Monday Missive: Brazil U-20 glory, more Messi magic

*Brazil won the FIFA U-20 World Cup, defeating Portugal 3:2 in the final in Bogota. Mexico beat France 3:1 to clinch third.



The seleçao were top gunners with 18 goals in seven matches but Nigeria were the most prolific, averaging three goals a game. Spain were the most on-target team, shooting on goal 54 times in five games. Five of the 24 entrants failed to find the net - Austria, England (in four games), Mali, North Korea and Panama.



Three youngsters tied for the golden boot but Spain's Alvaro Vasquez took the least time to score five - 219 minutes as opposed to 353 for Alexandre Lacazette of France and 557 for Henrique of Brazil.



*Scourge of FIFA Andrew Jennings continues to build the case against Chuck Blazer. The supersized American of the Ex.Co. might have blown the whistle on his CONCACAF boss Jack Warner but does not appear to be cut from much of a different cloth.



*Hernan Dario Gomez has resigned as coach of Colombia.



*Spain was unusually quiet yesterday as La Liga players went on strike over money. Actually, the nation could have done with a breather as the thermometers hit 35C, young Catholic pilgrims from across the globe succumbed to heat exhaustion on World Youth Day in Madrid and arguments continued over the latest Barça v Real bust-up earlier in the week.



The European champions won an entertaining Spanish Supercup 3:2 at home after a 2:2 draw away courtesy of another wonder goal from Lionel Messi in the Camp Nou, before the closing seconds saw the clash of the titans go back to the playground.







*Still in Spain, Valencia's right-sided attacker Juan Mata, who starred in his country's Euro U21 win in Denmark, is off to Chelsea, while Colombian marksman Falcao, once thought to be Stamford Bridge-bound, has signed for Atletico Madrid as replacement for Sergio Aguero.



*Arsenal's much-trumpeted malaise appears to have begun in earnest with a 0-2 home reverse to rejuvenated Liverpool. With Cesc Fabregas now back in the blaugrana and Samir Nasri moments from Manchester City, Arsene Wenger was a tableau of sodden schadenfreude on the touchline as his dreams of an Ajax-on-Thames dissolved in the London drizzle.



Wenger's ideal of a top-notch youth system supplying all his needs with multi-functional footballers has run out of steam in the face of his rivals' active recruitment of established specialists. Or as Alan 'If in doubt, launch it' Hansen wrote in today's Telegraph, "They need more destruction than creation."



Only some sheepish yet hectic transfer activity can cure the sick patient that is the Gunners, but with the transfer market sure to exploit any panic-buying from Arsenal, January might realistically be the next time they can dam the flood.



*Russia opened one of its stadia for the 2018 World Cup. Yekaterinburg's renovated Central Stadium opened and will be expanded from its current 27,000 capacity to 40,000 for the World Cup.







(c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile



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Monday Missive

*ITALIAN STADIA LIKE PIZZERIAS? How times change. In Italia '90 we all marveled at Italy's football grounds like Milan's fortress-like San Siro, Turin's caverous Stadio delle Alpi, Bari's space-age San Nicola and Genoa's wonderfully quirky Luigi Ferraris, wishing we could have such soccer cathedrals at home.



Fast forward twenty years and the designs have stagnated and fallen below the quality of those in England, Germany and Spain.



Now with a slew of new grounds in France on the way in the build-up to Euro 2016, Italy is having to question its model of municipally-owned arena (also the norm in the USA), while other nations let their clubs own theirs.



"It's like theatres and restaurants," said AC Milan's vice-president Adriano Galliani told Gazzetta dello Sport. "There are beautiful theatres and ugly ones, there are luxury restaurants and pizzerias. But without stadiums we can't do anything and without a new law we can't construct new stadiums."







* Brazilian legend Zico, who has coached Japan and Kashima Antlers amongst others, is set to ink a deal to coach Iraq.



*Former US coach Bob Bradley is in talks to become the national team coach of Egypt.



*Carlos Tevez is back in Manchester having failed to tie-up a transfer elsewhere and will be training with his supposed replacement and compatriot Sergio Aguero.



*Barcelona B starlet Thiago Alcantara, who shone in this summer's Euro U21 Championship in Denmark, is in Spain's senior squad for their friendly with Italy in Bari on Wednesday.



*"We are not touching now the Qatar World Cup" was Sepp Blatter's enigmatic response to a question about the timing of the 2022 competition. As it stands, it will take place in June in arenas air-conditioned to avoid the 40C heat.



*Tottenham Hotspur's ticket office was trashed in the violence which has engulfed parts of London for the past two nights. The trouble began with a police shooting of an armed man in Tottenham. The club is asking fans to use the internet instead.



The London 2012 Olympic football will be called 'The Albert' after the Cockney rhyming slang for ball - 'Albert Hall'.



*The UEFA Champions League playoff draw has been made: Arsenal v Udinese, Bayern Munich v Zurich, Lyon v Rubin Kazan, Villareal v Odense.



*The FIFA U20 World Cup in Colombia has reached the knockout stage. The last 16 lineup is thus:



Tues 9th Aug:

Argentina v Egypt

Cameroon v Mexico

Colombia v Costa Rica

Portugal v Guatemala



Weds 10th Aug:

Brazil v Saudi Arabia

France v Ecuador

Nigeria v England

Spain v South Korea



- Sean O'Conor





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