Surprises expected

U-17 World Cup host drawn vs. China, Colombia, Mexico

HELSINKI, Finland (AP) -- Soccer great Michel Platini rated two South American and two European teams as the co-favorites after Wednesday's draw for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Finland in August.

"Argentina, Spain, Portugal and Brazil appears to be the strongest -- Spain because they beat France in the qualifying," said Platini, a member of FIFA's executive committee.

He expected upset results in the 16-nation event from Aug. 13-30.

"There are better chances for surprises in this young age group," Platini said. "Ten years ago, nobody could have thought that Yemen, Sierra Leone and Finland could play for the title, and maybe even Liechtenstein can do so in the future."

He cited FIFA's work in helping to develop younger talent, and building centers of excellence for young players.

Among the bigger surprises at previous under-17 championships were Saudi Arabia winning in 1989, and Burkina Faso's third place in 2001. Oman (1995), Qatar (1991) and Bahrain (1989) all reached, but lost, bronze-medal games.

France, winner of the last tournament in Trinidad and Tobago in 2001, didn't qualify after losing to Spain. Nigeria, runners-up last time, and Argentina, which placed fourth, were drawn in the same group.

The top two teams from the four groups advance to the quarterfinals. Group A based in Helsinki will be the first in a FIFA final competition to play on an artificial pitch.

Brazil has the best record at the event with two wins, a silver and a bronze. Nigeria has also won the title twice. Argentina has two bronzes.

Americans head to Helsinki

The United States and 13-year-old wonder boy Freddy Adu will face a familiar foe in South Korea in the first round of the Under-17 World Cup.

The Americans were grouped with Spain, South Korea and Sierra Leone in Wednesday's draw. Their first-round games in the championships will be in Lahti, 65 miles northeast of the capital, Helsinki. Lahti has hosted several World Nordic Ski Championships and is also the venue of annual World Cup cross-country and ski jumping competition.

The United States lost the bronze-medal game to Ghana on penalty kicks in the 1999 tournament in Australia. It had a disappointing outing two years later in Trinidad and Tobago.

"Now we are hoping to do a little better than two years ago," said coach John Ellinger. "We came in 14th or so. We thought we had a good team, but then came Sept. 11 and it had a major impact on the team."

France and Nigeria, two of the teams the United States faced two years ago, eventually made the final, with France emerging as winner.

"We meet very respectable teams this time," Ellinger said. "Sierra Leone was in the qualifying final in Africa, Spain in the final in Europe, and South Korea won the Asian tournament."

In preparing for the tournament, Ellinger wants to match up against opposition similar to the teams they'll face.

Recently, the United States lost 3-0 to South Korea.

"We played the first half 0-0 and gave up three in the second half. It showed what we have to do, clean some things up in the defense," he said. "One year ago we met Portugal, which is similar to playing Spain, and we'll try to get a game against an African team, if possible."

That would give the Americans a taste of what to expect from Sierra Leone, a surprise in African qualifying. The U.S. team also will have warmup games against an overage Canadian squad, an Australian team and two matches in England.

"We are pretty close to the final team, we know our top 23 players," Ellinger said. "Then it's the matter of picking the 18."

Some of the players he's already singled out include midfielder Adu, along with Guillermo "Memo" Gonzalez, a forward with Los Angeles Galaxy; Eddy Gavin, a midfielder with the MetroStars; and central defender Jonathan Spector, in the junior ranks with Manchester United.

Under-17 World Cup Draw
Group	Location	Teams
Group A	Helsinki	China, Colombia, Finland, Mexico
Group B	Turku	Argentina, Australia, Costa Rica, Nigeria
Group C	Tampere	Brazil, Cameroon, Portugal, Yemen
Group D	Lahti	Sierra Leone, South Korea, Spain, United States

 

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