FIFA U-20 World Cup Canada 2007

[toforumer]

Well the tournament kicked off today in host cities Montreal and Ottawa.

Canada will kick off the start of their tournament tomorrow at BMO Field in Toronto. Is anyone attending the games?

All the games will be televised on CBC's stations.

Here is the official site for the tournament:
http://www.fifa.com/u20worldcup/index.html

CBC's site:
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/fifau20/

I wonder how far Canada is going to get this time around. They made it to the quarterfinals back in 2003.


U-20 World Cup ticket sales through the roof
Organizers looking at the million mark
Last Updated: Thursday, June 28, 2007 | 11:15 PM ET
CBC Sports

Ticket sales for the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada have surpassed the 940,000 mark, tournament organizers revealed at a Thursday night press conference in Toronto.

Organizers expect the total spectator count for the tournament, which they are touting as the largest single-sport sporting event ever held in Canada, will eventually climb above the one-million mark with walk-up sales.

Canadian forward Andrea Lombardo, left, will be one of the star players featured in this summer's FIFA U-20 World Cup in CanadaCanadian forward Andrea Lombardo, left, will be one of the star players featured in this summer's FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada
(Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

The 1983 tournament in Mexico set the competition's all-time attendance record with 1.15 million fans passing through the turnstiles. The maximum number of tickets available for this summer's tournament in Canada is 1.3 million.

Strong tickets sales and a successfully run tournament could help Canada secure hosting duties for other FIFA events in the future. The Canadian Soccer Association publicly stated that it wants to stage a FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada.

"FIFA can see how well this tournament is doing. They're delighted with the way things are going and in the future if any tournaments have a chance of coming back to Canada, we can go to them and say how well we ran the U-20 tournament," soccer commentator Craig Forrest told CBCSports.ca

"I'm confident, for my money, this will be the most successful U-20 World Cup ever."

The 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup runs from June 30 to July 22 in six Canadian cities — Victoria, Burnaby, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal — and features 24 of the best youth teams from around the world.

The three-week tournament kicks off with games in Montreal and Ottawa with the final slated for Toronto.

The 24 teams are divided into six round-robin groups with the top two teams in each group, and the top four third-place teams overall, advancing to the second round.

Canada is in Group A with Chile, Austria and Congo, and will play its opening game on Canada Day against Chile in Toronto.

In total, Canada has participated in seven U-20 World Cups, which was known as the FIFA World Youth Championship from 1977-2005. Canada's best showing came in 2003 when it reached the quarter-finals.

The U-20 World Cup is the second-largest event staged by FIFA, soccer's world governing body, after the men's World Cup.

The tournament — the soccer equivalent of the world junior hockey championship — has launched the careers of some of the sport's biggest names, including Diego Maradona, Michael Owen and Luis Figo.

 

[syn]

I was in the area to see the fireworks and walked by BMO stadium...it was pretty lively. People really seemed to be enjoying themselves.

 

[TrickyRicky]

Too bad Canada got spanked. The score was 3-0 but it could easily have been 6-0

 

[GregWTravels]

I was surprised that Gambia did so poorly against the Mexicans, given the success they have had in the U-17 games.

For those that were in the area, did anybody see how much / how easy it was to get tickets for the games? Not the Canadians - but some of the other games? What's a scalped ticket go for?

 

[GregWTravels]

Well, despite the fact that the thread on the actual tournament is no where near as busy as the thread on the Chile-Cop tussle, thought I would post a final summation.

The final two games were played on Sunday in Toronto, Chile vs. Austria for third place and Argentina vs. Czech Republic for the first place trophy. Figuring that this is probably as close as Canada is ever going to get to hosting a World Cup, I wandered down to the stadium and picked up a ticket.

Upon arrival at the stadium, there was a large protest outside against the Toronto police by Chilean fans. Probably a good 75 to 100 people surrounding a large Chilean flags, many of them holding signs. The protest was peaceful, and the police kept their distance.

The stadium was mostly filled with South American fans - Chileans for the first game, most of whom left and apparently gave their tickets to Argentinian fans for the second game. There were very few Austrian or Czech fans in the crowd, and they mostly got drowned out by the larger Latin American contingent. The Chileans had the best cheers - lots of variation. The Argentinians had most drummers, though.

I missed the first 50 minutes of the third place game, so I missed the only goal. Chile scored, and ended up winning the game 1 to 0 to beat the Austrians and win the third place trophy. The Chilean fans had a scare near the end, but some fine goal keeping saw their goalie (who I previously mentioned had the record for most minutes without a goal) knocking a ball out of the net just before it crossed the goal line as he was falling backwards. It was a spectular save.

In the second game, the Czechs scored first, but Argentina answered quickly and got another goal and went on to win 2 - 1. Argentina had the top scorer of the tournament, Sergio Aguero with six goals, won the golden boot for the top scorer, the golden ball as the MVP, was captain of the team so first to put his hands on the trophy and gets to wear the number 10!

Other than the Chile - Police dust up, the tournament seems to have been a great success - According to the CBC, this tourney establishing a new record for the highest total attendance in FIFA Under-20 World Cup history, finishing at 1,195,239. The previous record of 1,155,160 was set in Mexico 24 years ago. Including Sunday's final two games, 31 of the tournament's 52 matches were sold out.

 

[Jarrek]

Was a great tourney.

Too bad Canada couldn't score or win a game.

 

[RJR123]

From today's Star:

Chilean player admits officer was punched

DANIEL DALE
STAFF REPORTER

The Chilean soccer player who was shot with a Taser during a clash with Toronto police has admitted that one of his teammates had earlier punched an officer in the face.

"I don't know who hit her, but yes, someone did hit a female officer," Isaias Peralta told Chile's El Mercurio newspaper Saturday.

The incident occurred July 19 at Exhibition Place after Chile lost to Argentina in a testy Under-20 World Cup semifinal match.

In its immediate aftermath, Chilean players said police needlessly clubbed them when they tried to protect a teammate from an overzealous security guard who had forcefully prevented him from talking to friendly fans. But Police Chief Bill Blair said officers responded in a "firm but fair" manner to the "aggressive behaviour" of Chilean players who angrily poured out of their team bus after a player and a fan got into an argument.

In El Mercurio, Peralta said that police officers hit the Chileans without good reason before the player hit the female officer.

But his comments were the first in which a Chilean player had admitted any responsibility for the escalation of the clash, which prompted protests at Canada's embassy in Santiago and condemnation of Toronto police by Chile's president.

"We only wanted to talk to the people and (the police) attacked us like we were dogs," player Arturo Vidal told the Star a week ago.

Blair promised a thorough investigation of the incident. Toronto police plan to release a report with its findings as soon as today.

Police spokesperson Mark Pugash said he has not seen the report and does not know what it will say.

He confirmed, however, that a female officer was hit in the face. He maintained that players' "violent behaviour" prompted the use of pepper spray and the Taser.

"Police were on the receiving end of some considerably aggressive behaviour," Pugash said. "And their job in those circumstances is to stop that behaviour."

Pugash, like Blair, said that police intervened – "to defuse the situation" – after a Chilean player got into an argument with a fan.

"The officers are very well trained in the use of force. They obviously use the minimum force necessary to stop the violence, and that's what they did."

Nine players, according to the Chilean delegation, were briefly detained at the National Soccer Stadium after the clash.

Though none were arrested, the head of world soccer body FIFA called the incident a "black mark" on the Under-20 tournament.