We haven’t really talked about it on here — there’s been a lot of other stuff going on! — but Tottenham Hotspur have two youngsters, striker Dane Scarlett and attacking midfielder Alfie Devine, participating with England in the U20 World Cup in Argentina. Indonesia was originally selected to host this tournament but were replaced last month, apparently after widespread protests over Israel’s participation in the tournament (!!). (FIFA never really explained why they replaced Indonesia as hosts, only saying in a statement that it was “due to the current circumstances” which is both LOL and also the most FIFA statement ever.)
Anyway, the tournament kicked off this week, and England got off to a good start with a 1-0 group stage win over Tunisia on Monday. And guess who scored the winner? You guessed it, Dane Scarlett.
Here’s a YouTube highlight video, cued up to Dane’s winner.
Great little header, that. Dane showed good instincts to crash the box and just plain out-jumped his defender. Pretty great ball in from Chelsea midfielder Harvey Vale, too. Alfie Devine didn’t score or assist, but went the full 90 in England’s first match.
Brazil are the heavy favorites to win the competition, probably more so now that they’re practically playing on home soil, but both England and France are also considered contenders. England in particular has a strong squad, and are in a decent enough group along with Tunisia, Uruguay, and Iraq. The Young Lions won this competition in 2017, and you may also recall that Scarlett won the U19 Euros with England just last summer.
And for the local contingent, the USA U20s also got off to a good start yesterday with a 3-0 win over Fiji in Group B. They play Slovakia next on Friday.
England’s next match is tomorrow against Uruguay. This match will be televised on Fox Sports 2 in the USA; no TV coverage in England was provided which kind of boggles the mind.