CONCACAF president Jack Warner made headlines while he was in the South American nation inspecting the various venues that are planning on being used for next year's U-20 World Cup.

Outside of being his usual self, he did everything in his power to enamor the Colombian media. He masterfully mixed his diplomatic skills with Don King-like faux jingoism.

He repeatedly mentioned that Colombia was like "a second home" to him and that he felt "safer walking in the streets" there than in his "home country". In a press conference in Bogota about the possibility of using these resources to prepare for "another international tournament" down the road.

"In 2014, the World Cup will be in Brazil. Twelve years later the World Cup will once again be for South America. I think this will be a good start for Colombia in order to place a bid for the 2026 World Cup as they will have first class venue by then," Warner said.

The FIFA vice-president went to South America and met with Colombian vice-president and presidential candidate Francisco Santos, Minister of Culture María Araujo, and officials from the Colombian Football Federation (FeDeFut). He inspected along with a group of FIFA officials six different venues that would be hosting the U-20 World Cup next year.

"Cartagena will be a venue,"said Warner after seeing the remodeling that has gone on in that city's stadium. He did confirm that the final will be played in Bogota as that venue was the only one that placed itself in the running for that match. The tournament opener is still to be decided as there are six venues in the running, which include Bogota, Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, Cartagena, and Manizales.

There are still lots of question marks as to how prepared the country is overall as there are still lots of infrastructure issues that have not been attended to with only one year left until the event.

Another issue that is being discussed is the possibility of having nine venues instead of the seven that FIFA requires. Delegates from FeDeFut will travel at the end of the week to Zurich to plea their case.

Colombia has the dubious distinction of being the only country in football history to be given the World Cup bid only to back out in 1985. That edition of the world's biggest sporting event would be hosted by Mexico a year later.

Warner lobbies for Colombia to host 2026 World Cup

Uruguay star Nicolás Lodeiro (Juventus Malta)

If we tell you that Lionel Messi needs to play well for Argentina in order for them to win the World Cup or Landon Donovan needs to be at his top form in South Africa it is almost being like Tommy Smyth mentioning the obvious.

Our mission is to go out and look for dark horse players that could make a difference for some of the national teams going to South Africa this south hemisphere winter solstice.

It is also a great opportunity for us to expose some diamonds in the rough and eventually brag about being the first ones to talk about a player and be able to say "I told you so."

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When the U-20 World Cup in Egypt ended, Uruguayan captain Nicolás Lodeiro finally arrived onto the mainstream scene. His performance was one of the bright spot of La Celeste and his already high demand went stratospheric.

Lodeiro's ability with the ball is what the Uruguayans need in the middle in order to establish some organization and add an extra dimension to an attack filled with names but lacking structure.


Unfortunately for the high-flying Charrúas they happened to run into a buzzsaw called Brazil after having drawn against eventual champs Ghana in the group stage. They were involved in one of those unfortunate premature finals, but Lodeiro showed that he worth the billing that was given to him after Uruguay's performance in the South American qualifiers and Nacional's run in the 2009 Copa Libertadores. The young starlet scored two goals in the four matches he played and was fundamental in Uruguay advancing into the second round of the tournament.

The young man from Paysandú developed slowly in his first two years with Nacional's first team. As his potential began to turn into reality he started to obtain important minutes on the pitch. By the time 2009 rolled around, Lodeiro became the fulcrum of the Bolso attack. During his short time as the catalyst for Nacional's offense, they won yet another title and were able to reassert themselves as a power in the South American football landscape becoming the first Uruguayan side to reach the Libertadores semifinals in over 20 years.

During this time, he also was the 58th top scorer in the world according to the IFFHS.

What was most impressive was the moxie he displayed at such as young age in a position such as the one he had at a club as prestigious as Nacional. This was part of the reason he caught the eye of national team coach Oscar Washington Tabárez.

Although he's earned two caps for the senior side, he earned them in the most important matches of the Uruguayan World Cup qualifying campaign when they faced Costa Rica. Tabárez had him as a starter in his first-ever cap at the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa where the Uruguayans came out on top 1-0. He responded well in his baptism by fire, playing the majority of minutes in both legs of the play-off against Los Ticos.

Lodeiro was a primary attacking option for the La Celeste in both legs and earned a great deal of praise in both legs. He was the man of the match for Uruguayans in the return leg of the play-off at the Estadio Centenario. This level of play granted him access to a more prominent role within the Uruguayan attack for the upcoming World Cup.

In January, Lodeiro made the move across the pond and was signed by Dutch giants Ajax for a record four million euros.

Lodeiro could be a difference maker coming from the wings or in the middle for Uruguay as he could take advantage of any matchups that he might have with the slower central defenders that might have to face him in any runs into the box. He is twice as dangerous as you have to consider his passing ability to players like Luis Suárez, Diego Forlán, Sebsatián Abreu. They also have to respect his shot and his penchant for scoring on set pieces.

Many now believe that the present and future of Uruguayan football lies in the left foot of this talented player.

Awards
• Uruguayan Liguilla title (2008)
• Uruguayan league title (2009)
• Uruguayan Player of the Year (2009)
• South America Starting XI (2009)

Players to watch: Nicolás Lodeiro

There was an awkward feeling coming into the tournament since everyone knew that there would be a new champion being crowned since Argentina did not qualify. There were various questions being asked about various teams prior to the 2009 edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Egypt, it was the answers that raised the most eyebrows.

1) Brazil is Brazil. That footballing factory continues to manufacture players and their expectations are the same as always. They came in with their usual swagger and did not think twice when it came to dismantling their first opponent- CONCACAF champs Costa Rica. Brazil dominated and humiliated from whistle to whistle. "Brazil just ran over us," said Tico coach Ronald González. That would not be a good sign for the rest of the region.

2) Two teams that shouldn's have surprised. Uruguay and Venezuela were dark horses in my book. For various people it was a shock to see these two teams come out on top in their respective matches, but there is a reason for this. Uruguay is one of the most high-flying offensive teams in this tournament. They will be a pleasure to watch with players like former River Plate (U) Jonathan Urretaviscaya and Nacional's Nicolas Lodeiro as well AC Milan youngster Tabaré Viudez (who scored the sickest goal of the tourney so far.)as well as a host of others that are ushering in a new generation of Charrúa football that is based more on pace and skill than on their traditional "garra" or physical style of play.

Venezuela in the meantime faced a Nigerian side that was coming into this tournament as one of the favorites since the nucleus of this team was the one that won the U-17 title in 2007. That match was historic for the Vinotinto as they beat a perennial power in this level. Six of the players on this roster were on the U-17 winning side. If that first match was historic for Venezuela, the second will probably be even more as they will face Oceania minnows Tahiti, who are coming off an 8-0 plastering at the hands of Spain. If César Farías can keep his young men focused, they should be celebrating a pass to the second round.

CONMEBOL as a whole came out unbeaten Brazil trounced Costa Rica 5-0 and Paraguay played Italy to a scoreless draw. CONCACAF in the meantime were extremely disappointing. In addition to the Costa Rican demolition, both the US and Trinidad suffered one-sided losses to Germany and host nation Egypt respectively. The US looked extremely disappointing in a 3-0 loss to a Mannschaft that was still getting to know each other and missed out on wide open goals on various occasions. The Americans were never even in the match, which in the end was the lone consolation for the Soca Warriors. They at least went to the dressing rooms even at one goal prior to being wiped off the map in the second half by The Pharoahs. The took advantage of the host nation's nerves and ran with it for at least the first 50 minutes of the match.

The lone consolation for CONCACAF was Honduras, who defeated Hungary 3-0. The international media have praised the team led by Eugenio Umanzor. The Spanish media hailed Honduras performance as "creative". The Catrachos battled hard in the first half, but in the second half it became their playgorund as they did what they wanted against a Hungarian side that came into the tournament with a great deal of expectations. Mario Martínez was the mad bomber for Honduras as he scored two superb goals from outside the box.

For the latest on the FIFA U-20. please stay log on to the Miami Soccer Examiner and Mad About Futbol

U-20 World Cup Has Interesting Start

Has the program as a whole improved compared to when us Gen X'ers were playing at the local park or competitively? Absolutely. The problem that US Soccer is not getting their head around is the fact that this generation of fans now have something that other fans never did- expectations. US soccer fans expect the national team to be in the World Cup. There are kids in college that have never seen the national team not get to a World Cup.

Long, LONG, gone are the Alkis Panagoulias, Lothar Osiander, and Bob Gansler eras. For those of us that can barely remember those days in which expectations were microsopic indeed. So with those memories hidden deep within the pages of the US Soccer dark ages.

The expectations now are that they need to do something in these tournaments. Just getting there is not enough for the average American soccer fan and this is why people have all the right in the world to complain about the U-20's poor performance this weekend against an ordinary German side.
Stats lie...
If there was ever a match that proved once and for all that stats in football are to be taken with a grain of salt it was the Germany-US game on Saturday. Possession favored the US 52-48, but that stat sometimes does not tell the truth about what happened in the match. Possession as a stat is kinda like dating in a way. Imagine you went out with Kevin Walker's girl Pilar Ruiz. If you go out with her ten times and do nothing... well you did nothing. But if you go out with her once and you dance, drink, do crazy stuff (you fill in the blank here), and then wake up in the morning to breakfast in bed at her place...I guess you get my point.


That is what possession means in soccer. In soccer means having "the girl" and doing something with her. In this case it means scoring. Man I better stop there, for those of you with sick minds- I'll let you be. Possession is a complimentary stat. Yes, the US had the ball 52% of the time, but the results were: seven shots, two shots on goal, and zero goals scored. Germany on the other hand had 17 shots, six of them were on goal, and three of them hit the back of the net (one off a penalty).

So who did the most with Pilar?

The Reality
The US is definitely the nation of stats. That is why it is hard for soccer fans here to grasp the game without numbers. Some people were talking on several blogs about the fact that the US didn't get "dominated". Those who say that are absolutely right. Dominated is not the right word. They got schooled, the pun is somewhat intended.

When talking to Kartik Krishnaiyer, I always seemed to bring into the conversation the use of college players on this team. The Germany match showed how overmatched these kids are. Yes they can run like the wind, but their skills have eroded to such a degree in just two years after graduating high school, that they have regressed compared to other high end players in this category around the world. The gap is even drastic within the squad itself. The youngsters that are already professionals are light years ahead of their collegiate teammates.

Is it a knock on the players? Absolutely not. It is a knock on the collegiate system which I always thought was too Americanized using excessive substitution patterns much like basketball. College soccer games are like glorified AYSO games, because everyone plays or so it seems. So players are being shuffled in and out while the team acquires little to no rhythm at all. To be honest, that is not going to change because the NCAA gives a rat's ass about the the US national team. If they did, they would have already lifted the archaic and asinine regulations that they have in place since the time Herbert Hoover was president (or one of those old dudes). Let's get something straight, the "college style" of soccer (whatever that is) does not cut it outside of the collegiate level. This is what happens when the big fish from the little pond gets dumped into the big, blue ocean.

What happened at Hosni Mubarak Stadium on Saturday was a complete and utter disaster and it didn't happen by accident. This was supposed to happen. The US might as well bless their lucky stars that they did not lose by more because Germany did not look sharp at all. The US lack of identity in every phase of the game saw them pay dearly. Thomas Rongen saw his team get outclassed in ever sense of the word, the worst part of this all was the fact that he was powerless on that bench.

There was more shape in Jell-O than there was in the US formation. There were instances when they collectively looked like they met up at the pitch a few minutes before kickoff. No one outside of the US would have imagined that they had been through an infinite number of camps for the past few years. It was borderline embarrassing.

Who NOT To Blame?

Goalkeeper Brian Perk did what he could do by himself making some impressive saves, but there is only so much a 20-year-old can do all by himself. He can't be expected to cover for mistakes that were being made by his fullbacks in his own defensive third. He needed a pair of lozenges because his throat was sore from all the screaming he did at his backline.

Some might say that this is the same way the senior side started their incredible Confederations Cup run and yes there is still time to improve. There is only one problem, Cameroon are looking to lock up their spot in the second round. There is no doubt that they have to remain positive and look at the future, but that is So if you want to go back into history, please stop in the chapter titled "Remember Ghan-er". We all remember that match against Ghana in Nurmberg? If the team isn't careful, it could be that sequel.

Realities Emerging After Germany Loss