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Familiar foes U.S. U-20s draw Paraguay, Germany, Korea for UAE '03Posted: Wednesday January 29, 2003 2:58 PM
ATLANTA (CNNSI) -- The United States under-20 men's national team was drawn into Group F in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday with Paraguay, Germany and South Korea for the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship in United Arab Emirates. The U.S. opens against Paraguay on March 27, then faces Germany on March 30 and concludes Group play on April 2 against Korea. The U.S. will play all three of their first round games at Abu Dhabi's Al-Nahyam Stadium. The top two teams from each group and the top four (of six) third-place teams advance to the Round of 16. The U.S. is one of only five teams to qualify for the last four World Youth Championships, and one of only two teams (Brazil is the other) to finish in the top 15 in each of the last four tournaments. "Anytime you go to a world championship, any opponents you draw are going to be challenging in their own ways," said U.S. head coach Thomas Rongen. "We're in with one of the European powerhouses, a very interesting South American team, and if the last World Cup is any indication, an up-and-coming team in Korea. "This group poses some great challenges, but at the end of the day we're quite pleased with the draw and looking forward to meeting this challenge head on." The under-20 matches against Korea and Germany will bring back memories of the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Korea/Japan, where the U.S. met both nations' senior teams. The Americans battled to a 1-1 draw with Korea in the first round and then advanced to the quarterfinals of the World Cup, where they met heavily favored Germany. The U.S. played one of its finest matches of the year, but fell 1-0 to the tournament runner-up. The Paraguay, Germany and Korea U-20 teams have all advanced to the semifinals of the World Youth Championship at least once, making Group F the only group that is made up of four nations that have all advanced to the final four of the under-20 event. Qualification paths Along with the U.S., Paraguay has played in the last three world championships, finishing fourth in the 2001 event in Argentina. Paraguay advanced to the 2003 World Youth Championship with a third-place finish in the CONMEBOL under-20 championship, which it finished with a 3-2 win over Ecuador on Tuesday. Paraguay earned 1-1 draws against Brazil and eventual champions Argentina and was the only nation to take points off of both teams in the final round of qualifying. The U.S. has only recorded one World Youth Championship win in seven matches against South American teams, topping Chile 4-1 in Argentina '01. Germany, the 1981 World Youth Champions, qualified for this year's championship by virtue of a second-place finish in last year's Under-19 UEFA Championship. Germany went undefeated in the preliminary and group rounds to advance to the final, where it fell 1-0 to Spain. The U.S. has met East Germany (2-0 win in 1989) and West Germany (2-1 loss in 1987) in the under-20 championship, but never a unified Germany. The U.S. has had limited success against European teams, going 3-7-1 in World Youth Championship play against squads from UEFA. Korea will be appearing in its eighth World Youth Championship, highlighted by a fourth-place finish in Mexico '83. The U.S. and Korea met at the 1993 World Youth Championship in Korea, sharing a 2-2 draw. Korea won the 2002 Asia U-20 Championship in dramatic fashion, topping Japan 1-0 on a golden goal in the final. The win gave Korea its unprecedented 10th under-20 confederation title. Korea allowed only goal against in six qualifying matches, while scoring 13. Known opposition "Fortunately, I've had the chance to play against all the teams in our group, so they will be familiar opponents," said U.S. under-20 captain Bobby Convey. "It's going to be challenging to advance to the second round, but we've got a good team and we have confidence in ourselves." The U.S. qualified for UAE '03 with a second-place finish at the CONCACAF under-20 qualifying tournament in Charleston, S.C., last November. The U.S. secured a spot with consecutive shutout wins over Haiti (2-0) and El Salvador (1-0) to open the tournament, and then fell 3-2 to Canada after making several changes to their lineup for the final. The U.S. under-20s have posted a 21-9-10 record since Thomas Rongen came on board in December 2001, scoring almost twice as many goals as their opponents (74 goals for, 38 goals against). The U.S. offense is headlined by MLS standouts Ed Johnson, Santino Quaranta and Convey, who combined for three goals and three assists at the qualifying tournament. Defensively, the team is paced by centerbacks Chad Marshall and Ryan Cochrane and goalkeeper Steve Cronin. The U.S. squad will regroup for a training camp and matches in mid-February, with the collegiate players joining Rongen in Florida on Feb. 13, and the MLS-based players coming in a week later. The U-20s final preparations before UAE will take place again in early March, when the U.S. team travels abroad for the VII Madeira International Tournament in Portugal. Argentina '01 At the most recent World Youth Championship -- Argentina '01 -- the U.S. squad was led by Convey, Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley and goalkeeper D.J. Countess. The U.S. advanced from its group with a 1-1-1 record, only to face eventual third-place finisher Egypt in the Round of 16. The U.S. had chances to take control of the game early in the second half, but failed to score and eventually gave up a 76th-minute penalty kick and an 88th-minute counterattack goal in a 2-0 loss. The FIFA World Youth Championship will be held from March 25-April 16 in four cities in the United Arab Emirates. Twenty-four teams will combine to play 52 games in the tournament. UAE is the fourth country from the Asian Football Confederation to host the FIFA World Youth Championship. ScheduleGroup A Schedule Group B Schedule Group C Schedule Group D Schedule Group E Schedule Group F Schedule ---- Round of 16 Quarterfinals Semifinals Third-Place Match Final
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