Just back from injury isn't he? But kovalevskis and Noonan have looked more dangerous for Rovers too tbh. Victor looked bright in some early season cameos.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kingdom
Just back from injury isn't he? But kovalevskis and Noonan have looked more dangerous for Rovers too tbh. Victor looked bright in some early season cameos.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kingdom
That, I do not know.Quote:
Originally Posted by ontheotherhand
Noonan was very impressive until the side got filleted with subs. I'd have zero concerns. Some of his work roving deeper in the first half was exquisite.Quote:
But kovalevskis and Noonan have looked more dangerous for Rovers too tbh.
He's been out for Rovers anyway. Think he got injured while with the u17s.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kingdom
Ah Noonans just great to watch isn't he? So intelligent and hard working. Some really impressive players out there though. Great start to the tournament.
Uzbekistan won 2-1 in the other game in the group, Paraguay scoring a late penalty.
He absolutely is. I know that Crawford gets plenty of (deserved) criticism with the 21s, but I thought how he utilised Noonan (in the context of Melia) was very smart. They tired Andorra and that gave Noonan the scope to attack them when introduced and that's how the goal came about. Melia was the main man, and rightly so.Quote:
Originally Posted by ontheotherhand
Here, Noonan is the main man (rightly so) but it didn't appear as any kind of stone around his neck, he clearly thrived on it. And the proof of the pudding is in the eating as an old mentor used to say to us - goals for Rovers in Europe and now goals for Ireland at U21 level and at an U17 world cup. An inch lower and he'd have had a contender for goal of the touranment in the first match.
Knock on effect of not taking another striker (Billy O'Neill first name on the list followed by Shay Reid, Sam Rooney, Cillian Tollett, Charles Akintintayo, Chris Idah and Ben Mahon). If he were to pick up an injury, I'd say either McMahon Browne or Umeh would be pushed up front.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eirambler
I do think for such a large tournament with potentially 8 games in 22 days, they should allow an extra 2 members of the squad so you can have a full change of players. 21 including 3 keepers is at least one man short of what you'd want.
Highlights of the game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBml2oIeBrg
(embedding is disabled for the video)
Other game highlights. Uzbekistan look handy in these limited highlights, certainly know how to finish.Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8agAF3S1Qg
Couple of other results of note, Germany as holders (for whatever thats worth in underage football) held 1-1 bu Columbia and England hammered 3-0 by Venezuela. Who knew New Caledonia had a side that could qualify for any world cup level.
similarly i live in the south inner city and work in the north inner city. to me it's mental that there isn't a single 11 a side pitch in Dublin 8 - thank god for the italians: https://www.irishtimes.com/business/...ins-liberties/Quote:
Originally Posted by Kingdom
i remember when i was a kid, say from age 6, we used to spend all our time playing football, either on the street or in a park or in someone's garden. genuinely 7 days a week. once we became teenagers it was basically the same thing after every school day. there'd be girls and some kids hanging out, smoking or drinking or getting high, but pretty much every day you'd play football for 2 hours in the park, just to socialise and have fun. i think it was either perceived as safer then or more socially acceptable for parents to let their young kids disappear to play ball or whatever for hours on end, which probably doesn't help.
when i think of cages in the inner city, they often have people playing (kids climbing over the walls to play in grangegorman still happens every day) but it's nothing like how it used to be - you do see a multiple of people on scooter, hanging out outside shops and takeaways on phones. i remember playing on an old grit cage when i was a teenager. it was in the flats in digges street and i just couldn't believe the level of talent. it was kids from say 12 to 20 and the quality was so good and so ferocious. it felt like a real hotbed of talent. the only other place i've felt that was in La Boca in Buenos Aires.
comparing apples and oranges here but 13/27 of the ireland rugby team born in the 26 counties are from Dublin. i do think far more kids in dublin than have ever done so before are playing either GAA or rugby instead of football.
when i was a kid, i honestly only knew one person who played GAA, that was it. in the 90s and 00s, it was that era where dublin weren't good, and the only player anyone knew was Jason Sherlock. then the GAA invested €19m across 5 years to increase participation among young kids.
https://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/2020/12...ear-headstart/
https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/...-10058261.html
and when it came to rugby, we weren't much good either, (first six nations win comes in 2009). Besides, people never started to play until secondary school and by that stage, elite footballers had already been identified etc.
I'd worry now that GAA has probably triple or quadruple the participation rate and kids are playing rugby as young as they start playing football - Damien Duff might be playing rugby and Robbie Keane might be playing GAA. meanwhile the conditions don't exist for street footballers any more, so Wes Hoolahan ends up on a playstation or whatever. put it all into a pot and it's a pretty bad recipe.
not that i want to sound so negative on a day that was so positive.
Noonan, Umeh and Finneran clearly stand out as guys who could be fast tracked. I'd expect to see Umeh and Finneran play for the 19s in March if they qualify for the elites before moving up to the 21s in the not too distant future, possibly in June. Overall a great performance, Victor and Solanke didn't seem 100% and the fact that Finn Sherlock didn't replace Solanke would make me wonder if he's right as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by ontheotherhand
I do think Colin was very slow to make changes. 4-0 up was the perfect opportunity to rest the stars and give game time to other players who you will need down the line. Dissapointed not to see Goodness Ogbonna at all.
Yeah most of the subs were quite late, especially given the heat.Quote:
Originally Posted by elatedscum
It was mentioned on commentary that Sherlock was late joining the squad from his club
I thought most of our team looked physically bigger and stronger - older, even - than a lot of the Panama team.
Noonan was very sharp. His movement is impressive and he caused them a lot of problems. I was thinking that Umeh was a bit wasted at LWB. I'd nearly want to see what he was like up top, given his size (especially at that level), but I guess that would probably mean Noonan dropping out, which isn't ideal.
Vinnie Leonard looked quality - his reading of the game was exceptional and he got his blocks in.
Rory Finneran was really good too. A great start for them, but obviously there are bigger challenges ahead.
Three spaces for teams from Oceania, and Australia no longer being part of Oceania, leads to some very weak teams qualifying. New Caledonia scraped in on penalties over Tahiti. I'm sure Old Caledonia's Under 17s would beat New Caledonia's easily, but the way the qualification spaces are handed out means that New Caledonia get to qualify and they don'tQuote:
Originally Posted by Nesta99
In the first round of games New Caledonia lost 6-1, Fiji lost 6-0 and even the one potentially competent Oceania team, New Zealand, lost 3-0 to Mali.
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?
God I hope not. That club's been a slow-moving disaster since Ferguson retired. But yeah, I expect many big clubs have scouts watching it. The Irish lads have a chance to catch someone's eye.
For me, these are the ones who caught the eye against Panama, who haven't already signed for relatively big European clubs:Quote:
Originally Posted by John83
Alex Noonan - didn't have much to do but looks very calm and assured. Dealt with one bad back pass really calmly.
Michael Noonan - nuff said
Vinny Leonard - has a real eye for a pass from the back and carried the ball well too
Max Kovalevskis - whenever he's on the ball you think something could happen. Probably didn't get involved enough with Umeh the main outlet but got his goal obviously and looked dangerous.
At least they caught my eye, but I was obviously particularly keen on seeing how the 3 Rovers lads did (and all the ex-Rovers lads who have either moved up or down since being with us e.g. Solanke, Victor, Brody Lee, Ogbonna, and McDonagh). I know Sean Spaight is highly regarded at Dundalk but he didn't stand out for me the other night.
I know the curren Rovers 3 have all attracted interest already although I've heard much less about Max than the two Noonan's.
Michael has been over to City a bit but, as I said above, I haven't heard much lately. Alex has been scouted but I'm not sure by who. Of our 3 I'd say Max has the biggest chance to up his reputation (just because the others are well known). He's been very bright in his few cameos for us.
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
Must have been some rearguard effort from them, Japan had 35 shots at goal without converting any of them!
Just one change for today, hopefully get a positive result so that they can maybe rotate a bit more for Paraguay.
Solanke a complete liability defensively again unfortunately, and the Uzbeks are targeting him every time. Third or fourth time they did it led to the goal.
Honestly can't remember the last time we produced a genuinely good defensive left back, probably Denis Irwin in truth.
First proper chance I think, and an equaliser for Ireland. McDonnell with the header - keeper will be annoyed as he was taking a step to the left which stopped him reacting to the right quickly enough. His problem though, and McDonnell did well to get up as high above his man as he did and get the header away.
Yeah, really poor from the keeper, the step to the left gave up half the goal for McDonnell to head at. But well worked from Ireland all the same. Not much between the two teams - other than they're continually roasting us down the left side of our defence. Need to make a change there and try an alternative to Solanke.
Uzbekistan are really physical. Fans making a lot of noise too
Paraguay 2-0 in the other game in the group, only a few minutes left
Panama had a player sent off just after half time
https://www.fifa.com/en/match-centre...0185/400020201
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.
There are new structures in place at Utd with the new ownership and they are fixing a lot of the issues that have gone on for year. They have invested heavily in youth teams and right now it would actually be a really good place for players to go toQuote:
Originally Posted by John83
Great win, two from two and through to the next round. Can maybe rest one or two against Paraguay on Tuesday
A really good win against a technically limited but well set up Uzbekistan team, who arguably were worth at least a draw. Thought they dealt with the six minutes of added on time particularly well, usually the team chasing the game will get at least one chance in that period, but they kept the Uzbeks mostly in their own half. Qualification secured now, so potentially a chance to give some of the front liners a rest on Tuesday. Paraguay don't seem to be particularly great and even a draw would confirm top spot in the group.
Excellent result, there is a lot of talent in this squad, some proper footballers as well.
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.
Noonan impresses me every time I see him. His work rate and movement are brilliant
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 .Quote:
Originally Posted by Eirambler
Highlights of the Uzbekistan game
Didn't quite work out in the end for New Caledonia. They lost 16-0 to Morocco today.Quote:
Originally Posted by ltfc_2004
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by elatedscum
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.
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_F...ualified_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.
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.
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.