FIFA U-20 World Cup

As I am watching the FIFA U-20 World Cup, I couldnt stop thinking about this....

In football, one of the most important factors of a country's success is its youth programs and its preperation for the young ones to represent their country when they grow up. The best example of this is the French wonder team of 1998-2000, which was a team that almost all graduated from some special school for football setup when they were children!

But how much of a factor is that in later stages? For example, Spain historically has always had a great young team, winning several tournaments in dif age groups, but have always choked when it counts in the real big stage...why?!

Saudi had a great young team which did well and then grew up to reach the second round of the World Cup in 1994! Oman had a great team and we're seeing them now play the best football in the gulf!

Is the U-20 world cup really a measure of how good a team will be 8 years from now?? If so, then things will be very interesting if we look at the results of the first day of the tournament! The US beat Argentina 1-0, China beat Turkey (which reached the final of the U-20 Euro) 2-1, Chile beat Honduras 7-0....

In about 10 mins, Nigeria - Brazil will start, Italy playing same time against Columbia....both very interesting games, especially the Brazil team, which is great to watc hat any level! Games were great yesterday btw, I highly recommend watching these kids play......personally, Im glad to see a couple of Arsenal players playing, Quincy Owuso did great against Japan and Fabregas was his usual commanding presence against Morroco. Spector (ManU), played well for the US against Argentina before leavnig the feild injured. Now Im gonna watching out for Diego and Tardelli specifically, and will update u!

I love football! :)