This is how Germany, Mexico and New Zealand are coming to the U-20 Women’s World Cup Columbia exam

The U-20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica is just a short time away. Colombia, as usual, lifted the Brazil Cup with a great South American team, but they faced the Brazilians in the final, which eventually allowed them to qualify for the orbital event. The tie saw the Colombian team share a group in Group B with Germany, Mexico and New Zealand. Faced with three complex rivals.

Unlike the Women’s World Cup, which is held every four years, the U-20 World Cup is held every two years. The last edition was in 2018 with champions Japan against Spain, and was scheduled for 2020 in Costa Rica, which was not played due to COVID-19. Thus, it was suspended and it was established that the postponed matches will be played in 2022. For this reason, the classification of some teams such as Germany and New Zealand has been determined since 2019.

Conmebol and Concacaf are opposed to the South American and World Cup qualifiers in the same year, which they could not rule out in 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. For its part, the U-19 European Championship and the Oceania U-20 Championship also played a leading role, so that the Teutonics and New Zealanders were classified with Colombia and Mexico.

Germany played the U-19 European Championship in 2019. They shared a group with Spain, England and Belgium, making their debut against the English with a 1–2 result in favor of the Teutonics. Nicole Anyomi, one of the German players who participated in the European Championship in 2022 with the senior team, scored a double to beat Belgium 0-5. They drew goalless against the Iberians in their last game.

In the semi-finals, they won 3-1 against the Netherlands. The final against France was a slip for Germany who failed to get a result. 2-1 against it to finish second in Europe. For this tournament, it is a completely different selection from 2019 as there is no player who played in that U-19 European Championship.

Undoubtedly, the introduction to the team from the old continent is good because Colombia will show how ready it is, but it could be a more complicated opponent because of all the reasons behind the women’s game background. As if that wasn’t enough, they already met 12 years ago in a history that favored the Teutonics who won the group stage match 3-1.

The second game is against Mexico. The Aztec team has experienced management trouble in recent weeks. Maribel Domínguez unexpectedly left the bench, and Ana Galindo, who served as a strategist for the U-17s, was promoted to the U-20s. A new technical director, but with talent. In February and March, the ‘Tri’ played every competitor in the CONCACAF qualifiers, narrowly defeating Canada in the semi-finals.

The long-awaited final came between Mexico and the United States, but the Americans dominated the match in the Dominican Republic, with a clear 2-0 victory from the start. Team Mexico, led by Maribel Dominguez, finished second. This is a very fast team that could get Colombia into trouble. The evolution of Liga BBVA MX Femenil has been massive, and many of them have been running local rents. It is surprising that they have left out Aileen Aviles, fondly known as ‘Little Jewel’. As references we should pay attention to Natalia Moulion, Maritza Maldonado, Annette Vasquez.

Finally, New Zealand is the only group to emerge as champions at the Oceania Championship. It is a team with a strong background in women’s sports, as indeed it is a country that promotes women’s football as strongly as Australia. The event will feature players who performed in 2019 such as Marisa van de Meer, Ava Collins, Charlotte Wilford-Carroll and many others who lifted the continental title.

It was a national team that debuted with a stunning 30-0 win over Samoa, followed by a 5-0 win over Tahiti and finally, a 12-0 win over American Samoa. Vanuatu 11-0 in the semi-finals and New Caledonia 2-5 in the final. Colombia will face New Zealand in the last game of the group stage. Carlos Paniagua said he doesn’t know much about the team.