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U.S. U-20 analysis

Analysis: United States draws Ecuador, Fiji, & Slovakia at the U-20 World Cup

The United States U-20 national team learned its draw for the U-20 World Cup and ASN's Brian Sciaretta looks at the venue and the opponents the U.S. team will be facing in Argentina. 
BY Brian Sciaretta Posted
April 21, 2023
12:50 PM

THE UNITED STATES U-20 national team learned its fate for the World Cup as the draw took place on Friday in Zurich. The tournament will run from May 20 through June 11 and the United States team will be based out of San Juan, Argentina near the border with northern Chile.

The U.S. U-20 team was drawn into Group B along with Ecuador, Fiji, and Slovakia. The U.S. team also learned the dates of their games

  • May 20: United States vs. Ecuador
  • May 23: United States vs. Fiji
  • May 27: United States vs. Slovakia

All of the United States Group B games will be held at Estadio San Juan del Bicentenario in San Juan, Argentina. The stadium is home to San Martín de San Juan, currently of Argentina’s second tier - and it has hosted several important games since it opened.

The venue hosted three games at the 2011 Copa America including a quarterfinal. It also hosted two Argentina World Cup qualifiers, including a prominent game against Brazil on November 17, 2021, which ended 0-0. The other qualifier was a 3-0 win over Colombia on November 16, 2016.

 

A look at the U.S. draw

 

The United States draw isn’t easy, but it’s also not nearly as hard as it could have been.

For example, while Ecuador is good, the U.S. team could have drawn tougher England or Brazil teams from Pot 2. Both England and Brazil are expected to be contenders.

From Pot 3, the U.S. team drew Fiji and avoided Nigeria or Japan – the two toughest from the pot.

 From Pot 4, Slovakia was among the more difficult teams the U.S. could have drawn since the easiest options were the Dominican Republic or Guatemala and the rules prevent two teams from the same federation from being drawn together.

That being said, in youth soccer it is never quite as it looks. There are always some countries who aren’t typically at an elite level but who could have a strong class of players. For example, Ukraine won the U-20 World Cup in 2019 despite not being considered an “elite” soccer country. Still, the powerhouse countries at the U-20 level are generally strong.

 

The U-20 opponents

 

Ecuador

 

Ecuador qualified for the U-20 World Cup by virtue of finishing fourth at the 2023 CONMEBOL U-20 Championships in Colombia. They advanced out of Group B with a third place finish out of five teams. Ecuador drew Chile 1-1, defeated Bolivia 1-0, lost to Venezuela 1-0, and then drew eventual runner—up Uruguay 1-1 (Uruguay had already clinched winning the group and rotated its squad heavily).

Then in the final stage – a single group of six teams with the top four teams qualifying for the World Cup – Ecuador finished fourth.

In the final stage, Ecuador opened with three straight losses. First to eventual champion Brazil 3-1, then lost to Uruguay 2-1 (Uruguay started its top players this game), and then to Colombia 2-1.

Ecuador rose to fourth with a 1-1 win over Venezuela and then finally a 2-1 win over Paraguay on the final matchday.

 

In the CONMEBOL U-20 Championships, Ecuador was led by Justin Cuero who finished with four goals. He was the only Ecuadorian player with multiple goals. He currently plays for Independiente del Valle who currently lead Ecuador's top flight. Cuero has made just one first team appearance in his career, coming as a 72nd minute substitute in a 2-1 win over Mushuc Runa on February 23, 2023.

Ecuador’s roster at the CONMEBOL U-20 Championships consisted of 21 players based domestically in Ecuador. One player was based at Sporting Cristal in Peru and midfielder Patrickson Delgado was the only player based in Europe at Jong Ajax.

That is likely not be the case at the World Cup as the 2023 CONMEBOL U-20 Championships took place in January and February during the height of most European seasons and clubs were not required to release players.

 

Fiji

 

Fiji qualified for the U-20 World Cup as the runner up at the 2022 OFC U-19 Championship.

Fiji's tournament began with a second-place finish in Group B. Group B was a mess with three matches having to be abandoned because teams could not arrive in time.

 

Fiji benefited with a 3-0 awarded win over Papua New Guinea due to Papua New Guinea not showing up. Then Fiji defeated Tonga 3-0. The final group stage game for Fiji was a 0-0 draw with Tahiti.

Interestingly enough, after Papua New Guinea missed its first two games, it was able to show up for its last group stage game against Tonga. Tonga, however, did not show up and Papua New Guinea was awarded a 3-0 win and remarkably advanced to the knockouts despite not playing a minute in the group stage (two forfeited losses and one forfeited win - something that amazingly did not happen in CONCACAF). In the quarterfinal, their run ended when they actually had to play and lost to New Zealand 5-0.

But that's not all. Vanuata also showed that in the OFC, sometimes it's better to not show up at all after their -6 goal differential for forfeiting two games was still better than the Cook Islands -11 goal differential. This allowed it to qualify for the quarterfinals. 



Fiji defeated Samoa 4-1 in its quarterfinal and then defeated New Caledonia 1-0 in the semifinal to qualify for the World Cup. In the final, Fiji fell to New Zealand 3-0.

Fiji had two players with multiple goals in the tournament.

Melvin Mani finished with three goals and that all came in a hat-trick performance against Samoa in the 4-1 quarterfinal victory. Mani currently plays for Navua of the second tier in Fiji.

Nabil Begg scored two goals including the winner in the semifinal win over New Caledonia to seal a spot in the U-20 World Cup.  Begg plays for Ba FC of the top tier in Fiji.

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

Also of note, earlier this year Fiji played a friendly against Indonesia as a tune-up for the World Cup. The match ended up getting violent and Fiji's federation had to apologize for the conduct. 

 

 

Slovakia

 

Slovakia qualified for the U-20 World Cup as one of five teams from UEFA. The qualification was through the 2022 UEFA U-19 Championships and Slovakia qualified for that tournament as the hosts.

Slovakia was played into Group A but had a very difficult group with France, Italy, and Romania. Under the format, the top two teams qualified for the knockout stages and earned a spot at the U-20 World Cup. The third-place finisher qualified for a playoff for a U-20 World Cup spot. The fourth-place finisher was eliminated.

Not surprisingly, Slovakia lost to France 5-0 and lost to Italy 1-0 to open the tournament.  Because of a poor goal differential, Slovakia needed to defeat Romania in the final group stage game to qualify for third place and the U-20 World Cup playoff spot. That happened in dramatic fashion when Slovakian forward Adam Griger (who is currently on loan from LASK of the Austrian Bundesliga to Cagliari of Italy’s Serie B) found a goal in the fifth minute of stoppage time for a 1-0 win over Romania.

In the playoff for the final UEFA U-20 World Cup spot, Slovakia defeated Austria 1-0 off a 64th minute goal from right back Samuel Kopasek who plays for MSK Zilina of Slovakia's top tier.

Of the roster Slovakia brought to the UEFA U-19 Championships, every player except for Griger was based domestically in Slovakia. But the squad also consisted of multiple players of the same team – five players were on Zilina, four players were on Trencin,  two players were from Spartak Trnava and Slovan Bratislava.

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