Football around the world

Quintero looks like a superstar in the making for Columbia. Been pulling the strings all game for the U20s. Scored a cracking goal and could have had more.

really impressed by Columbia, could be a dark house, can't see england beating Chile today...

PSV are going into a new direction, big squad overhaul. And a new manager in Philip Cocu. Has the potential to be a great manager I think, but that doesn't always work out in practise, and he's still inexperienced. They've already sold Mertens and Lens. Contracts ended for Van Bommel, Bouma, Engelaar and last season's keeper Waterman. Toivonen is on the verge of going to Norwich, Pieters on the verge of going to Stoke. Then Marcelo, their awful central defender, might be off to Lyon. And Strootman could still potentially leave too. Either way, huge loss of experience, which they're not going to recover. They're replacing them mostly with young talent from their own youth + some new young buys. Already bought Bruma and Josefzoon, and they've been negotiating with AZ about Adam Maher for a while now. I think the new direction is good, but I think they're going to have a very tough season, and won't really compete for the title upcoming season.

Ajax look very stable. Is fairly easy for me to think they're favourites for the title again next season. Probably only Eriksen and Alderweireld leaving this summer, but even that isn't certain. And Frank de Boer extended his contract to 2017 today.

U20 WC round of 8 matches

France-Uzbekistan
Chile-Ghana
Uruguay-Spain
S. Korea-Irak

France, Chile, S.Korea and Spain favourites to go trough.

Hope Uruguay beat Spain, but it will be hard.

On other notes, watching the tournament its not surprising England does like sh*te in almost every single major tournament: you guys dont give a rats ass over your youth system. By the time most players reach the national team they are used to losing. You need to breed winners to win.

Maxi Rodriguez just scored for Newells in the first leg of the Libertadores semifinals.

Trust me QG if we are good at one thing it is losing.  England have no hope we have a set of dinosaurs as our managers.  The young Glen Hoddle  that managed the first team 15 years ago, after 15 years he is now considered as an option for the U21. 

Scocco just scored the 2nd for Newells to make it 2-0 against Atlético Mineiro.

Love Scocco. Great player.

FT Newells Old Boys 2-0 Atlético Mineiro.

Gonna be an exciting 2nd leg. Hoping n*b win it.

Uruguay u20 just beat spain to get to the wc semis. We will play the winner of irak vs sk.
Same group that got to the u17 wc final in mexico, losing to the hosts.

Spain dominated, and Suso had a good game. On the downside, the uruguayan lad the scum bought looks fantastic.

A big well dine to the lads, knocking out the favourites and best team of the tournament. Underdog role suits us just fine!

Well Spain are having a difficult spell!

A totally mental game as Ghana beat Chile in the under 20's 4-3 AET, what the 2 defenders and the goalie were doing on the line is anyones guess !

A totally mental game as Ghana beat Chile in the under 20's 4-3 AET, what the 2 defenders and the goalie were doing on the line is anyones guess !

Suarez would have saved that...

Fun tournament to watch.

It's me vs you, Quico. My family is of Iraqi origin. They've been fun to watch.

Shame about Spain going out. Suso has been a star!

Fun tournament to watch.

It's me vs you, Quico. My family is of Iraqi origin. They've been fun to watch.

Shame about Spain going out. Suso has been a star!

We played each other on a friendly just weeks ago, ended 0-0. Friendlies are not reliable to predict what will happen, since players are more worried about not getting injured, but it shows it should be quite even.

 If you are watching the game, check out The Uruguayan forward Lopez. He reminds me of Suarez in some aspects, but he is just a boy, still lots to learn. He was bought by AS Roma when he was 18.

Pretty good tournament, but it feels weird not having Argentina and Brazil in it. Spain was probably the best team, along with France but somehow we manged to kick them out. Its incredible Uruguay still manages to pull this major upsets every once in a while.

Still, the country with most International titles at absolute level, with 19. Yes, thats 2 more than Brazil. And we might not even qualify for Brazil 2014

Lopez definitely standing out as the danger man early in this match.

Been a nervy start from both teams but Uruguay definitely on top.

No idea how Uruguay aren't ahead here.

De arrascaeta and laxalt are having a stinker. They are the ones who should feed lopez. If they improve in the 2nd half we have a chance

Great fk for the goal, the gk should have been placed more to the middle if a lefty is taking it.

Not the best quality match but its quick and frantic.

Uruguay deserved that late goal. Extra time we go!

Uruguay clearly favourites here. They look terrific.

Jesus Christ get up! The stoppages from the Iraqi team are F***ing annoying.

Pennos. The iraqui that scored looked fantastic.

Uruguay advance on the penalty shoot out. Feel sorry for the iraquies, just heard 80% of the squad had at least a family member killed in the war. That country needs any joy they can get and watching them celebrate on the last match was truly great.

Uruguay is going to Istambul, match on Saturday

Yeah that left back was terrific. Only real standout in the game.

That striker that came on who put the ball in the box for the goal looked very good, too. Real handful on the ball.

Will be rooting for Uruguay in the final.

Atletico Mineiro won the 2nd leg of the Libertadores semifinal. 2-0 in 90 minutes then 3-2 (I think) in the penalty shutouts. Maxi lost the last and decisive penalty

Atlético vs Olimpia (from Paraguay) in the final then.