FIFA Under 17 World Cup: Germany to arrive in Goa ahead of tourney

Germany will be the first team to arrive in Goa on Saturday for the FIFA U-17 World Cup to be held in six venues across the country from October 6 to 28.

Germany, who are placed in Group C along with Costa Rica, Iran and Guinea, will play their first match against Costa Rica on October 7. Costa Rica, Iran and Guinea, who are the other teams from this group, will arrive on October 3.

Germany, who are not regular participants at FIFA U-17 World Cups, have appeared at a five U-17 World Cups so far. Germany reached the last eight at Scotland 1989. The greatest success enjoyed by a German team at an U-17 World Cup was at the inaugural tournament in China PR in 1985, where they finished as runners-up.

Germany performed as a compact unit throughout the entire qualifying campaign and recorded seven victories from as many games up until the European Championship semi-final, scoring 36 goals and conceding just six.

The only time they failed to hit the target was in their last four clash against eventual champions Spain, who won 4-2 in a penalty shoot-out.
Christian Wuck has worked as a coach at the German Football Association since 2012, taking charge of the U-16s and U-17s, among others. Under his charge, Germany reached the final of the UEFA U-17 European Championship, which they lost 1-4 to France.

At the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile in 2015, Wuck's team lost to Croatia in the last 16 round. As a player Wuck made more than 100 Bundesliga appearances for Nuremberg, Karisruher SC and VFL Wolfsburg.

Germany has scored 17 goals in five games at the European qualifying tournament, with Fiete Arp scoring seven of them.