The Spanish team lands in Costa Rica as European champions and with the Murcian defense in its best shape
The Women’s Under-20 World Cup kicks off today in Costa Rica. This is the first major global event for national teams football after Covid-19, in a tournament where Japan will defend the title against threats from Brazil, Spain and the United States.
The Central American country will host the first FIFA World Cup for football teams to be held in one of its categories from August 10 to 28, following the 2019 U-17 Men’s World Cup played in Brazil, the latest of the coming of the pandemic.
The Costa Rican event will be followed by the Women’s Under-17 World Cup in New Zealand and the World Cup in Qatar, the tournament expected by all football fans after more than two and a half years without a World Cup.
The pandemic also caused the delay of this World Cup, which was supposed to take place in Costa Rica and Panama in 2020, which the organization eventually canceled due to the situation caused by the pandemic.
A total of 16 teams will be looking for the title in 32 games, which will be played at the San José National Stadium and Alejandro Morera Soto Stadium, in Alajuela, northwest of the Costa Rican capital.
Brazil and Spain, two of the candidates to loot the crown from Japan, will face each other early Thursday morning at 1 a.m. at the opening of Group A, which also includes local Costa Rica and Australia.
The Hispanics arrive as brand new champions of Europe and second in the world. Spanish coach, Pedro López, will have El Paslmar player Silvia Lloris in defense, and Salma Paralluelo (FC Barcelona) and Fiamma Benítez (Valencia) in attack.
“It will be a tough World Cup in which all matches will be difficult, (but) we are going to fight to get to that final that we long for,” said the Levante footballer from Murcia.
But Brazil is unbeatable, having been overwhelming in the last South American Championship, where they won their ninth title in the region, undefeated and with no goals conceded. However, the Brazilian coach, Jonas Urias, does not want to be trusted. “On the contrary (…) the level of development of women’s football in other countries requires a much higher degree of concentration.”
Urias will seek glory with Gabriela Barbieri (International) in goal, Lauren Leal (Atlético de Madrid) in defence, Vitória ‘Yaya’ Ferreira (Sao Paulo) in midfield and María ‘Dudinha’ Rodrigues (Sao Paulo) in attack . On that first day, and in Group B, Germany will also face Colombia, the forward and runner-up of the senior Copa América, Linda Caicedo, and Mexico against New Zealand.
Japan, the only women’s team to claim a World Cup in all categories, will defend the title won in France-2018. The Samurai Blue, with the forward Yuzuki Yamamoto and the midfielder Aemu Oyama, is looking for glory again, but “without any pressure”.
Source: La Verdad
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