The South-American Sub-20 soccer tournament of 2013, also known as Juventud de América (Youth of America), started on January 9 and will conclude this coming Sunday, February 3.
As it was expected, the professional opinion opted to choose Brazil’s “la Canarinha,” currently at 11 total titles since the beginning of the tournament in 1954 including the last edition of 2011, as the team to beat but unfortunately they were knocked out at the group phase.
The tournament, hosted by the country of Argentina, exhibits the coming of age promises of South American soccer. Many young players come with all types of talent and with a sole objective: to become the leader of South America and claim a spot for the next Sub-20 Soccer World Cup, to be played in Turkey later this year.
The Sudamericano, played every two years and with a total of 35 matches played, is made up of ten teams. The teams are divided into two groups, five teams per group. The first phase is also known as the group stage or playoff round, in which each team plays against each other team once. Only the first three places of the each group will advance to the second and final phase in which they will play each other once.
In this manner, the four best finalists will be the ones destined to participate in Turkey’s World Cup under 20. Only the players that are not yet 21 years of age and are born on or later than January 1, 1993, are eligible to take part.
The announced stadiums for the present edition are the Malvinas Argentinas Stadium in Mendoza and the Bicentenario Stadium in San Juan, with seating capacity of 40,268 y 25,000 respectively.
The national soccer teams participating are the ones affiliated with the CONMEBOL: Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
With the first phase already over, the final phase is formed by Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Colombia, and Ecuador. Chile qualified as the general leader winning his four matches during the first stage, totaling twelve points. Peru was the second best with seven points total. Last edition’s champion, Brazil, went home as the last place of group B with only four points earned, winning one out of the four played games. Bolivia finished at the last position, considering that they were able to get only a mere tie with Argentina with a final score of two-two.
The fourth and fifth match-days are still left to play to crown the champion as well as to declare the four World Cup participants. Match-day number four is scheduled for Wednesday, January 30.
Chile plays against Colombia, Peru versus Ecuador, and Paraguay versus Uruguay. Up to this point, Colombia leads the position table with three consecutive victories earned nine points, followed by Paraguay with seven, Uruguay six, Chile three, Peru with only one point, and last position is held by Ecuador with zero.
Already, Colombia and Paraguay mathematically qualify for the Sub 20 World Cup and only two spots are left. This is Chile’s opportunity to catch up to third place if they are capable to stop Colombia’s unbreakable winning streak.
The Sub-20 closes with the final match day scheduled for next week February 3. The matches are Chile against Peru, Colombia-Paraguay, Uruguay-Ecuador.
At the moment, the scorer leader board is dominated by Uruguayan Nicolas Lopez with five goals. Second place is shared by Chilean Nicolas Castillo, with Colombians John Cordoba and Juan Fernando Quintero, Paraguayan Delis Gonzalez, and lastly with Diego Rolan from Uruguay, all of which have scored four goals.
