New failure: Latin American Teams’ Poor Results at the U-20 World Cup

The U-20 World Cup played in 2023 will be remembered, for many years, as one of the most eventful in the history of this tournament. The constant changes at the last minute made by FIFA and the large number of young promises that were not loaned by their teams to compete in this competition were some of the nuances that will remain in history.

Likewise, the world championship played in Argentina will go down in history as one of the most negative for Latin American football. The continent arrived at this U-20 World Cup with its best teams, which came with an important level of competition. Despite this, the Selection of Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia came to disappoint all their fans with their premature eliminations.

From Heaven to Hell

The Ecuadorian National Team ended its participation in the group stage in the best way. The team led by Miguel Bravo finished this round of the championship with the distinction of the highest scoring team in the tournament. In addition to this, the 'Tri' had the possibility of having the biggest win of this championship, which came after beating the Fiji National Team 9-0.

With these good results and relevant statistics, Ecuador began to excite all its fans with an outstanding presentation in this tournament. Despite reaching the round of 16 as the clear favorite to advance to the round, the Latin American team was surprised by South Korea. This team surpassed Ecuador with a score of 3-2, a result that sentenced its premature elimination from the tournament.

The Location Did Not Matter

The Argentine National Team is one of the great failures of this world championship. The one directed by Javier Mascherano got his ticket to this U-20 World Cup for replacing Indonesia as the venue, a country that for political and religious reasons could not carry out this sporting event. As a consequence of this, the 'Albiceleste' took the role of host for this competition.

Despite the great support of its fans, the Argentine National Team could not reach the final rounds of the world championship. In the round of 16 of this competition, they faced an old rival for all Argentines, recalling the history between the two teams in the U-20 World Cups.

Argentina said goodbye to its World Cup after losing surprisingly against Nigeria, a team that surpassed the Latin American team in all aspects. The albiceleste found themselves without the necessary means to be able to turn the score around in this match. Given this, the team led by Mascherano sentenced one of the strongest eliminations in its history.

Lack of Determination

The Colombian National Team reached this U-20 World Cup as one of the Latin American teams with the longest working time. Given this, the team led by Héctor Cárdenas made clear his favoritism to reach the final stages of the tournament in the group stage. In this round of the tournament, the 'Tricolor' showed all its forcefulness, a characteristic that has been with it for several months.

After overcoming the round of 16 by beating Slovakia 5-0, the 'coffee' team ran into Italy, a European team that did not hesitate to eliminate the Colombians in the worst way. During this match, the Italian players demonstrated their superiority, before a pale presentation by the Latin American players. The Colombians lowered their arms at the moment of losing by three goals.

With this strong elimination, the issue of the sporting process came to light in the Colombian Football Federation, which seems to be happy with the result obtained in this world championship. However, their fans are aware that there is a promising future with this group of players, but at the same time they are asking for a leap in quality, in order to reach the final phases of the most important championships again.

The Big Disappointment

The most relevant card from Latin America for this U-20 World Cup was Brazil, a team that came to this tournament as the current South American champion that was played a few months ago. Despite their favoritism to keep the title of this competition, the 'Canarinha' arrived at this world championship without fundamental pieces for their team.

Not being able to count on its most outstanding players, the Brazilian National Team had many problems during this tournament, to the point of finalizing their elimination against a rival considered to be of a lower level. In the quarterfinals, the 'verdeamarela' said goodbye to this U-20 World Cup by losing 3-2 against Israel, a team that wrote one of its most valuable victories in the history books.

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The 'Charrúa Claw'

With all these premature eliminations, it can be said that the only Latin American team that had an outstanding performance in this U-20 World Cup was that of Uruguay. The 'Celeste' is in the semifinals of the tournament and has great chances of reaching the grand final.

Their match against Israel will be held next Thursday, June 8, a commitment that will be vital for Latin America to finish this world championship in the best possible way.