The South American under-17 Championship is now two weeks old and has reached the halfway stage. We now know the six teams that make up the final group and those for whom this marks the end of the road in this tournament. The first day’s action saw plenty of goals and exciting, attacking football and thankfully things have not changed since.
Nine-times winners Brazil have displayed plenty of their expected attacking zest but have also shown a penchant for some terrible defending which has culminated in a record of three wins and one defeat. Of course this is not a bad total by any stretch of the imagination and they finished top of Group B, but few would have expected a 2-1 loss against Paraguay in their penultimate game. Recent Chelsea acquisition Lucas Piazón has two goals to his name (including this rather peculiar one against Paraguay) as does Adryan from Flamengo.
Joint on points with Brazil at the top of Group B are Paraguay who have a one-goal inferior goal difference. Los Guaraníes have responded very impressively to an opening game defeat to Colombia going on to record three wins out of their next three games including one over favourites Brazil and emphatic victories over Chile and Venezuela. Mauro Caballero (Libertad) is their top scorer with three goals so far.
Colombia are the third team to progress from Group B which means Chile and Venezuela are now eliminated. Venezuela kicked things off with an absolutely thrilling 4-3 defeat to Brazil; they actually went 2-0 up early on and then led 3-2 for nearly forty minutes. However they were unable to hang on or in fact build on this performance succumbing to three more defeats (albeit only by a single goal against Chile and Colombia) and exited the competition without a single point on the board.
Final Group B standings:
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Brazil | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 7 | +5 | 9 |
 Paraguay | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 5 | +4 | 9 |
 Colombia | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 8 | –1 | 7 |
 Chile | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 8 | –3 | 4 |
 Venezuela | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 10 | –5 | 0 |
It was Argentina who topped Group A with an identical record to Brazil of three wins and one defeat (coming against Uruguay). Leandro Paredes (Boca Juniors), Lucas Ocampos (River Plate) and Brian Ferreira (Vélez Sársfield) wasted no time in making a good impression early on in the tournament and have pretty much kept this up since. Lucas Pugh of River Plate is building somewhat of a super-sub reputation for himself scoring two after coming off the bench. Check out this fantastic strike in Argentina's opening game against Peru (it's the fourth goal).
Hosts Ecuador finished second in the group safely securing their passage into the final stage and Uruguay filled the final qualification spot in third. It is unclear what to make of Uruguay at this stage. After getting off to a fantastic start with victories over Bolivia and Argentina; they then lost against Ecuador and suffered a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Peru. In fairness they were already safely into the final stage by the time the last game came around but it will be interesting to see what two straight defeats does to their morale/confidence. Uruguay have only scored four goals so far and three of those have come from Juan Mascia (Miramar Misiones) so keep an eye on him in the next stage.
Peru and Bolivia's participation in this edition of Sudamericano Sub-17 is now over and GUSU cannot help but express some regret over the Peruvians' exit having been thoroughly charmed by their enjoyable attacking play and equally infuriated by their defending and lack of discipline. Raziel Garcia (Universidad San Martín de Porres), Horacio Benincasa (Esther Grande de Bentin), Andy Polo, Édison Flores (both Universitario de Deportes) and Alexander Ponce (Academia Deportiva Cantolao) will all be added to GUSU's metaphorical black book and their progress tracked now that they are finished in Ecuador.
Bolivia's place at the bottom of Group A also sadly means the end of Robert Silva (Florida). Captain, number ten and altogether one of the most impressive players from the first stage, it looks like he has a lot of potential and will be monitored by this blog with interest. Another player to remember from Bolivia is Alex Pontons, currently on the books at AC Milan.
Final Group A standings:
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Argentina | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 4 | +6 | 9 |
 Ecuador | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 7 |
 Uruguay | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | –1 | 6 |
 Peru | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 9 | –1 | 4 |
 Bolivia | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 9 | –4 | 3 |
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