The FIFA U-20 World Cup draw took place yesterday in Istanbul, Turkey. The competition will take place from 21st June - 13th July, 2013. Below are the draws.
Group F: Oceania champion, Uzbekistan, Uruguay, Croatia
So, the U.S. was drawn with Spain, an African qualifier and France. The
African team, yet to complete qualifying, will be one of Egypt, Nigeria, Mali and Ghana.
That screams "group of death" as loudly as possible. The U.S.
U-20's will have their work cut out for them to finish top two in that
group and advance from the group stage.
Hosts Turkey will face Colombia, Australia and El Savador in Group C.
The winner of the ongoing AYC would be in Group E with Chile, England and Iraq. FIFA will however conduct another draw for the second, third and fourth
finishers in the ongoing competition in Algeria at the end on March 30,
to fill African spaces in Groups A, B and D.
The Barcelona manager, Tito Vilanova, will return to Spain this week after two months in New York undergoing cancer treatment, the Catalan club have announced.
Vilanova
travelled to America on 21 January for chemotherapy and radiotherapy
following surgery on his parotid gland in December. The 44-year-old had
suffered a relapse after first having a tumour removed from his throat
in November 2011.
It was expected Vilanova would be returning home
by the end of this month and Barça confirmed on Monday that that is the
case, although they have not said when he is expected to resume
first-team duties. A statement on the club's official website read: "The
Barcelona coach, Tito Vilanova, will leave the city of skyscrapers this
week to return to the Catalan capital.
"Jordi Roura has been in
charge of the team over the last couple of months and has been in
permanent contact with Vilanova to agree on important decisions, but
Vilanova's place on the bench has always been kept for him and this week
the team will welcome their boss back. Welcome home Tito."
While
Vilanova has been in the United States, Barça have had mixed results,
winning eight of their 13 competitive matches while losing three. They
were knocked out of the Copa del Rey semi-finals by Real Madrid but progressed through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League after overturning a 2-0 first-leg deficit against Milan with a 4-0 triumph in the return meeting at the Camp Nou.
In
La Liga they are 13 points clear of Madrid ahead of this weekend's trip
to Celta Vigo. Next Tuesday they face Paris Saint-Germain in the first
leg of the Champions League quarter-finals in France.
Roy Hodgson: Confident England can enjoy a positive end to World Cup qualifying campaign
Roy Hodgson claims the mood inside the England camp remains upbeat ahead of Tuesday's crunch clash with Montenegro.
The
Three Lions have every reason to enter Tuesday's 2014 World Cup
qualifier in a positive frame of mind, with their last two outings
having seen them claim the notable scalp of Brazil in a friendly contest
and fire eight goals past San Marino.
All of that will count for little if they fail to take three points
in Podgorica and put themselves back in pole position in Group H, but
Hodgson refuses to buy into the belief that victory is a must.
He concedes that England will be at 'a great disadvantage' should
they could unstuck in midweek, but feels the unshakeable spirit within
his squad stands them in good stead heading forward.
He said: "I am not trying to decry that this is a very important
game, it would be very good for us if we could win this game and, if we
do lose it, we do put ourselves at a great disadvantage.
"If we can win, that would be a nice bonus for us. We will go to the
top of the group with three of the last four games at Wembley.
"But it doesn't matter how much we talk about it and say we want to do it. It will count for nothing if we play badly and lose.
"If we can do it the easy way, that's great. But if we have to do it
the hard way, then I am pretty sure we can dig in and do that."
Roy Hodgson
"Will the mood change if England lose? You are talking about mood
switches outside the group, so there is nothing I could do about that.
"But I would be very surprised if we lost and there was a massive mood switch within the group.
"The group is sufficiently strong to take whatever is coming to us in
terms of medicine, and get on with it and put things right."
Objectives
Hodgson added: "I am not contemplating defeat, I
don't even want to discuss the possibility of it - but I do think the
squad is strong enough and good enough to achieve our objectives.
"If we can do it the easy way, that's great. But if we have to do it
the hard way, then I am pretty sure we can dig in and do that.
"Maybe we will just have to accept that if we do have to do it the
hard way, it wouldn't be quite as positive from the outside as it has
been so far."
Jose and Abrahmovic: Is the 'ONLY ONE' set to make a return?
Jose Mourinho might be set to return to Chelsea after he agreed a provisional deal with the club but hold your breath, there are stumbling blocks.
Six years after his tempestuous relationship with Abramovich ended in
combustion, Mourinho is on the brink of consenting to go back "home" to the Blues.
It
is understood Mourinho and Abramovich have reached a provisional
agreement for the Portuguese to take over from interim Rafa Benitez this
summer on a three-year contract.
There are still significant
stumbling blocks before any deal can be signed though, with Anzhi
Makhachkala's Dutch veteran Guus Hiddink lined up as a potential
fall-back option if the Mourinho move goes wrong.
Mourinho is
believed to have made it clear that he will only consider a return if
Chelsea finish in the top four, qualifying for next season's Champions
League.
Hiddink: Won the FA cup with the blues.
More contentiously - and what could cause a major hurdle -
the Portuguese is concerned about working in an environment where
technical director Michael Emenalo and chief executive Ron Gourlay hold
the levers of power.
Also, sources in France and Spain insist
Mourinho's agent, Jorge Mendes, has struck a similar provisional deal
with Qatari-owned Paris Saint-Germain, who are ready to dump ex-Chelsea
boss Carlo Ancelotti if his expensively-assembled side do not win Ligue 1
this season.
But, with Mourinho determined to pack his bags and
leave Real at the end of the season irrespective of whether he becomes
the first manager to win the Champions League with three different
clubs, it seems that the hopes and prayers of most Blues fans could be
answered.
The 50-year-old has played a blatant game of tease with would-be suitors over recent weeks, including suggesting he could go back to a former club but that he might be ready to unleash a "surprise".
Benitez: No hope to retain his job at Chelsea
What
is evident, though, is that Abramovich - falsely reported by one
Russian TV station to have been arrested in the United States on Monday -
is ready to admit he made the biggest mistake of his reign when he
parted company with Mourinho in 2007.
While going back to the
Portuguese was deemed unthinkable two years ago, the situation has now
altered on the back of the troubled and short-lived reigns of Andre
Villas-Boas, Roberto Di Matteo and interim boss Benitez.
Mourinho has never hidden his wish to return to England - he
has a home in London and his daughter is set to embark on studies in the
capital this autumn - even though going back to the Bridge might
scupper any ambitions he has of succeeding Sir Alex Ferguson at
Manchester United.
The mercurial nature of Mourinho - and the
likelihood that he will try to force the issue when the final round of
contract negotiations begins in the summer - could yet see him move
elsewhere. But, on Monday night, Chelsea's greatest and most
successful manager was closer to going back to SW6 than at any time
since he left to the anguished disbelief of the Blues fans following a
poor start to the 2007-08 season.
Let's keep our fingers crossed while waiting to uncover who's next at the helms of affairs at Chelsea (hopefully the 'Only One')
The FBI has dismissed reports saying the agency had arrested Chelsea FC owner, Roman Abrahmovic. His spokesperson also dismissed the report saying the Russian billionaire is in the US but not arrested. The report is believed to have originated from Russia. The report started on the Russian Financial daily RBK and also circulated on twitter. He is visiting New York where his partner Dasha Zukhova is due to give birth to his 7th child.
Since my last post on 21st November, last year, a whole lot of things have happened. Starting with the appointment of Rafa Benitez as Chelsea coach (which has proved to be a very big mistake) whose aftermath is the crumbling of my darling team Chelsea, leading to our exit from the Champions League and the dethronement from no 1 position to struggling No 4, I reserve my comment. Okay there's that of Former Chelsea boss AVB (I must say he's doing a great job at Tottenham who are currently sitting two points atop Chelsea in the 3rd position. Oh, Manchester United, I must say thanks to RVP on their behalf cos to me they've performed below par this season but they're right there on top of the league table and they don't look like they're leaving that position till the end of the season (big ups to them tho). Manchester City, Oh, I remember that whip just a few weeks ago (3-0 though I feel they should have scored more had they been really good). Ok, it seems like I feel no team is at their best this season (yea right, just my thought). Don't let me bore you with all these stories (since you already know them by the way). Fast forward till last night's Champions league game between Arsenal and Bayern Munich. My God, the Bayern Players were pathetic and I can't believe I was actually rooting for Arsenal to score three goals. They were spectacular and deserved to have qualified but that's why I love football, nothing is impossible, the worst team can turn out to be the best (not by performance though but luck). So tonight, my darling Chelsea is playing Steaua Bucharest at home,we better win this cos their boss has dissed our players so much that I'll so luv that we whip them silly. I doubt if Rafa can pull that off tho, the guy is tactically dead (for someone who has a football coaching app, God help us) but just like the FA Cup game against ManU, he can employ the tactics of RDM just like he did in that second half, it always works.
Just before I go, let me give you a recap of the Europa league fixtures for tonight (Honestly, I wish we hadn't gotten here):
