2025 UEFA European Under-17 Championship/FIFA Under-17 World Cup

[Eirambler]

A little stat, this is our seventh consecutive qualification for the knockout stages of a men's world cup at all levels. Three senior, three Under 20 and now one at Under 17. We've been to nine men's world cups in total, we didn't get out of the groups at the first two (1985 and 1991 Under 20s) but have qualified from every finals group we have been in since then. Not a bad record.

[Razors left peg]

Noonan impresses me every time I see him. His work rate and movement are brilliant

[liamoo11]

2-1. Love the way Noonan directs his headers on goal straight down onto the goal line, it makes them almost impossible to save. To be fair to Solanke he's great going forward, but he's just not a left back.

Solanlke getting absolutely no help from umeh in first half with Umeh playing really high and wide left Solanke needing to fill that midfield left pocket and cover that space he had to leave behind him as well. His midfield put no pressure on the ball for a few of those in behind him diagnols in the first half which really leaves you exposed if your that fullback. Bit like playing behind salah at Liverpool when the midfield press isn't functioning you look poor as a full back whether your trent, Bradley, fringipong or szoboszlai. Second half midfield was more compact with Victor on coming in more narrow .

[tetsujin1979]

Highlights of the Uzbekistan game
wKffha7RtwM

[Eirambler]

Looking already at Round 2 a few big countries are underperforming and there could be a stinker of a draw in the last 32 but only way to do it so go out and win every game. We are lucky we are in the second last batch of group games which will be very useful for knowing what to do.

Fair play to New Caledonia getting a 0-0 with Japan yesterday. Population 271k v 123 Million

Didn't quite work out in the end for New Caledonia. They lost 16-0 to Morocco today.

[elatedscum]

Great to get the win and qualify. Well done to the players and the management team.

I would’ve hoped that referees would have protected young players as a bit more. Umeh was kicked all over the park. So was Noonan. The biggest negatives were the injuries to Grady and Max. If Max was a concussion then I’m not sure when he’ll be allowed to return and if Grady pulled his hamstring or calf, then he’d be lucky to return at all during the tournament.

I did once again feel like we could’ve made a couple of late changes, Ramon Martos was getting really tired and Solanke was too. Finn Sherlock and Goodness Ogbonna seemed like two obvious options.

[ontheotherhand]

Great to get the win and qualify. Well done to the players and the management team.

I would’ve hoped that referees would have protected young players as a bit more. Umeh was kicked all over the park. So was Noonan. The biggest negatives were the injuries to Grady and Max. If Max was a concussion then I’m not sure when he’ll be allowed to return and if Grady pulled his hamstring or calf, then he’d be lucky to return at all during the tournament.

I did once again feel like we could’ve made a couple of late changes, Ramon Martos was getting really tired and Solanke was too. Finn Sherlock and Goodness Ogbonna seemed like two obvious options.

Yeah, O'Briens use of subs is a bit strange. Thought Solanke was getting badly exposed, particularly with Umeh playing so far forward. Tbf Ade popped up with an assist so maybe it was just worth the risk but that's a dangerous game to be playing.

Regardless it hasn't hurt us yet. Fantastic tournament for the lads, although I'm gutted for Michael. The cup win and celebrations were something else. It's such a special day. Seeing the other players out with their families afterwards was lovely. Shame about the timing of it all.

[tetsujin1979]

Few interesting results today, that affect the pairings for the round of 32. Brazil drew 1-1 with Zambia, who were 1-0 up going into the last ten minutes, so both teams finish on seven points. North Korea, who were leading Group G lost to Colombia, and finished third in the group behind Germany and Colombia
This means a win could put us in the top four of the group round, which determines who you play in the round of 32 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_FIFA_U-17_World_Cup#Ranking_of_qualified_teams
We're on six points with games played, level with Group L leaders Austria, who face already eliminated New Zealand, and the USA who are up against the Czech Republic in their final game in Group I.

[Eirambler]

A win against Paraguay will get us a game against a third placed team, which is likely to be the best outcome. There's an element of luck, we could still draw a decent team like the Czechs or Mexico, or North Korea (whose players could be any age, let's be honest), or we could get someone like Morocco, who are only really still involved because they were fortunate enough to get New Caledonia in their group.

[elatedscum]

Hard to know if it’s better to rest players in advance of the knockout stages or to play a stronger team and give yourself a better chance of winning the group / getting the highest seeding possible.

You might want to give the likes of George Moloney, Goodness Ogbonna, Josh Cullen, and Finn Sherlock some good minutes in case they need to step in later in the tournament.

Equally, Noonan, Finneran and Umeh have played a lot with little rest and have been so pivotal for us. You don’t want to ever use them, but also you’d worry how we far without them in the team as with Finneran and Noonan, we don’t have direct replacements and Umeh is just uniquely talented at this point. The other three wingers are all good but you saw how the Uzbekis were triple marking him.

[tetsujin1979]

Team v Paraguay announced
1988222679967822325

[pixiehead]

Interesting last few minutes in Group K, Chile(down to 10 men), chasing a goal to go 2nd.
https://i.imgur.com/usNT8xU.png

Peno awarded to Canada, will push France down to 3rd...
And they missed it.
All over, Chile knocked out.

[pixiehead]

Uzbeks go 1-0 up meaning we are 1 Paraguay goal away from dropping to 2nd sorry (level with Paraguay on GD, GS, Fair Play in H2H games, but ahead in overall goal diffferne
https://i.imgur.com/wMkhroH.png

[Kingdom]

Man, that was a throw-back 5 minutes of helter-skelter football by both sides/

[Kingdom]

Umeh is after killing a great chance outside the box for Ogbonna there.

[Kingdom]

I do not like Paraguay

[tetsujin1979]

I do not like Paraguay

There's playing a physical game, and then there's just kicking the opposition
Uzbekistan 3-0 up in the other game in the group
https://www.fifa.com/en/match-centre/match/102/290184/290185/400020204

[pixiehead]

Group winners;


Currently
8th GW which would place us v North Korea (1st 3rd)

Potentially
9th GW which would place us v Canada (12th 2nd) (predictive, Mali and Burkina Faso should pick up points).

My guess would be we will be 9th best Group Winner after Austria beat New Zealand and then will play last 2nd place team (Canada or Mali, Mali currently because of a Red Card maybe (-7 each) but tight)

Goal Mali, Canada as it stands.

Goal New Zealand! Back to North Korea!

[Razors left peg]

I was listening to a podcast yesterday where they were saying that Man Utd are monitoring 10 players at this u17 World Cup. They have already signed the Columbian Captain Cristian Orozco. I wonder if any Irish lads are on the radar?

Apparently Man Utd have been keeping tabs on Noonan and Vinnie Leonard

https://www.unitedinfocus.com/transfer-news/man-utd-really-impressed-with-record-breaking-irish-wonderkid-michael-noonan/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[geysir]

Ireland u17s at the world cup, a wildly expanded version. I managed to watch the 2nd half of their third group game v Paraguay, where they looked a distinct class above the diving prone unfit gasping Paraguayans. Alas there was no winning goal forthcoming which meant they just missed out on being drawn against a 3rd place team and got Canada in the last 32. That's right, the last 32 at an underage world cup final tournament:rolleyes:


Btw, clubs cannot refuse to release youth players for World/Euro competitive games.

[tetsujin1979]

Ireland u17s at the world cup, a wildly expanded version. I managed to watch the 2nd half of their third group game v Paraguay, where they looked a distinct class above the diving prone unfit gasping Paraguayans. Alas there was no winning goal forthcoming which meant they just missed out on being drawn against a 3rd place team and got Canada in the last 32. That's right, the last 32 at an underage world cup final tournament:rolleyes:


Btw, clubs cannot refuse to release youth players for World/Euro competitive games.
Only if the games are in an international window. Bayern refused to release Lennart Karl, even though he played in the U17 European championships in May
When we played in the U19 Championships in 2019, there was a load of players unavailable because the tournament was held in July and they were in preseason training with their clubs
https://foot.ie/threads/236671-2019-UEFA-European-Under-19-Championship?p=2006381&viewfull=1#post2006381

[liamoo11]

Grady McDonnell should be able to give good insight into Canada presumably he has played with against most of them

[geysir]

Only if the games are in an international window. Bayern refused to release Lennart Karl, even though he played in the U17 European championships in May
When we played in the U19 Championships in 2019, there was a load of players unavailable because the tournament was held in July and they were in preseason training with their clubs
https://foot.ie/threads/236671-2019-UEFA-European-Under-19-Championship?p=2006381&viewfull=1#post2006381

Do you remember the the fuss about Robbie Keane when with Leeds Utd, ireland had the priority to call him up to the 1999 WC Youth finals in Nigeria, very much against Leeds wishes.

[ontheotherhand]

Ireland u17s at the world cup, a wildly expanded version. I managed to watch the 2nd half of their third group game v Paraguay, where they looked a distinct class above the diving prone unfit gasping Paraguayans. Alas there was no winning goal forthcoming which meant they just missed out on being drawn against a 3rd place team and got Canada in the last 32. That's right, the last 32 at an underage world cup final tournament:rolleyes:


Btw, clubs cannot refuse to release youth players for World/Euro competitive games.

As tets mentioned, it depends. They could have for this one.

Colin O’Brien warns of club v country showdown ahead of Ireland’s U17 World Cup campaign https://share.google/UPk5bsbjqo9RpvHZc

[tetsujin1979]

Do you remember the the fuss about Robbie Keane when with Leeds Utd, ireland had the priority to call him up to the 1999 WC Youth finals in Nigeria, very much against Leeds wishes.
The World Youth Championships took place in April 1999 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_FIFA_World_Youth_Championship - Robbie was still with Wolves at the time, he didn't sign for Leeds until 2001

[tetsujin1979]

Breakdown of Finneran's performance
Click on the tweet, there's more in the full version
1988269971974087100

[Bungle]

Apparently Man Utd have been keeping tabs on Noonan and Vinnie Leonard

https://www.unitedinfocus.com/transfer-news/man-utd-really-impressed-with-record-breaking-irish-wonderkid-michael-noonan/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

I have heard Arsenal are in for Noonan off someone in the know from St Pat's. Said it wasn't a done deal to be fair, but he isn't a bull****ter.

[elatedscum]

Breakdown of Finneran's performance
Click on the tweet, there's more in the full version
1988269971974087100

You’d feel more optimistic about the breakdown if they were aware that we played 532 rather than a 433 considering it’s the first line that they write

[geysir]

The World Youth Championships took place in April 1999 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_FIFA_World_Youth_Championship - Robbie was still with Wolves at the time, he didn't sign for Leeds until 2001
Thanks for the vital correction of the name of club. The question was whether there was a fuss or not about Robbie being released for the WC youth finals. Regardless, I see now that its a moot point, as clubs were and are not compelled to release players for intl duty should the games fall outside the Intl window.

It just so happens that these u17 finals have an intl window right in the middle of this tournament (by shrewd design?). A club probably could've refused to release a player for Ireland's first game but the 2nd and 3rd games fell inside the intl window, the player would've had to be released for those 2 games and the round of 32 as well. If a club was going to have to release a player for 2 or 3 games then why put up a major fuss about the first game?

[ontheotherhand]

Thanks for the vital correction of the name of club. The question was whether there was a fuss or not about Robbie being released for the WC youth finals. Regardless, I see now that its a moot point, as clubs were and are not compelled to release players for intl duty should the games fall outside the Intl window.

It just so happens that these u17 finals have an intl window right in the middle of this tournament (by shrewd design?). A club probably could've refused to release a player for Ireland's first game but the 2nd and 3rd games fell inside the intl window, the player would've had to be released for those 2 games and the round of 32 as well. If a club was going to have to release a player for 2 or 3 games then why put up a major fuss about the first game?

O'Neill mentioned a few weeks back that no request was made for any player to sit out any amount of games. Don't think many, bar Noonan, were "needed" by their clubs anyway? The LoI season was over for most of the lads who made up our impressive "senior minutes played" stat.

[elatedscum]

Thanks for the vital correction of the name of club. The question was whether there was a fuss or not about Robbie being released for the WC youth finals. Regardless, I see now that its a moot point, as clubs were and are not compelled to release players for intl duty should the games fall outside the Intl window.

It just so happens that these u17 finals have an intl window right in the middle of this tournament (by shrewd design?). A club probably could've refused to release a player for Ireland's first game but the 2nd and 3rd games fell inside the intl window, the player would've had to be released for those 2 games and the round of 32 as well. If a club was going to have to release a player for 2 or 3 games then why put up a major fuss about the first game?

Not to nitpick but the international window includes the 3rd game, the last 32 and last 16 games. So club could refuse to release a player for the first two group games and then released him for the next three games if the team made it that far

[tetsujin1979]

Max Kovalevskis will probably miss the rest of the tournament with a concussion
https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/soccer/arid-41741334.html

[tetsujin1979]

U17 team announced to play Canada
Switzerland leading Egypt 3-0 at the moment
1989336265314205994

[Kingdom]

Was just gonna say to remind everyone that the next step of the 17s journey is today.

Just in case anyone else (same as myself) cannot see tweets on this wonderful form of media, this is the team:

Republic of Ireland: Alex Noonan; Oisin McDonagh, Vinnie Leonard, Ryan Butler, Ade Solanke; Rory Finneran, Grady McDonnell, Ramon Martos; Jaden Umeh, Victor Ozhianvuna, Michael Noonan

I'm a little surprised that the double-barrelled kid, Kian McMahon-Brown isn't starting. I've been impressed by him in what I've seen.

[Kingdom]

Noonan very nearly opens the scoring with an extremely clever worked free-kick with Leonard. We look dangerous.
Also, they are adopting a very f'king annoying tactic of silly little fouls, all the time, which the ref hasn't clamped down on yet which means the game is stop start.

[joey B]

Great chance for Noonan great pass from McDonnell to set it up…

[Kingdom]

Noonan probably should put us 1-0 up on 13 mins, after an amazing ball through by Grady McDonnell, but the Canuck keeper makes a very good block save, seeing the danger early and closing in on Noonan's shooting space.

[joey B]

Few sloppy moments at the back,need to tighten up that ….

[tetsujin1979]

Switzerland won 3-1 so the winners of ourselves and Canada will face them in the next round

We're getting a little bypassed in midfield

[Kingdom]

we're playing on the same pitch as the other night - and you can see from the drone footage, it's one of two ****e pitches compared to the other 4 pristine pitches.

We're looking a bit stretched at times and it sort of feels like we're a touch leggy - almost as if the game could get away from us. Need to step it up again.

[Kingdom]

Martos should put us 1-0 up on 55 mins - batters a shot from just inside the box directly to the keepers left foot.

For anyone (yeah, right!) wondering what sh't I'm talking about on the pitches, the ball is moving across the pitch the way it would have done on the old style hockey astro pitches, even though they are fully grass. And the ball keeps running away in promising positions. it's maddening

[tetsujin1979]

Argentina with a last minute equaliser against Mexico, looks like it's going to penalties
Argentina won 3 out of 3 in the group stage, Mexico squeezed into the round of 32 with less disciplinary points than Saudi Arabia

[Kingdom]

Noonan! 1-0 66 mins.

The Shamrock Rovers man pounces on a mistake by the retreating Canadian centre half to rob the ball on the edge of the box, advance a touch and smash home the lead.
We could have received a similar fate a few moments earlier which we avoided due to scrambling.

[Kingdom]

Umeh should kill the game there on 76 mins. Incredible chance level with the penalty spot, plenty of time and under no pressure and shoots straight at the keeper. Had to score that one.

[Kingdom]

Noonan is an absolute delight to watch.

[Kingdom]

I cannot express how good a save Alex Noonan has just made to keep us one up.

[tetsujin1979]

Argentina out on penalties, that's a big shock

[Kingdom]

Noonan should probably score there as well after superb work and intricacy from Umeh to square a ball across the 7 yd mark. Side foot cushioned effort scooped high over the bar.

[Kingdom]

********.

Canada equalise with a tame enough volleyed effort from the outside of the box from a long-throw. We defended that poorly to be honest and should have cleared far down the pitch.
5 mins left.

[ontheotherhand]

Ah that's a horrible goal to concede.