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Here are some very good words and phrases to get you ready for the U20 European Championships in June 2009. Footballgirl.com will help us all through the coming months with the basic Belarussian words.....Read More |
City LIfe |
Some soup Some Water SYndromeThe U20 EURO has always had a strong German influence as they have appeared in the final 2 games every competition. The future of a star player though is very harder to predict and it comes as no surprise that some of the best players ever to grace this tournament, have seen the next few years as something rather different....Read More |
Players To WatchIt is that time of year again where the best players in Europe under 20 make their way to perform for the prize of European Champion. Here is our Editor’s pick of the best young players that have been a bright light during the past year.. Read More |
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U20 EURO 2009
Belarus
Germany have dominated this tournament since it started and that success has translated to the senior team with wins in the European Championships. It all started in 1998 as Denmark who at the time were one of the strongest teams in Europe won the initial tournament.
1999
Sweden won this tournament as not only their senior team but their league began to grow and grow on and off the field. Their dominance helped the growing reputation of Scandinavia as the home of female football ( until footballgirl came of course ).
2000+2001
Germany won these titles and produced a number of stars in the making as their club team Frankfurt started to make a strong reputation across Europe as the best team around. The impact Birgit Prinz also had on the younger players was really evident during these years as the senior team began to get much more coverage on German television. This was helped by the strong and amazing senior team which included Prinz, Meinert, Jones amongst others who would become greats for Germany.
2002
The competition opened up some more as 34 teams now entered and this time the result was the same in the end. Germany won their 3rd title in a row setting a new record. They beat France in teh final with a dominating display.This tournament was also the tournament that showed the footbalgirl world that the future of female football was going to be great.
Players such as Rassmussen from Denmark made her mark with skills and wing play that had not been seen at that age. The French team also made it through to the final that year with a team that would include 6 national team players for the 2009 EURO some 7 years later.
Their coach at the time Bruno Bini and the coach of the Germans Silvia Neid ( whom both had legendary coaches above them) would follow their best players into the national team taking the level of football up with them.
2003
This tournament was to played in Germany and so what did you expect of the final result.?
Well the winners came from France. The players who had been crying a year earlier were not all there to get revenge. It was a slightly new team with Luisa Necib the centre but the coach was still Bruno Bini who returned to the French National Academy Clairefontaine as a hero.
France beat a Norway team who had been struggling over the past 3 years to produce any young talent strong enough to make an impact on the Olympic winning team of 2000. The final in Leipzig was 2-0 to France
2004
The strength of players that came in the past two years made the Germans as strong as ever this year. They scored an amazing number of goals of the way to the final of this tournament. 23 goals Germany scored in what seemed like a certain win as they even thrashed Spain 7-0 in the groups. Spain finished second on the last day though and made it back to the final to beat Germany 2-1.
It was a great win as Spain played through the second half like a team possessed with winning and a great attacking midfielder
2005
This was the year of the EURO England and our footballgirl world was taken to a new level as stadium crowd records were broke and the level of football reached as high as ever. Then Germany won. At the Under 20 level though the game had Really changed. The countries that had no big tournament experience came out of the blue as their coaching got better and their teamwork tested the bigger footballgirl nations.
Spain did not make it to the finals this time in Hungary as most of their team were too old from the previous tournament. France were also becoming the second best team at this youth level as they had introduced many players a year early. It also helped that they had a great national academy in the beautiful Rombuillet region. That plus the fact that the academy had a club team so most of the players at their youth levels really were a club team.
They went through the tournament eliminating Spain in the qualifying round and meeting Russia in the finals. The Russians themselves were a real surprise at this tournament. The problem at this level is that many of the countries do not know anything about some of the smaller footballgirl nations. If they did then everyone would have seen the forward who took this year by storm. Elena Danilova. It was some time since a player single handedly took her team all the way to the final with 9 goals.
Russia beat France 6-5 on penalties after France had levelled the game in the game 2-2 in the last 5 minutes.
2006
Maren Meinert had become coach of Germany and they had another set of young players ready to serve it up at this tournament. Elena was also ready scoring a record 17 goals throughout the year to easily become the top scorer. The Russian raid ended in the semi-final against Germany though as the German midfielder Kerchowski dominated the field. Then her sister came out to score in the final were they beat a strong French team 3-0.
2007
The talk of the Iceland tournament was who would beat Germany as they really did have some strong palyers. By now many of the countries had seen what they other European teams would be bringing as the World Cup U20 was just played a year earlier. The Germans also had the Kerchowski twins two players who physically looked as strong as they played and another stack of wingers and midfielders who made this team one of the most solid for years.
They went on to play Mo Marley’s England in the final. Even though England lost 2-0 after extra time it was a big result for England. The number of players from this tournament that would go into the senior and U23 set up was the most in a long time and their level of play was good.
2008
England and Sweden had the players but did not have the goals as England went out on the group stage. Germany had a good team but not a great team. What they did have was Julia Simic running the show from her small pocket in the midfield and on the exact opposite scale a 17 year old called Kim Kulig who would go straight into the national team soon after this tournament.
Norway themselves had a good group of players and a strong team effort but had no star players and the game against Germany in the semi-final was a real fight as Germany began the game by scoring in the first 2 minutes. Norway were outplayed in the first half but came back in the second as Germany did not know how to get the second goal. Norway finally scored in the last 10 minutes sending the game into extra time.
All of a sudden they believed in themselves and kept the ball much better than before.Germany had the technique but no energy and the game went to penalties were Norway won. On the other side of town Sweden with their strong team made no impact on Italy who passed around them all day
The Swedes were one of the teams to beat with a number of players who had first team experience back home in the Swedish Dmallsvenskan. They were given a new experience here the art of defending from tournament star Sara Gama and the art of passing form ‘canteira’ Alice Parisi who was simply on form today.
The final 2 days later came too quickly for Norway and their coach who was once again a loser of a youth final. Norway started well but Italy passed teh ball and switched palyers arpund in the midfield. In the second half Norway were pushed back and began to make more fouls which the Italians took advantage of. Sara Gama and Penzo in goal had no trouble and teh Norwegian players began to really look tired as the game reached the 70th minute.
Italy won the game 1-0 with a penalty form Parisi.
- 2007 - 2008 Italy
- 2006 - 2007 Germany
- 2005 - 2006 Germany
- 2004 - 2005 Russia
- 2003 - 2004 Spain
- 2002 - 2003 France
- 2001 - 2002 Germany
- 2000 - 2001 Germany
- 1999 - 2000 Germany
- 1998 - 1999 Sweden
- 1997 - 1998 Denmark
The European Under-20 Championship is a competition in women's football for European national teams of players under 19 years of age. It is also a FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup qualifying competition. National under-19 teams whose countries belong to the European governing body UEFA can register to enter the competition.The competition began in the 1997-98 season as an under-18 event; it became an under-19s event from the 2001-02 season. The Championship has 2 phases: the qualifying phase open to all eligible nations, and the finals phase which is composed of 8 qualifying teams. The finals themselves are composed of two groups of four teams; each team plays the others in the group. The winner of each group after the 3 matches plays the runner-up of the opposing group in a semi-final, with the winner contesting the final.
