Korea was assigned to pot 2 in the FIFA U-20 World Cup group draw. The best-case scenario is to avoid the strong team and meet the weak team.
On the 20th (Korean time), FIFA announced the 2023 FIFA Argentina U-20 World Cup group draw pot assignments through official SNS. Korea entered Pot 2 with Brazil, England, New Zealand, Ecuador and Colombia.
This allowed Korea to avoid Brazil and England, which belonged to the same port. Both teams are considered strong teams. Brazil is the eternal champion of world-class players, and England won the tournament in 2017. Ecuador and Colombia are strong teams in South America. However, Korea does not meet them in the group stage. It is positive for Korea in that it avoided an awkward opponent.
Port 1 included Argentina, Uruguay, the United States, France, Senegal and Italy. According to the rule that teams from the same continent cannot enter a group, Korea is likely to meet Argentina and Uruguay. This is because there are three South American teams in Pot 2 alone: Brazil, Ecuador, and Colombia.
The best case scenario is to meet Senegal in Africa. Its objective power is lower than that of other teams in pot 1, and in this case, it is possible to avoid ‘dark horse’ Nigeria belonging to pot 3. Port 3 included Nigeria, Uzbekistan, Japan, Iraq, Honduras and Fiji.
Asian countries such as Uzbekistan, Japan and Iraq cannot be in the same group as Korea. If Korea is tied to the same group as Senegal and avoids Nigeria, only Honduras and Fiji, which are classified as underdogs, will remain. Best case scenario.
Port 4 included Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Gambia, Israel, Slovakia and Tunisia.
The Argentina U-20 World Cup group draw will be held at FIFA Headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland at 11:00 pm on the 21st. The World Cup will be held in Argentina from May 21 to June 12.
Initially, the tournament was scheduled to be held in Indonesia, but a problem arose when Indonesia strongly protested, saying that it could not accept the participation of Israel, with which it is not on good terms. In some regions, anxiety was created, such as refusing to host the Israeli national team game and even threatening terrorism. Eventually, FIFA revoked Indonesia’s hosting rights.
Instead, Argentina will host the World Cup. Argentina was not in the top 4 in the last U-20 South American Championship and could not participate in this World Cup, but luckily got the right to participate.
The U-20 national team, led by coach Kim Eun-joong (44), advanced to the semifinals of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-20 Asian Cup held last month and won the right to advance. It will be the third consecutive World Cup. On the 20th, Kim Eun-joong announced a call-up list of 26 players in preparation for the World Cup, and from the 24th to the 26th, the national team will train at Paju NFC. Kim Joon-hong (20) and Lee Yeong-joon (20) of Kim Cheon Sangmu were included. The U-20 national team will play practice matches against Incheon United on the 25th and Incheon National University on the 26th.
Coach Kim Eun-joong said,안전놀이터 “I prepared for the tournament on the premise that it will be held in Indonesia, but suddenly the venue was changed to the other side of the world, so there were many urgent tasks to be solved. It is not easy to set up a training schedule to adapt to the local area. There are difficulties and burdens to do, but I will do my best to prepare.”
Coach Kim Eun-joong will not be able to attend the draw, but after the call-up training is over, he will head to Argentina to inspect the base camp and stadium. After his return to Korea, the final entry for the tournament is finalized, and it is planned to be convened again in early May.