U-20 WWC 2024: Round of Sixteen, Day One – Highlights

The first-ever Round of Sixteen at a FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup has not lacked for drama. Two matches went into extra time, including the USA’s drama-filled 3:2 victory over their southern neighbors, Mexico. Brazil also needed a full 120 minutes to defeat Cameroon, though the game-winning goal came less than 20 seconds into the first period of added time. Also, Spain needed a comeback victory over Canada, while host Colombia defeated Cameroon on just a single Linda Caicedo goal. And that was just the first day of Round of Sixteen matches.

Here are the video highlights for Wednesday’s matches, with a brief recap of the USA-Mexico match, plus the schedule for Thursday.

Continue reading “U-20 WWC 2024: Round of Sixteen, Day One – Highlights”

U-20 WWC 2024: Match Day 3A – Highlights and Group Standings

With eight matches left in the group stage at the 2024 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, six of the slots in the Round of Sixteen have been confirmed.

On Friday, September 6th, host Colombia, along with Brazil, Mexico, and France finished as one of the top two teams in their respective groups and thus earned automatic slots in the knockout phase.

Additionally, two third-place teams, Canada and Cameroon, also secured advancement as they are mathematically guaranteed to not be among the two lowest third-place teams.

Here are the match highlights and goals summaries for the day’s four matches, plus the final standings for Group A and Group B, along with the ranking of third-place teams

Continue reading “U-20 WWC 2024: Match Day 3A – Highlights and Group Standings”

U-20 WWC 2024: Final Group Match Day Advancement Scenarios

The third match day of the group stage at the 2024 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Colombia gets underway on Friday, September 6th.

With the expansion to 24 teams and the addition of a Round of Sixteen, four of the third-place teams from the groups will also advance to the knockout stage, instead of just the top two teams from each group.

This post summarizes what teams have already qualified for the Round of Sixteen, which teams can advance automatically advance as one of the top two teams, and where teams could finish depending on the results of the final set of group matches.

Continue reading “U-20 WWC 2024: Final Group Match Day Advancement Scenarios”

U-20 WWC 2024: Match Day 2A – Highlights and Group Standings

On Tuesday, September 3rd, eight teams played their second group stage matches of the 2024 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup. Among those teams, Brazil and the host, Colombia, secured advancement into the Round of Sixteen. Concacaf sides Canada and Mexico won their matches and now sit on 4 points each. Both are in decent positions to advance to the knockout phase.

Here are the match highlights and goals summaries for the day’s four matches, plus the standings for Group A and Group B, along with some brief discussion of advancement scenarios.

Continue reading “U-20 WWC 2024: Match Day 2A – Highlights and Group Standings”

U-20 WWC 2024: Match Day 1A – Highlights and Group Standings

The 2024 edition of the FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup got underway in Colombia on Saturday, August 31st. Among the teams in action on Saturday were Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, and the hosts.

Here are the match highlights and goals summaries for the day’s four matches, plus the standings for Group A and Group B.

Continue reading “U-20 WWC 2024: Match Day 1A – Highlights and Group Standings”

U-20 WWC 2024: Full Schedule with USA TV and Streaming Details for the 2024 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup

On Saturday, August 31st, the 2024 edition of the FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup kicks off in Colombia. Viewers in the United States will be able to watch all of the USA’s group matches live on FOX Sports 2. Also, all of the tournament’s matches will be streamed live with Spanish-language commentary through the NBC Sports app and NBC.com.

Continue reading “U-20 WWC 2024: Full Schedule with USA TV and Streaming Details for the 2024 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup”

U-20 WWC 2024: Official Squad Lists Released + Summary Stats and Notables

Earlier this week, FIFA released the official squad lists for this year’s Under-20 Women’s World Cup, which is hosted by Colombia and kicks off on August 31st.

Here is a Google Sheets version of the squad lists, which is converted from the original PDF file (FIFA.com). (Update, 30-Aug-2024: Brazil, Colombia, and Japan have each replaced a player. See the “Notes” page of the spreadsheet for more details.)

Of the 24 teams in this year’s tournament, the United States Under-20 Women’s Youth National Team is the 4th oldest, based on median age, and the 2nd tallest team, based on median height. Only the Netherlands has a higher median height.

Out of 504 total players, 71 are based in the United States, with 47 currently playing for NCAA Division I teams. In all, 14 teams have at least one USA-based player.

Eleven of the US-based players are full professionals who compete in the NWSL: In addition to the 8 USA players, the other NWSL pros are forward Amanda Allen of the Orlando Pride, forward Milly Clegg of Racing Louisville, and midfielder Manaka Matsukubo of the North Carolina Courage, who play for Canada, New Zealand, and Japan, respectively.

For the complete tables of comparative age and height statistics, keep reading…

Continue reading “U-20 WWC 2024: Official Squad Lists Released + Summary Stats and Notables”

U-20 Neighbor Watch: Guess Who’s Not on Canada’s Roster For the 2020 CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship

Update (04-Mar-2020):  Sonia Walk is a Boston College commit for 2020. (Twitter)

Here’s a hint:  All three age-eligible players have a total of 61 senior caps for Canada.

Here’s another hint:  All three players were on Canada’s roster for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Continue reading “U-20 Neighbor Watch: Guess Who’s Not on Canada’s Roster For the 2020 CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship”

CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship: Costa Rica and Panama Out, Bermuda and Barbados In

Oh, and there’s a schedule change, too.

So, it seems that CONCACAF has quietly pushed back the start of this year’s CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship a week, so that the tournament now starts on February 22nd, instead of February 15th.

That detail went unhighlighted in a January 13th article posted on CONCACAF.com, titled “Concacaf Announces Changes to the 2020 Concacaf Women’s Under-20 Championship,” which confirmed that the co-hosts of this year’s FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, Costa Rica and Panama, would both have automatic bids, and, alas, that only two at-large qualifications slots would be available for the rest of CONCACAF. Continue reading “CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship: Costa Rica and Panama Out, Bermuda and Barbados In”

2020 CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship: Host, Dates, and Knock-Out Bracket Confirmed

See CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship: Costa Rica and Panama Out, Bermuda and Barbados In for current schedule and bracket details.

Update (31-Jan-2020):  THIS ARTICLE IS NO LONGER CURRENT FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS:  

  • THE DATES FOR THIS TOURNAMENT HAVE BEEN CHANGED.  (They are now February 22nd to March 8th).
  • COSTA RICA AND PANAMA ARE NOT PARTICIPATING IN THIS TOURNAMENT.  THEIR GROUPS AND THE KNOCK-OUT BRACKET HAVE BEEN ALTERED.

Update (20-Dec-2019):  FIFA has confirmed that Costa Rica and Panama will be joint hosts for this cycle’s FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, which will be held in August 2020 (FIFA.com). Not yet confirmed is how this will affect qualifying in CONCACAF.  Absent exceptional circumstances, the most likely result is that the number of open qualification slots will be reduced to 2, as Costa Rica and Panama will be given the host slot plus 1 slot from CONCACAF’s allocation.  Another uncertain wrinkle is whether Costa Rica and Panama will be participating in this CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship, as they are currently assigned to Group D (with Mexico) and Group F (with Haiti), respectively.  Given the timing of this announcement, right before the end-of-the-year holiday break, it is possible that these qualifying matters may not be resolved until January 2020.

On Tuesday, CONCACAF confirmed that the Dominican Republic will be hosting the confederation’s final qualifying tournament for next year’s FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup. (CONCACAF.com)  As things currently stand, CONCACAF has three open qualifying slots, though that could change depending on who actually ends up hosting the U-20 WWC in 2020.

The qualifying tournament, which is officially known as the CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship, is scheduled for February 15, 2020 to March 1, 2020, and in a departure from past tournaments, will feature twenty teams instead of the usual eight.  The tournament will have a Group Stage involving the top sixteen U-20 women’s national teams, based on historical rankings (CONCACAF.com).  Those sixteen teams will be divided into four standard round-robin groups of four.  The top three teams in each group will advance to the knock-out stage.

The knock-out stage will start with a Round of Sixteen that includes the twelve advancing teams from the Group Stage, plus four teams from a preliminary qualifying stage for teams outside the top sixteen.  (Wikipedia has a decent summary article on the preliminary qualifying stage.)  After the Round of Sixteen, the knockout round will proceed normally, with a Final to determine the champion and a Third Place match.
Continue reading “2020 CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship: Host, Dates, and Knock-Out Bracket Confirmed”