Argentina - Ghana 3:0 (final)
2nd half:
-('50) Ghana almost with a chance when Boateng penetrates into the penalty area - but the Argentine defence remainsd concentrated
-('51) Ghana: long range free kick by #4 Essien across the bar
-Ghana are determined and fighting
-('54) Argentina surprise Ghana by a short played free kick but Saviola hectically shoots across the ball - it seems the assistant has signalled offside anyway (it rather wasn't)
-('55) many fouls against the quick moves of the (smaller) Argentine attackers 
-('58) Argentina: great trick by d'Alessandro who then breaks through at the right wing and delivers a fine cross for #2 who's dangerous header gets deflceted for a corner
-('61) Ghana: dangerous long ball into the penalty area - but an alerted Argentine defender has a leg in between and the keeper seizes the ball
-the lack of fluent passing game costs Ghana the ball in many attacks, so crosses remain the only danger source:
-('71) free kick cross from the riight hand side and #7 Samuel thomson makes a dangerous header wide by half a meter
-('73) brilliant through ball by d'Alessandro on Rodriguez who appears alone in front of the keeper and perfectly scores - 3:0
-('82) Ghana: Essien with another long range attempt across the bar
-('83) Argentina are through and three against two, Rodriguez tries to convert the cross by a spectacular move but misses the ball
-Argentina display some more magic
-('86) dangerous Rodriguez 20 meter shot after another goal siege by Argentina - it gets deflected for a corner
-('89) penalty for Ghana (#5 against ghana #15), #8 Ibrahim shoots wide

final score 3:0
This Argentina team has been brilliant and is featuring many more strong players than only the stars. There clerarly has been a principle gap today.

1st half:
-both teams in their traditional colours
-('6) Romagnoli free kick cross from the right hand side and #13 Colotto at the second goalpost is unmarked and scores - 1:0
-Argentina are attacking early, trying to suffocate the Ghana game
-('12) Saviola almost breakes through - the Argentinians look dangerous on their quick attacks
-('14) Argentina fool Ghana by a quick shortplayed one-two at the corner - some defenders try to go for offside but at least one player remains back and so it is an easy cross towards about three unmarked strikers - it is Saviola who heads the ball in - 2:0
-('30) only midfield action up to here -  with a lot of interesting situations and challenges but no goal scenes
-('32) Argentina: Saviola fires wide from a good position
-('35) Argentina: Rodriguez shot - saved
-('37) Ghana come a little closer to the Argentine goal - but yet there is always a defender in between or a bad pass
-('40) Ghana: Essien is stopped by a body-check short before he breaks through into the penalty area - but the referee says it has been according to the rules
-('42) a minute long Argentine pressure on the Ghana goal leads to a free kick from the half right
-('43) the long range shot is no problem for the keeper
-('45) Essien seems to have injured himself
-some late challenges by Ghana in the last minutes

halftime 2:0
Argentina are art least similar strong in one-to-one challenges and so clearly superior because of their better game architecture.

Before the match:
Argentina are favorites to win the 2001 World Youth Cup at home. The team has convinced epecially in attack with the bright young stars Romagnoli (San Lorenzo, Argentinian champions) and Saviola (River Plate, Argentinian champions before) who is the player of the tournament and on the move to Barcelona.
Ghana have surprised in reaching the finals and have exposed some huge talents (for example #4 Essien and #10 Boateng). 
Only 7 goals in 6 matches (plus a Golden Goal) seems to speak for a defensive approach but this is not the case. The team is rather 'suffering' from the typical Ghanaian style of football. But you hardly can speak of suffering when a team reaches the final and where there are cons there are pros, too:
The individually very strong players dominate in one against one. So they are very confident and keep the ball (too) long, especially when unchallenged. This leaves the opposition time to organise and prepare defending.. 
Though this Ghana team has developed some nice passing sequences, often these characteristics are still easy to trace: count the number ofindividual ball contacts, when a Ghanaian player has more than two, you can predict the team loses the ball within the next 5 or 10 seconds.
This is one of the reasons why Ghana find it sometimes difficult to have goal impact against compact playing opponents, especially when the level becomes higher. 
On the other hand this style of game leads to a control of the game and fewer dangerous counter attacks. So the opponents score few goals against Ghana, too. It is conspicious that often Ghana matches have a low goal average in total at comparable tournaments.
It will be interesting to see how Argentina will cope with this.
 
 

Ghana reached the final by two late goals in the all African first semi-final. Egypt is reported to have had the better first half but failed to score and after the intermission Ghana gained more momentum. It took until the 83rd minute before Insuah scored by a header. In the 87th minute an own goal sealed the match.
Argentina in the second match displayed some spectacular football, most conspicious the stars Saviola and Romagnoli. Paraguay were without chance. And 3:0 behind, they lost a man due to a suspension short before halftime, so that the hosts were enabled to play some show football in the second period. 

because of financial problems, I have decided to minimize the coverage and will offer only short summaries.
Please use the links below
> the official World Cup live ticker (opens in a new window)
> the spanish version is a few minutes ahead (opens in a new window)
> www.socceraction.com has results updates (opens in a new window)

World Youth Championship round of last 8, July 1 1700 GMT/1945 GMT
Argentina - France  3:1
Czech Rep - Paraguay   0:1
Brazil - Ghana  1:2 a.e.t. 
Egypt - Netherlands  2:1

Ghana confirmed a long time the klischee of a team lacking impact when it comes down to goalscoring against a Brazilian squad who proved to be just poison for this: unlike former Brazilian youth teams this one convinces by physical presence and compactness (one meaningless goal conceded so far) rather than technical brilliance. There was hardly a shot on the Brazilian goal. Even the players who had been conspicious so far for Ghana, Boateng and Essien did not get past the strong Brazilian defenders.
In the first half the Brazilians had been dangerous at set plays and at two other occasions, one let to the goal by goalgetter Adriano. In the second half the Brazilians hardly attacked themselves, did play more and more casually and one of those seemingly chanceless soloruns by the Ghanaians suddenly broke through and set up Abdul Razak to score the equaliser ('80). 
The goal brought some momentum for the Africans and the crowd to their side. Suddenly the dull match turned exciting. In the following minutes promising situations for Ghana but again little impact in seizing the opportunity.
In the golden goal extra time Joe Mensah scored the stunning winner after only 3 minutes, a header after a corner against a now unconcentrated defence

Egypt turned around the match against the Netherlands after the Dutch had taken a 1:0 halftime lead.  2 minutes after the intermission Egypt scored the equaliser and 10 minutes after the Europeans had been reduced to 10 in the 55th, the North Africans took the lead. Despite a disappointing atart into the tournament the Egyptians are now among the final four in the cup. 

The Argentinian star of the tournament Saviola and France's brightest talent, defender Mexes, provided the four goals of the match Argentina - France. Argentina took the lead after 5 minutes and short before the half France equalised. A doubtful penalty made it 2:1 in injury time of the first period before Saviola through on a counter attack secured the semi-finals for the superior hosts.

In the fourth match Paraguay down to 10 men for most of the match after a 26th minute expulsion, defeated the Czech Republic anyway by a 31 minute goal by Salcedo.

World Youth Championship round of last 16, June 27/28 1700 GMT/1945 GMT
Jun27
Egypt - USA 2:0
Germany - France  2:3
Argentina - China   2:1
Brazil - Australia  4:0
Jun28
Ukraine - Paraguay 1:2
Costa Rica - Czech Rep 1:2.
Angola - Netherlands 0:2
Ghana - Ecuador 1:0

World Youth Championship round of last 16, June 27/28
Thursday's matches
A 13th minute goal by John Mensah secured Ghana's place in the quarterfinals and a revive of the youth classic against Brazil on Sunday. 
At the same time Angola stormed furiously to equalize the Dutch lead after 50 minutes. But the Africans wasted a handful of chances. Conspicious was attacking defender Kikas. Netherlands sealed the match 5 minutes before the end by their second goal. 
Paraguay compensated the absence of injured #10 Tomas Guzman well (see France match) well and led by 2 goals before European vice champions Ukraine scored in the last minute of the match.
Costa Rica could not continue their surprise run. The Czech Republic scored the winner after 70 minutes and now face Paraguay for a place in the semi-finals.

Wednesday's matches
Egypt have had the luck of a seemingly much easier path to the semi-finals than some other group runners-up and have seized their chance: with an as dominant reported performance they defeated the USA by two second half goals though failing to convert a first half penalty. 
In the parallel match France and Germany fought a tight match which was only decided by an injury time goal of tournament star striker Djibril Cissé (Auxerre). He had already converted a penalty to equalise the German lead by their conspicious #9 Benjamin Auer. France took the lead before halftime and Germany scored their second after 77 minutes.
Brazil confirmed their impression of being a very solid team by beating Australia clearly 4:0. The South American champions have only conceded one goal yet in a meaningless second half against Iraq.
But China, who only had conceded one goal themselves yet,  put up a big fight against hosts and tournament (co-)favorites Argentina and only lost 1:2 by a late goal.

World Youth Championship day 3, June 21/22:

Sundays matches
Australia qualified by an 82nd minute goal for the knock-out stages of the FIFA World Youth Cup equalising the 12th minute lead by Angola's Mantorras. The Africans are the third team of their continent in the round of last 16 but will have to wait for the result of the other match to know whether to advance as group heads or runners-up. The result also means that the remote theoretical chance for Japan has faded.
Ghana and France, both already qualified, played for winning the group and the possibly slightly easier slot in the knock-out stages. The match began entertaining with Ghana more dangerous but became more fragmented. France again was lacking a creative midfield and the talented Ghana players failed to establish successful longer passing sequences so that chances became rare in the second half. A 0:0 saw Ghana win the group and France finish second. 
Costa Rica continued their run, beating Ecuador and finishing head of their group with a perfect record. The goal was provided by Carlos Hernandez after 85 minutes.
Ethiopia finished as one of the three worst teams of the tournament while the netherlands qualified as one of the best group thirds after beating the East Africans 3:2. The second Ethipoian goal came in injury time.
Japan, already knowing they were without chance after Australia managed to bag in the necessary point, at least went home with a positive memory after beating the Czech Republic (already through to the second round) surprisingly 3:0.
Paraguay secured the last place in the round of last 16 by beating Iran 2:0. Iran had begun the tournament with an impressive 1st half against France but have to go home unlucky and without having scored a single goal. Paraguay, without Tomas Guzman (probably injured), needed until the 72nd minute before they were able to break the deadlock.

Saturdays matches
Egypt are the second African team to have qualified for the knock out stages of the FIFA World Youth Cup in Argentina. After a 10th minute lead the tournament began to look much more positive for the Egypptians t were 
Brazil and Argentina remained perfect in their third matches and sent home two North/Central American teams, Jamaica and Canada. Especially the hosts have impressed and the two remain tournament favorites. For Brazil the crunch question often comes when they face old rival South American counterparts. 
In a match to decide on the second place behind Brazil, Iraq played an unlucky match against Germany. For 60 minutes the outsiders cancelled out the Europeans before an own goal finsished off their confidence. Other key scenes had been the immediate German equaliser after Iraq had taken the lead by an own goal, too, and right in succession a red card for an Iraqi player who had retaliated for a hidden foul by a German attacker. For 15 minutes into the second half Iraq played a compact match, even with a few better opportunities to score. But the own goal, which came after a free kick had been stopped by the wall and the ball had been rolling dangerously into the penalty area with a group of players chasing it, sealed the match psycologically. 
By a goal in the 89th minute Ukraine secured qualification for the second round against the USA who had led the match by a first half goal in a match which saw 6 yellow cards.
But the USA qualification was saved by a late goal for Chile against China. The Asians had been playing for a 0:0 draw to finish ahead of the Americans but were punished ... Nevertheless the Chinese themselves can be relieved because they have already qualified as one of the best four group thirds, as Iraq and Finland both have finished with less good records in the other groups.

day 2, June 20/21:

Thursdays matches
In a match marred by some hidden and open brutalities and a possibly too lenient refereeing Paraguay rescued their chances against France by coming back from a 2 goal deficit to draw 2:2 with the European flagship. But they most likely will have to replace playmaker Tomas Guzman who was carried off the field with an injury for their next match against Iran in which they hope to extend their exploits to 4 points, which more likely should see them through to the next round.
Already arrived there is Costa Rica after beating Ethiopia 3:1 and in a good position now the Czech Republic after beating Australia 3:0. 
Another team who have qualified are Ghana after beating Iran 1:0 through an early goal by Derek Boateng. Iran, who are reported to have played a good match anyway and chances for an equaliser, now are left with a very remorte chance of qualifying only. 
The Netherlands failed to score more than 1 goal once more and so were left with a point only against Ecuador. They still can qualify in their reimaining match against outsioders Ethiopia. The African team lost their second match and are nearly as far away from the second round as Iran. At least they have a chance to  reach the third group place directly by beating Netherlands.
Angola on the other hand are a surprise as they seem to be able to confirm their good presentation from the African championships. Beating Japan by 2:1 has put them into a good position for qualifying while Japan are as good as out.  Substitute Rascas scored the winner ten minutes from time. Japan had equalised the early Mendonca lead after 60 minutes by Yamase.
Japan now need to beat the possibly strongest team, the Czech Rep., and in the same time need help by Angola to beat Australia, only to reach the third place. Then they neeed to hope that other group thirds will have only 3 points or less. It sounds too much to hope for and so it will be likely that after Spain, Mali, and Uruguay could not qualify, all four semi-finalists of the last edition at Nigeria 99 will be out of the competition.

Wednesday's matches
The two tournament favorites Brazil and Argentina impressed with clear vioctories against Egypt and Iraq. Especially the margins were remarkable after Egypt had been considered as a rather strong squad only with scoring problems and Iraq had imprssed in their first match against Canada.
After Finland beat Jamaica it will most likely be between Egypt and Finland about who will advance to the second round. No good news for Egypt because they will have to beat the compactness of the Europeans and score goals.
In other matches Germany were showing they can reach at least the knock-out stages against a Canada for who this tournament might be too difficult. The upcoming Iraq-Germany match will be interesting, but might as well two winners as 4 points could be enough to qualify as group third as well.
Ukraine, USA, and China kept their dark horse chances while Chile will need some kind of miracle and are 98% out.

June 18:
Iran - France 0:5 
1st half
-France has lined up some first division players and possible future A-teamers like forward Djibril Cissé (Auxerre), Mendy (PSG), and Mexes (Auxerre) who could be a later successor for Laurent Blanc
-but it is Iran who put on a stunning display in the first 15 minutes, strong in one against one and even able to create goal situations
-but unlike the first match in this group this match has only few goal situations. This is the consequence of two very compact defending squads which look difficult to break apart
-('24) the French are a bit more dangerous, because they have very fast forwards who threaten to exploit all errors 
-there seem to be connection and server problems
halftime 0:0
The crowd whistles, they are not satisfied by the defensive approach. Both teams olok strong, Iran a very well balanced squad, France with strong defenders and fast counter attackers, maybe lacking an inspirational midfield at this point. It looks like this will be a very tough group.
-('50) France: Vignal with a dangerous freekick, wide
-('55) France: Mendy with a great run through several defenders and a sharp low shot which the keeper saves with his right foot
-France have more possessions and imply a lot more pressure now
-('58) France: #17 Bugnet scores by head after a (free kick) cross from the left - 0:1
-('61) France: Mexes almost scores after a corner, the ball is deflected for another
-('61) France: this times Mexes by his head, he scores - 0:2
-Iran, who looked so compact have broken apart under the pressure and have lost order after the first French goal
-('65) France: long ball by Mexes on Cissé, missunderstanding between the keeper and a defender who had the ball before Cissé but now plays it past the storming out keeper and Cissé gives it the necessary touch to just roll into the goal - 0:3
-after the first half it was hard to imagine either team could lose by such a scoreline, now it could even become more
-('70) Iran bring on the 15 year old Ostovari
-('87) Cissé, sent by Mexes, has to break little resistance to score - 0:4
-('89) Cissé scores another as Iran have given up completely - 0:5
final score 0:5
Iran have shown two faces, losing all first half qualities during the second term, starting to lose balls early, so running into fast attacks which more and more disorganised defending.

Egypt - Jamaica 0:0 (final)
(allocation of names to numbers due to FIFA list)
-Egypt in white, Jamaica: yellow-black-green(shirts)
-Egypt have Jamaica pinned back into their half but only one big opportunity yet: a low sharp cross from the left which is missed by the striker in the middle
-('20) Egypt pressure more and have a couple of good scenes in front of the goal
-('23) a dive by Egyptian #16 Hamza is awarded with a yellow card - one of two scenes where Egypt have wasted good position after fine combinations
-('25) great opportunity for Egypt, again after a cross from the left flank, a player comes a little too late to hit the ball properly
-('25) and another after a cross from the right, this time it is the keeper who saves brilliantly against #10 Gerisha
-('30) Egypt free kick hits the outside of the net
-('37) Egypt combinate through but with the keeper already out of play a defender can clear for a corner
-('39) Egypt #9 Shehata with a dangerous shot from 18 meters but wide 
-halftime
-('51) Jamaica keeper rescues against #16
-('53) indirect free kick for Egypt from 6 meter, #14 fires but the ball stucks between the players in the wall, drops on the line and is cleared
-('57) #11 of Egypt is gifted with the ball by an error in build up and runs towards the goal but a defender can irritate him enough, a play in the grey area between foul and physical presence
-('60) a Jamaican defender comes late against Egypt #15 - the clearest penalty for ages
-('61) the penalty:  Egypt #16 shoots low sharp but wide left by some centimeters
-('65) free kick Jamaica, 22 meters, #15 across the bar
-('66) giant opportunity for Kamaica: a sharp low cross and #11 El Yamany in prominent goal scoring position, but he cannot meet it in time and so it slips too fast through his legs - Egypt escaped the punishment for missing too many chances this time
-Jamaica with huge grown players who know how to handle the ball, but up to this point harmless anyway, suddenly start attacking
-('70) Jamaica: another opportunity when a free kick cross flies into the Egyptian penalty area and a tall Jamaican wins the header, he sets up an opportunity for #15 but he slips in excitement, hitting the ball wrong. Behind him another player had lured in even better position. It is not the first slip seen from the Americans.
-('75) Egypt have found back into the match
-('76) the Jamaican keeper makes a graet grab for a deflected ball which had gone in the corner otherwise
-('87) Egypt: a long range shot, the keeper lets the ball bounce back in front of the feet of of two strikers, a second attempt is saved and the third by #10 is in the goal. But the assistant ref says offside. To my ponit of view very doubtful decision.
-('89) Jamaica are two against one on the counter attack. But the eventual shot only hits the outside of the net
-('injury time) the Jamaican keeper saves a last attempt
final score 0:0

> all teams, stats best provided by the official World Youth Cup website!
unfortunately the site has been terribly programmed and is very difficult to load and to read especially with a low speed connection. the idea of refreshing documents (even those that do not get updated often) all the time seems to overload the server also (often webmasters missunderstand repeated frustrated attempts to load and reload a not working site as a sign of overwhelming popularity)

group A
Jun17
Argentina - Finland 2:0
Egypt - Jamaica 0:0
Jun20
Jamaica - Finland 0:1
Egypt - Argentina 1:7
Jun23
Jamaica - Argentina 1:5
Egypt - Finland 2:1
 

Argentina*	3	14-2	9
Egypt*	3	3-8	4
Finland**	3	2-4	3
Jamaica**	3	1-6	1

*=next round **=out  ?=yet unclear (to be decided tomorrow)

group B
Jun17
Brazil - Germany 2:0
Iraq - Canada 3:0
Jun20
Canada - Germany 0:4
Iraq - Brazil 1:6
Jun23
Canada - Brazil 0:2
Iraq - Germany 1:3
 

Brazil*	3	10-1	9
Germany*	3	7-3	6
Iraq**	3	5-9	3
Canada**	3	0-9	0

*=next round **=out  ?=yet unclear (to be decided tomorrow)

group C
Jun17
USA - China 0:1
Chile - Ukraine 2:4
Jun20
Ukraine - China 0:0
Chile - USA 1:4
Jun23
Ukraine - USA 1:1
Chile - China 1:0
 

Ukraine*	3	5-3	5
USA*	3	5-3	4
China*	3	1-1	4
Chile**	3	4-8	3

*=next round **=out 

group D
Jun18
Angola - Czech Rep. 0:0
Japan - Australia 0:2
Jun21
Australia - Czech Rep. 0:3
Japan - Angola 1:2
Jun24
Australia - Angola 1:1
Japan - Czech Rep. 3:0
 

Angola*	3	3-2	5
Czech Rep.*	3	3-3	4
Australia*	3	3-4	4
Japan**	3	4-4	3

*=next round **=out 

group E
Jun18
Ecuador - Ethiopia 2:1
Netherlands - Costa Rica 1:3
Jun21
Costa Rica - Ethiopia 3:1
Netherlands - Ecuador 1:1
Jun24
Costa Rica - Ecuador 1:0
Netherlands - Ethiopia 3:2
 

Costa Rica*	3	7-2	9
Ecuador*	3	3-3	4
Netherlands*	3	5-6	4
Ethiopia**	3	4-8	0

*=next round **=out 

group F
Jun18
Ghana - Paraguay 2:1
Iran - France 0:5
Jun21
France - Paraguay 2:2
Iran - Ghana 0:1
Jun24
France - Ghana 0:0
Iran - Paraguay 0:2
 

Ghana*	3	3-1	7
France*	3	7-2	5
Paraguay*	3	5-4	4
Iran**	3	0-8	0

*=next round **=out