Group F (Victoria, Vancouver)
Japan, Scotland, Costa Rica and ####ia.

Japan arrives at this tournament with a solid record of achievement. Five times in the last six tournaments Japan has made it to knock out stage. On three of those occasions they made it the last eight while in 1999 in ####ia Japan lost 4-0 to Spain in the final. Frenchman Philippe Troussier, who went on to lead Japan at the 2002 World Cup, had players such as Junichi Inamoto, Shinji Ono and Naohiro Takehara available to him.

Coach Yasushi Yoshida arrives with a team that likely has as much promise as the 1999 edition. Tsukasa Umesaki (Oita Trinita) has already been capped by Japan at the senior level while centre half Yohei Fukumoto (Oita Trinita), Yosuke Kashiwagi (Sanfreece Hiroshima), Atsuto Uchida (Kashima Antlers), and Atomu Tanaka (Albirex Niigata) are all highly touted.

Japan finished second to North Korea in Asian group qualifying having been beaten on penalties in the final. However, it is worth noting that the countries did play each other twice before in 2007 qualifying and Japan won 1-0 and 2-0.

Scotland is one of the surprise qualifiers in this tournament. Scotland took one of the two available spots in the qualifying round of European qualifying before being drawn into a group with France in the elite round. Most pundits expected a Scots’ exit but instead France stumbled when they played to a scoreless tie with Belarus. This left Scotland only needing to avoid defeat against France in order to move on. This they did courtesy of a Steven Fletcher (Hibs) goal.

Fletcher was again prominent in the final round of qualifying although both he and fellow striker Robert Snodgrass missed the final game loss to Spain. Unlike previous editions of Scottish teams at World Cup’s this squad appears to carry a fair amount of striking power. Both Fletcher and Snodgrass are in the Scottish squad while Calum Elliot (Hearts) and Graham Dorrans (Livingstone) also scored important goals during the qualifying rounds.

Lee Wallace (Hearts), Mark Reynolds (Motherwell) and Garry Kenneth (Dundee United) have all played for their clubs in the SPL. The heat of eastern Europe was a problem for Scotland last summer so being based in Victoria with it’s more moderate climate is a major break for the Scots.

Tommy Wilson, one of Scotland’s coaches told the Scotsman newspaper - "We use a lot of role models in video presentations to the boys as part of our preparations. For example, we use a lot of footage of Muhammad Ali, his quotes, clips of him in the gym and the way he totally dominated opponents with both his physical and mental approach.” We will see!!

Costa Rica finished second to Mexico in a two-part CONCACAF qualification process. This is Costa Rica’s fifth appearance in the finals – which considering Costa Rica’s status in CONCACAF is surprisingly low – and two appearances in the second round is the best they have done.

The majority of Coach Geovanny Alfaro’s squad is domestically based with only highly-regarded goalkeeper Alfonso Quesada and defender Dave Myrie (both Cadiz) playing abroad. 

Jean Carlos Solorzano carries most of the goal scoring threat while Celso Borges
is the creative force in midfield.

Striker Cesar Elizondo (Saprissa) and defender Rudy Dawson (Alajuela) are two other players who are regularly mentioned as key players.

It seems a regular occurrence for ####ia to arrive in disarray at a major tournament and Canada 2007 seems to be no different. Cancelled training camps, funding disputes and criticism from home are only a few of the obstacles facing this ####ian team. But perhaps the strangest thing about this squad is the total lack of players from the side that finished as runners-up to Argentina in 2005.

Seven players were eligible to compete again but not one has been named to this squad. What is more only two players out of the pool of twenty-one meet the maximum cut off criteria of 1987. Fourteen players have birth years of 1988 while the remaining five have 1989 listed.

Only four players are currently registered with foreign-based players. If you didn’t know any better you might think ####ia is more interested in putting players in the shop-window than fielding the best available team.

However, having twice finished as runners-up and once in third place, ####ia has shown in the past that raw talent can overcome administrative ineptitude so they should not be underestimated.

Predicted finish – 1.Japan, 2.####ia, 3.Scotland and 4. Costa Rica. 

You can send any information (fsr@mts.net) that you think might be of interest about the twenty-four countries and I will post a regular selection. If you have a FIFA Under-20 blog go ahead and post your link under comments.