack Rodwell's 58th minute goal but were left to rue a number of missed chances when Mfa Mezui scored courtesy of a wicked deflection.

"I'm philosophical," said U17 Head Coach John Peacock.

"It's the best this age group has played against France in three matches - we had some really good chances. We went 1-0 up and deserved our lead but unfortunately conceded a deflected goal two minutes from time."

Tottenham midfielder Dean Parrett squandered two openings, one a lob which drifted over the bar and another shot that went wide, while strikers Ryan Donaldson and Nathan Delfouneso of Newcastle and Aston Villa respectively also went close.

"If we had taken our chances and made it 2-0 then that would have been three points," said Peacock. "But I'm pleased with the way the lads played and how they approached the game."

Although the draw meant England's run of six clean sheets came to an end, Peacock had nothing but praise for the defence.

"In terms of defence, their discipline was superb," he added. "All the lads have done well. We passed it well and we will look at it as one point gained. It's important not to lose your first game."

In the other game which took place today, hosts Israel beat Russia 3-1 to take an early lead in the group. England meet Russia on Thursday.

"This was always going to be a tough group," insisted the England Head Coach. "It will go down to the wire."

England: Wesley Foderingham (Fulham), Chris Solly (Charlton), Luke O'Neill (Leicester City), Jack Rodwell (Everton), Matthew Briggs (Fulham), Dean Parrett (Tottenham Hotspur), Matty James (Manchester United), Jordan Mutch (Birmingham City), Harry Forrester (Aston Villa, Jacob Mellis, Chelsea, 75 mins), Ryan Donaldson (Newcastle, Nathan Delfouneso, Aston Villa, 79 mins), Jack Wilshere (Arsenal).

Subs: Declan Rudd (Norwich City), Kyle Bartley (Arsenal), Ben Gordon (Chelsea), John Bostock (Crystal Palace), Cameron Stewart (Manchester United).

interesting the difference in clubs the players are from between Holland and England - Dutch team pretty much all PSV, Ajax, Feyernoord, England has just a couple each from Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal in the whole squad, and quite a few from outside the premiership

do all the youngsters get taken by the biggest clubs from very young in Holland?

it might be more a sign that the big clubs in England are filling their academies with foreign imports.

debaser wrote:interesting the difference in clubs the players are from between Holland and England - Dutch team pretty much all PSV, Ajax, Feyernoord, England has just a couple each from Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal in the whole squad, and quite a few from outside the premiership

do all the youngsters get taken by the biggest clubs from very young in Holland?

it might be more a sign that the big clubs in England are filling their academies with foreign imports.

Well if you look at the U21 team that has players from all kind of teams. But its true that these three teams take up a lot of players from other academys

But lots of teams dont even have a serious youth academy Roda or Heerenveen for example. In the past it was only the c**ts who had a serious one, but these days Feyenoord has the best academy

An other reason that young players decide to play for these teams is that Holland is a small country, so they get paid more while playing for these big teams and can stay with their parents. In england thats different.

Italy U-17 squad:

Goalkeepers: Colombi (Atalanta), Perucchini (Milan);

Defenders: Brosco (Roma), Vecchi (Parma), Caldirola (Inter), Faraoni (Lazio), Albertazzi (Milan), Galassi (Parma);

Midfielders: Soriano (Bayern Monaco), Petrucci (Roma), Taddei (Fiorentina), Sala (Chelsea), Santon (Inter), Bertolacci (Roma);

Forwards: Destro (Inter), Ragatzu (Cagliari), D’Alessandro (Roma), Libertazzi (Juventus).

Axeslammer wrote:

Fey wrote:In the past it was only the c**ts and Go Ahead Eagles who had a serious one, but these days FeyenoordFC Groningen has the best academy

I can think of Nijland and ...?

Sparta has: Emnes, Toet, Boukhari, Falkenburg, Strootman who make regular contribution to the first team.

Well if you see Groningen as the youth academy of Ajax...then he is probably right.

Since 1888 wrote:

Axeslammer wrote:

Fey wrote:In the past it was only the c**ts and Go Ahead Eagles who had a serious one, but these days FeyenoordFC Groningen has the best academy

I can think of Nijland and ...?

Nijland, Hiariej and Metaj are all from our academy and made the step from A-youth to first squad start of this season :

So far : Hiariej 17 caps, Nijland 19 caps, Metaj 21 caps

Hiariej is even keeping De Roover out of the RB position and Nijland would have gotten more caps if he wouldn't have been injured...

Since 1888 wrote:
Sparta has: Emnes, Toet, Boukhari, Falkenburg, Strootman who make regular contribution to the first team.

(Boukhari is a bit old to be called a talent)

That list looks more than decent to me

Clergymen Superstains wrote:Well if you see Groningen as the youth academy of Ajax...then he is probably right.

Your academy is so good that you have to play Michael Mols

Well if the coach HATEs to bring youth players what can you do eh? Its not like we dont have them

Bringing on the son of the chairman on the other hand...is a very dodgy case!

I think I saw deRoover playing the last few times, is Hiariej injured or does deRoover plays in midfield?

Boukhari is no talent (but a brilliant player, has your opinion changed about him?) but still a youth product.
Our best talents were Emnes and Zaalman, but Zaalman has stagnated a lot. And Emnes is just fucking ace.

Has Metaj or Hiariej a call up for the Jong Oranje squad?

To finish things.
EMNES FOR ORANJE.