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| FIFA WOMEN'S U-20 TROPHY |
After South Africa's withdrawal, the following countries announced they would be interested in hosting:
Papua New Guinea were awarded the hosting rights of the tournament by the FIFA Executive Committee on 20 March 2015.
When
the 16 best under-20 women's teams gather in Papua New Guinea next year
to contest the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, Ghana and Nigeria will
represent Africa – as they have for the last three tournaments.
As seeded teams, Nigeria and Ghana skipped the preliminary round and both largely proved themselves the class of the continent. In the first round, the Falconets of Nigeria enjoyed a comfortable victory against Liberia, winning the first leg 7-1 away in Monrovia - team captain Yetunde Adeboyejo completing a hat-trick - and adding another seven for luck at home. In the eight-team second round, Nigeria faced much tougher opposition in the form of Congo DR, who are the only other African country to have qualified for the World Cup. This time Chinwendu Ihezuo was the hero for her side as she scored once in Kinshasa in a 2-1 victory, and then two in the return leg when the west African team won 2-0.
Nigeria faced their toughest opposition in the third round
and had to work hard for a 2-1 victory in Abuja against South Africa.
Again Ihezuo got her name on the score sheet, with Nigeria's other
coming from an own goal. In the return leg in Johannesburg, Basetsana had
more of the game, but Ihezuo scored the only goal of the match. “We did
our home work ahead of the match against South Africa. We corrected the
shortcomings that saw us miss chances in the first leg in Abuja. It was
a tough encounter, but we were confident to nip the World Cup ticket at
their expense,” said Falconets coach Peter Dedevbo.
Ghana had a similarly straightforward ride, starting their journey with a resounding 6-0 victory at home against Senegal and adding a 2-0 win in Dakar to comfortably overcome the first hurdle. In the second round, they faced a far stiffer Equatorial Guinea side, yet the Black Princesses advanced 3-0 on aggregate after a 2-0 win at home in the return leg.
Pitted against Ethiopia in the final round, Mas-ud Didi Dramani's team were overwhelming favourites to qualify for Papua New Guinea, but they did not have it all their own way as they needed a late goal by Kate Addo to snatch a 2-2 draw in Addis Ababa. The return leg in Kumasi saw a very different Ghana team, with the hosts running out 4-0 winners to book their fourth consecutive place at the finals. Sandra Owuso-Ansah top-scored for the Ghanaians, for whom eight different players (plus an own goal) scored the 17 goals their scored during the qualification.
Though the two qualifiers know what they are heading into next year, the previous appearances at the World Cup finals between the two teams could not be more different. The Falconets are one of four teams (Germany, USA and Brazil being the others) who have appeared at all seven previous finals. Apart from their first appearance in 2002, the west Africans have escaped the group stage every time and are on a run of three consecutive semi-finals. They played in the 2010 and 2014 final – both times losing to Germany and finished fourth in 2012, after being beaten by the USA in the semi-finals and then losing the play-off to Japan. In 2014, Nigeria's Asisat Oshoala was the tournament's outstanding player, winning not only the adidas Golden Ball but also the Golden Boot award with seven goals.
On the other hand, Ghana have failed to escape the group phase all three times they have appeared at the finals, though they showed considerable progress in Canada last year, winning two of their group matches (against Canada and Finland) and being eliminated only on goal difference.
As seeded teams, Nigeria and Ghana skipped the preliminary round and both largely proved themselves the class of the continent. In the first round, the Falconets of Nigeria enjoyed a comfortable victory against Liberia, winning the first leg 7-1 away in Monrovia - team captain Yetunde Adeboyejo completing a hat-trick - and adding another seven for luck at home. In the eight-team second round, Nigeria faced much tougher opposition in the form of Congo DR, who are the only other African country to have qualified for the World Cup. This time Chinwendu Ihezuo was the hero for her side as she scored once in Kinshasa in a 2-1 victory, and then two in the return leg when the west African team won 2-0.
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| FALCONETS |
Ghana had a similarly straightforward ride, starting their journey with a resounding 6-0 victory at home against Senegal and adding a 2-0 win in Dakar to comfortably overcome the first hurdle. In the second round, they faced a far stiffer Equatorial Guinea side, yet the Black Princesses advanced 3-0 on aggregate after a 2-0 win at home in the return leg.
Pitted against Ethiopia in the final round, Mas-ud Didi Dramani's team were overwhelming favourites to qualify for Papua New Guinea, but they did not have it all their own way as they needed a late goal by Kate Addo to snatch a 2-2 draw in Addis Ababa. The return leg in Kumasi saw a very different Ghana team, with the hosts running out 4-0 winners to book their fourth consecutive place at the finals. Sandra Owuso-Ansah top-scored for the Ghanaians, for whom eight different players (plus an own goal) scored the 17 goals their scored during the qualification.
Though the two qualifiers know what they are heading into next year, the previous appearances at the World Cup finals between the two teams could not be more different. The Falconets are one of four teams (Germany, USA and Brazil being the others) who have appeared at all seven previous finals. Apart from their first appearance in 2002, the west Africans have escaped the group stage every time and are on a run of three consecutive semi-finals. They played in the 2010 and 2014 final – both times losing to Germany and finished fourth in 2012, after being beaten by the USA in the semi-finals and then losing the play-off to Japan. In 2014, Nigeria's Asisat Oshoala was the tournament's outstanding player, winning not only the adidas Golden Ball but also the Golden Boot award with seven goals.
On the other hand, Ghana have failed to escape the group phase all three times they have appeared at the finals, though they showed considerable progress in Canada last year, winning two of their group matches (against Canada and Finland) and being eliminated only on goal difference.
Japan
and Korea DPR became the first and second Asian sides respectively to
reach the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Papua New Guinea next year,
with Japan edging Korea Republic 1-0 and Korea DPR beating China PR 2-0
in the semi-finals of the AFC U-19 Asian Nations Cup, held in Nanjing,
China.
After a fierce battle, the Japanese finally capitalised on their domination in the final ten minutes. Positive wing play down their left led to a low cross by Meika Nishida who found Rikako Kobayashi to fire home with the aid of the post.
The second semi-final of the day saw Korea DPR take down China 2-0 to book another ticket for the U-20 Women's World Cup. Ri Un Sim opened the scoring for the Koreans 15 minutes before the break, and Ri Kyong Hyang secured the victory on the hour mark.
China PR will face Korea Republic this
coming Saturday in the match for third place, the winner of which will
take the final Asian place at Papua New Guinea 2016. Meanwhile, Japan
and Korea DPR will face each other in the final of the AFC U-19 Asian
Nations Cup the same day.
Aside from the hosts, the Japanese and Koreans join the European quartet on the world stage (France, Germany, Sweden and Spain) who qualified in July.
The 2015 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship was the 14th edition of the UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (18th edition if the Under-18 era is included), the annual European youth football competition contested by the women's under-19 national teams of the member associations of UEFA. Israel hosted the tournament and a certain Swede, Stina Blackstenius was in fine form with 6 goals (three braces against Isreal, Germany and Spain to help Sweden win the championship.
Players born on or after 1 January 1996 were eligible to participate in this competition. Same as previous editions held in odd-numbered years, the tournament acted as the UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. The four semi-finalists Sweden 9eventual champions), Spain, Frnce and Germany qualified for the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Papua New Guinea as the UEFA representatives.
Mexico will be CONCACAF’s third and final representative at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup next year in Papua New Guinea after winning their play-off against Honduras on Sunday.
El Tri dominated against the home side but only had a goal in each half from Kiana Palacios and Jacqueline Crowther to show for their efforts.
Mexico narrowly missed securing passage in the tournament semi-final after losing on penalties against 2014 hosts Canada on Friday. USA qualified in far easier fashion with a 7-0 win over Honduras. Mexico are the final team across the globe to qualify for the 16-team event, and are set to feature in their seventh tournament, only missing out in 2004.
USA won the continental title with a tough 1-0 win over Canada, thanks to Ashley Sanchez's lone goal 18 minutes from full time.
The following is the line up of all qualified teams for the tournament:
After a fierce battle, the Japanese finally capitalised on their domination in the final ten minutes. Positive wing play down their left led to a low cross by Meika Nishida who found Rikako Kobayashi to fire home with the aid of the post.
The second semi-final of the day saw Korea DPR take down China 2-0 to book another ticket for the U-20 Women's World Cup. Ri Un Sim opened the scoring for the Koreans 15 minutes before the break, and Ri Kyong Hyang secured the victory on the hour mark.
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| THE JAPANESE |
Aside from the hosts, the Japanese and Koreans join the European quartet on the world stage (France, Germany, Sweden and Spain) who qualified in July.
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| STINA BLACKSTENIUS |
Players born on or after 1 January 1996 were eligible to participate in this competition. Same as previous editions held in odd-numbered years, the tournament acted as the UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. The four semi-finalists Sweden 9eventual champions), Spain, Frnce and Germany qualified for the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Papua New Guinea as the UEFA representatives.
Mexico will be CONCACAF’s third and final representative at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup next year in Papua New Guinea after winning their play-off against Honduras on Sunday.
El Tri dominated against the home side but only had a goal in each half from Kiana Palacios and Jacqueline Crowther to show for their efforts.
Mexico narrowly missed securing passage in the tournament semi-final after losing on penalties against 2014 hosts Canada on Friday. USA qualified in far easier fashion with a 7-0 win over Honduras. Mexico are the final team across the globe to qualify for the 16-team event, and are set to feature in their seventh tournament, only missing out in 2004.
USA won the continental title with a tough 1-0 win over Canada, thanks to Ashley Sanchez's lone goal 18 minutes from full time.The following is the line up of all qualified teams for the tournament:
Ghana Nigeria Canada Mexico United States Brazil Venezuela Papua New Guinea New Zealand France Germany Spain Sweden Japan North Korea South Korea |
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