ASN: Evaluation: United States attracts Ecuador, Fiji, & Slovakia on the U-20 World Cup

America U-20 nationwide staff discovered its draw for the U-20 World Cup and ASN’s Brian Sciaretta appears to be like on the venue and the opponents the U.S. staff might be dealing with in Argentina. 

BY

Brian Sciaretta

Posted
April 21, 2023
12:50 PM

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THE UNITED STATES U-20 nationwide staff discovered its destiny for the World Cup because the draw occurred on Friday in Zurich. The match will run from Might 20 by means of June 11 and the USA staff might be primarily based out of San Juan, Argentina close to the border with northern Chile.

The U.S. U-20 staff was drawn into Group B together with Ecuador, Fiji, and Slovakia. The U.S. staff additionally discovered the dates of their video games

Might 20: United States vs. Ecuador
Might 23: United States vs. Fiji
Might 27: United States vs. Slovakia

All the United States Group B video games might be held at Estadio San Juan del Bicentenario in San Juan, Argentina. The stadium is dwelling to San Martín de San Juan, at present of Argentina’s second tier – and it has hosted a number of necessary video games because it opened.

The venue hosted three video games on the 2011 Copa America together with a quarterfinal. It additionally hosted two Argentina World Cup qualifiers, together with a distinguished sport towards Brazil on November 17, 2021, which ended 0-0. The opposite qualifier was a 3-0 win over Colombia on November 16, 2016.

A take a look at the U.S. draw
 

America draw isn’t simple, however it’s additionally not almost as onerous because it may have been.

For instance, whereas Ecuador is sweet, the U.S. staff may have drawn harder England or Brazil groups from Pot 2. Each England and Brazil are anticipated to be contenders.

From Pot 3, the U.S. staff drew Fiji and averted Nigeria or Japan – the 2 hardest from the pot.

 From Pot 4, Slovakia was among the many harder groups the U.S. may have drawn because the best choices had been the Dominican Republic or Guatemala and the principles stop two groups from the identical federation from being drawn collectively.

That being stated, in youth soccer it’s by no means fairly because it appears to be like. There are at all times some nations who aren’t sometimes at an elite stage however who may have a powerful class of gamers. For instance, Ukraine gained the U-20 World Cup in 2019 regardless of not being thought-about an “elite” soccer nation. Nonetheless, the powerhouse nations on the U-20 stage are typically robust.

The U-20 opponents

Ecuador

Ecuador certified for the U-20 World Cup by advantage of ending fourth on the 2023 CONMEBOL U-20 Championships in Colombia. They superior out of Group B with a 3rd place end out of 5 groups. Ecuador drew Chile 1-1, defeated Bolivia 1-0, misplaced to Venezuela 1-0, after which drew eventual runner—up Uruguay 1-1 (Uruguay had already clinched successful the group and rotated its squad closely).

Then within the last stage – a single group of six groups with the highest 4 groups qualifying for the World Cup – Ecuador completed fourth.

Within the last stage, Ecuador opened with three straight losses. First to eventual champion Brazil 3-1, then misplaced to Uruguay 2-1 (Uruguay began its high gamers this sport), after which to Colombia 2-1.

Ecuador rose to fourth with a 1-1 win over Venezuela after which lastly a 2-1 win over Paraguay on the ultimate matchday.

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— D’Rabona (@drabonaec) February 12, 2023

Within the CONMEBOL U-20 Championships, Ecuador was led by Justin Cuero who completed with 4 objectives. He was the one Ecuadorian participant with a number of objectives. He at present performs for Independiente del Valle who at present lead Ecuador’s high flight. Cuero has made only one first staff look in his profession, coming as a 72nd minute substitute in a 2-1 win over Mushuc Runa on February 23, 2023.

Ecuador’s roster on the CONMEBOL U-20 Championships consisted of 21 gamers primarily based domestically in Ecuador. One participant was primarily based at Sporting Cristal in Peru and midfielder Patrickson Delgado was the one participant primarily based in Europe at Jong Ajax.

That’s seemingly not be the case on the World Cup because the 2023 CONMEBOL U-20 Championships occurred in January and February in the course of the top of most European seasons and golf equipment weren’t required to launch gamers.

Fiji

Fiji certified for the U-20 World Cup because the runner up on the 2022 OFC U-19 Championship.

Fiji’s match started with a second-place end in Group B. Group B was a large number with three matches having to be deserted as a result of groups couldn’t arrive in time.

— OFC Oceania Soccer (@OFCfootball) September 22, 2022

Fiji benefited with a 3-0 awarded win over Papua New Guinea attributable to Papua New Guinea not exhibiting up. Then Fiji defeated Tonga 3-0. The ultimate group stage sport for Fiji was a 0-0 draw with Tahiti.

Curiously sufficient, after Papua New Guinea missed its first two video games, it was capable of present up for its final group stage sport towards Tonga. Tonga, nonetheless, didn’t present up and Papua New Guinea was awarded a 3-0 win and remarkably superior to the knockouts regardless of not enjoying a minute within the group stage (two forfeited losses and one forfeited win – one thing that amazingly didn’t occur in CONCACAF). Within the quarterfinal, their run ended once they really needed to play and misplaced to New Zealand 5-0.

However that is not all. Vanuata additionally confirmed that within the OFC, typically it is higher to not present up in any respect after their -6 purpose differential for forfeiting two video games was nonetheless higher than the Prepare dinner Islands -11 purpose differential. This allowed it to qualify for the quarterfinals. 

Vanuata superior to the quarterfinals after not exhibiting up its two group stage matches as a result of their -6 purpose differential was nonetheless higher than the -11 of the Prepare dinner Islands within the third-place rankings. Vanuatu then misplaced 1-0 to Tahiti within the quarterfinals.

— TK Maxwell (@tkhighcountry) April 21, 2023

Fiji defeated Samoa 4-1 in its quarterfinal after which defeated New Caledonia 1-0 within the semifinal to qualify for the World Cup. Within the last, Fiji fell to New Zealand 3-0.

Fiji had two gamers with a number of objectives within the match.

Melvin Mani completed with three objectives and that every one got here in a hat-trick efficiency towards Samoa within the 4-1 quarterfinal victory. Mani at present performs for Navua of the second tier in Fiji.

Nabil Begg scored two objectives together with the winner within the semifinal win over New Caledonia to seal a spot within the U-20 World Cup.  Begg performs for Ba FC of the highest tier in Fiji.

Of the 25 gamers on the Fiji roster for the OFC U-19 Championships, six performed in New Zeland and two performed in England (one within the fourth tier, one within the fifth tier), and the remainder play domestically in Fiji.

Additionally of observe, earlier this 12 months Fiji performed a pleasant towards Indonesia as a tune-up for the World Cup. The match ended up getting violent and Fiji’s federation needed to apologize for the conduct. 

— Fiji Soccer Affiliation (@FijiFootball_) February 18, 2023

Slovakia

Slovakia certified for the U-20 World Cup as one among 5 groups from UEFA. The qualification was by means of the 2022 UEFA U-19 Championships and Slovakia certified for that match because the hosts.

Slovakia was performed into Group A however had a really troublesome group with France, Italy, and Romania. Below the format, the highest two groups certified for the knockout levels and earned a spot on the U-20 World Cup. The third-place finisher certified for a playoff for a U-20 World Cup spot. The fourth-place finisher was eradicated.

Not surprisingly, Slovakia misplaced to France 5-0 and misplaced to Italy 1-0 to open the match.  Due to a poor purpose differential, Slovakia wanted to defeat Romania within the last group stage sport to qualify for third place and the U-20 World Cup playoff spot. That occurred in dramatic style when Slovakian ahead Adam Griger (who’s at present on mortgage from LASK of the Austrian Bundesliga to Cagliari of Italy’s Serie B) discovered a purpose within the fifth minute of stoppage time for a 1-0 win over Romania.

Within the playoff for the ultimate UEFA U-20 World Cup spot, Slovakia defeated Austria 1-0 off a sixty fourth minute purpose from proper again Samuel Kopasek who performs for MSK Zilina of Slovakia’s high tier.

Of the roster Slovakia delivered to the UEFA U-19 Championships, each participant apart from Griger was primarily based domestically in Slovakia. However the squad additionally consisted of a number of gamers of the identical staff – 5 gamers had been on Zilina, 4 gamers had been on Trencin,  two gamers had been from Spartak Trnava and Slovan Bratislava.