Source : FIFA.com

Just a few more days until the 2018 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup starts in Uruguay. It's debatable if the name of the tournament is correct as they are technically still girls, but let's give FIFA the benefit of the doubt and accept the name they have chosen for this event.

Before the tournament starts we will go through the participating nations in the aim to get to know them a little bit better. In this article we will concentrate on the teams in Group A.

Source : FIFA.com

Uruguay

The host nation will only participate for the second time in the World Cup for this age group. The previous time they qualified was in 2012 when the tournament was held in Azerbaijan. Back then they lost all of their group matches in a group that existed of Germany, Ghana and China as opponents. Yamila Badell scored both goals in their 5-2 defeat against Germany.

Being the host nation Uruguay qualified automatically for the tournament. In the most recent U-17 South American Championship Uruguay finished third. Angela Gomez was their top goal scorer during this tournament. She scored four of their eight goals in total.

They are coached by Ariel Longo, a former defender from the 1970's and 80's. This coach gained experience abroad in China and mainly in Guatemala where he was active for about 13 years. Currently he is leading not only the U-17 team, but also all other Uruguayan national women sides.

Yamila Badell scores for Uruguay. Source: FIFA.com

Ghana

Unlike Uruguay we can say that Ghana is very experienced on the U-17 level, having qualified for all editions so far. The first edition of this tournament happened in 2008, making this the sixth consecutive time they will participate. Their best achievement so far came in 2012 when they beat Germany 1-0 in the 3rd place play-off, being the first and so far he only African country to reach the semi finals in this tounament. Ghana proved to be a talented side also in the two following tournaments as they reached the quarter finals on both occasions.

The competition Ghana faces in Africa is limited, but is that because the others are so weak, or because they are so strong. They only needed to beat two countries in qualification. Gambia was beaten 7-1 on aggregate whereas Djibouti awaited in the 2nd round. They stood no chance and were demolished by the Ghanian girls, 19-0 over two legs of football. Mukarama Abdulai was their main striker during this qualification event, scoring a total of twelve goals, four against Gambia and eight against Djibouti.

Their current coach is Evans Adotey, who also was the coach of the same side in 2014 and 2016 when as mentioned above the quarter finals were reached. Adotey also managed Ghana Premier League side Medeama SC in the 2017 season in which they finished 7th. Medeama SC are the current leaders in the 2018 campaign. The league is currently postponed and it is unclear as to what is going to happen and when it is to be continued. Medeama SC wanted Adotey to remain at the club as a manager, but as he couldn't combine his job with the U-17 job he became their technical director instead.

Top goalscorer Mukarama Abdulai n action. Copyright : Eric Onchiri

New Zealand

New Zealand is the second country in this group that has been present at all previous tournaments in this age category. They were the hosts of the first ever tournament held in 2008. They have however not been as successful as Ghana. With only two wins in 15 matches New Zealand never qualified out of the group stage.

During the continental qualification event New Zealand faced no competition at all. This time we can be certain that this is due to the weakness of the opponents. They scored 41 goals in three group matches and in the semi final included. Then in the final New Caledonia was beaten 6-0, showing total domination. Arabella Maynard scored four goals in that final.

New Zealand is coached by Leon Birnie who led the New Zealand U-20 women's side at the 2016 World Cup. There he managed to secure a win over Ghana in the group stage. He will be looking to repeat the same effort in Uruguay.

Source: Oceaniafootball.com

Finland

The fourth nation in the group is Finland, which is based on the history of the event the least experienced team in the group. Finland will be making their tournament debut in Uruguay. The fact that this is their tournament debut is not surprising, however the fact that they manage to qualify is. It was the first time Finland entered the qualifying stages in this age group and managed to qualify straight away.

This impressive achievement becomes even more impressive when you realize that they won matches over both The Netherlands, Germany and England, securing a third place in the European qualifiers.

The coach that made this unique achievement possible is Marko Saloranta. Saloranta has been coaching women sides since 2005 when he became the manager of FC Honka. He led this team to the Naisten Liiga title in 2006, 2007 and 2008. He managed the team until 2010 and joined the Suomen Palloliitto (Finnish Football Association) in 2011, taking charge of the U-16 and U-17 sides.

Source: FIFA.com

Predictions

I believe that this will be a very open group where it will be hard to predict which team will top the group. Historically you would expect Ghana to be the team that ends up first, but the South American temperament of the host nation, as well as the surprisingly strong Finns should not be underestimated. They will be able to challenge the Africans alot. New Zealand appears to be the weakest link in the group.

  1. Uruguay
  2. Finland
  3. Ghana
  4. New Zealand

Sources:

FIFA

Wikipedia

Ghanaweb

Soccerway

College Sport Media