The eleventh edition of the CONMEBOL Sub20 Femenina was held in Ecuador over the last few weeks, with each of the confederation’s ten constituent nations sending their teams. Brazil had won each of the previous nine titles (the 2020 edition of the tournament ended without a champion due to the COVID-19 pandemic), and faced little difficulty in completing a perfect 10.
First Stage
Just like any other CONMEBOL youth tournament including the women’s under-17 Championship, the ten competitors were divided into two groups of five in the first stage of the tournament, with the top three in each qualifying for the final stage in this case.
Group A featured the hosts Ecuador, of course, as well as Argentina, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.
Paraguay–who have now become the second-most successful team of the tournament behind Brazil–impressed as they topped the group with a record of three wins and one draw, mostly keeping things tight in low-scoring affairs as they scored 5 and conceded just 2 goals.
Argentina also qualified for the final stage with an unbeaten record, but their three draws meant they finished third behind Peru. Hosts Ecuador crashed out after losing their first two matches, while Uruguay had an agonizingly disappointing campaign as they lost all four games by a one-goal margin to go home pointless.
Group B featured the big hitters Brazil, as well as Bolivia, Chile, Colombia and Venezuela.
Perhaps surprisingly, it was Colombia who topped the group by winning all four of their matches. The reason behind that, though, was that they played Brazil on the final day with both sides already having qualified for the final stage, meaning they faced a rotated side.
Elsewhere, Venezuela scored a crucial one-goal victory over Chile on the final day to advance as the third team from the group.
Final Stage
Normal service resumed in the final stage, as Brazil controlled proceedings throughout to win the tournament with a game to spare. They did so by keeping clean sheets in every match and scoring two goals in each of their five games on average, getting a perfect ten in every sense of the phrase.
Paraguay finished as runners-up for an impressive fourth time, thanks in no small part to the efforts of tournament top-scorer Fátima Acosta, who netted seven times. Colombia’s third-place finish behind them opened a fifth spot to the upcoming FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup as they had already qualified as the hosts, so it was Venezuela who profited behind Argentina. Peru, then, will be the only team not to appear at the World Cup from the final stage.
The other five teams will go at it again in September, when the Under-20 Women’s World Cup comes to South America for the first time ever.
