Mexico get Iraq, England and Chile in U-17 World Cup draw

The 2017 U-17 World Cup draw was done today in host nation India, an event in which Mexico was seeded for winning the CONCACAF U-17 title. They were seeded in Group F, which will be mostly based in the city of Calcutta. Iraq, England and Chile will be their rivals in which looks to be a tough group but not the toughest. The best news might be that no African team was in the group, the confederation that has given Mexico the most trouble in this competition. Mexico will open the group against Iraq on October 8 in Calcutta. They will stay in the same city for their October 11 game against England. They will then go to the city of Guwahati for their game against Chile to close the Group on October 14.

The draw sets up a lot of potentially interesting matchups. The biggest is the meeting with the new big rival for Mexico in Chile. Mexico, of course, is always looking for revenge after their 7-0 loss in Copa America that has traumatized Mexicans fans. Chile on the other hand will be looking for revenge after their 4-1 loss in the 2015 U-17 World Cup that they hosted, and in which they were eliminated. Mexico will also look to exact revenge in their match against England, who just eliminated Mexico in the Quarterfinals of the U-20 World Cup in South Korea. England went on to win the title and would be looking for a repeat. Even Iraq has something to play for as Mexico defeated them in the 2011 U-17 World Cup 3-1, in a game that was a lot closer than the scoreline suggests.

Mexico not only is a powerhouse in this category but they have a very good team that won the U-17 CONCACAF tournament after defeating another strong team in the United States. While the group is very tough, they should be able to go through, especially with possibly three teams going into the next round. Iraq is the Asian champions and England and Chile were runners up in their confederation tournaments (Chile benefited a lot from hosting it, although they would lose what ended up being the potential final 5-0 to Brazil). That said, Mexico has a good team and if they are able to send a team with Diego Lainez from America, they should be contenders to win it all. If they want to live up to their goals, they should be able to qualify and maybe win this group, even if it's not easy.