Chicago – The U.S. U-20 Women’s Youth National Team will compete against Spain, Morocco and Paraguay in Group C of the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, which will be played at four venues in Colombia from Aug. 31-Sept. 22. The final draw for the tournament took place today at Hall 74 of the Events Center in Bogotá, Colombia.
The U.S. will open the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup on Sunday, Sept. 1 against reigning FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup champions Spain, then play Morocco on Wednesday, Sept. 4 before wrapping up its group stage match against Paraguay on Saturday, Sept. 7. The U.S. will play its first and second group stage matches at Pascual Guerrero Stadium in Cali, Colombia, and its third match at El Techo Stadium in the capital, Bogota.
This will be the first ever FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, with 24 nations and 11 countries participating.Number Overall. The competition began in 2002 as a 12-team tournament at the U-19 level. The 2004 tournament was also U-19, but moved to U-20 for the 2006 tournament. The United States has competed in every FIFA tournament at this age level.
“Even though the tournament has expanded to 24 countries, there are no easy brackets and we’re looking forward to playing Spain, Morocco and Paraguay,” U.S. coach Tracy Kevins said. “All the teams are very competitive and with the World Cup coming up at different times of the season for players from all over the world, this is a great opportunity for our players to test themselves against the best. This is the last world tournament for players looking to make the senior team, so it’s a great audition and a real launch pad for our players who want to show they could play for Emma Hayes in the future.”
2024 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Group C Schedule
| date | Match | venue |
| September 1st (Sunday) | USA vs Spain | Pascual Guerrero Stadium, Cali, Colombia |
| Wednesday, September 4 | America vs Morocco | Pascual Guerrero Stadium, Cali, Colombia |
| Saturday, September 7 | USA vs Paraguay | El Techo Stadium; Bogota, Colombia |
The U.S. is one of four countries to appear in all 11 U-20 Women’s World Cups, tying the record for most world championship wins in that age group, having won in 2002, 2008 and 2012. Spain is the reigning champion after defeating Japan 3-1 in the 2022 World Cup final.
At the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, 24 nations will compete in six groups of four teams each. The top two teams from each group and the best two third-placed teams will advance to the round of 16 on 11th and 12th September. All quarter-finals will be played on Sunday 15th September, semi-finals on Wednesday 18th September and the World Cup Final on Sunday 22nd September. This will be the first time that the round of 16 will be played at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.
The 52 matches of the tournament will be held in four stadiums in three cities: El Campin and El Techo stadiums in Bogotá, Pascual Guerrero stadium in Cali and Atanasio Giradot stadium in Medellín. Three of the stadiums can accommodate more than 37,000 spectators, while El Techo has a capacity of around 10,000.
“We had the opportunity to go to Colombia last February (the U.S. U-20 team beat the hosts twice, both times 1-0) and got a real feel for what a great crowd and fan base we had,” Kevins added. “I think this tournament will garner a lot of support within the soccer culture.”
2024 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Groups
| Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D | Group E | Group F |
| Columbia | France | Spain | Germany | Japan | Democratic People’s Republic of Korea |
| Australia | Canada | united states of america | Venezuela | new zealand | Argentina |
| Cameroon | Brazil | Paraguay | Nigeria | Ghana | Costa Rica |
| Mexico | Fiji | Morocco | South Korea | Austria | Netherlands |
The United States was drawn from Pot 2 along with Nigeria, Brazil, Mexico, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. Teams were placed in assigned pots based on their performance in the past five U-20 Women’s World Cups, with bonus points awarded to the reigning champions of their confederations who won each qualifying tournament this cycle. Host country Colombia was automatically seeded and assigned to the A1 position, with each seeded team placed in the top one spot in their group. As per usual in FIFA tournament draws, teams from the same confederation will not play against each other in the group stage.
Currently leading the way in women’s football in the world, Spain is the only country to have won the FIFA Women’s World Cup at three levels – senior, U-20 and U-17 – and is the reigning champion at all three levels. Spain also recently won the UEFA Women’s U-19 Championship, beating Germany in a penalty shootout.
Morocco qualified for Colombia by defeating Ethiopia 2-1 on aggregate in the final of Group 1. This is Morocco’s first time competing in the tournament, so the United States has never faced Morocco at a FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.
Paraguay finished runner-up to Brazil in the recent South American Women’s U-20 Championship. The United States has played Paraguay once before in the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, in 2018 in France, where the U.S. won 6-0 and current U.S. Women’s National Team starting forward Sophia Smith scored two goals. This will be Paraguay’s third appearance in the tournament, having appeared in 2014 and 2018.
Many current U.S. Women’s National Team players used the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup as a stepping stone to the senior national team. From the U.S. 2018 U-20 Women’s World Cup team, Savannah DeMelo, Emily Fox, Naomi Girma, Jaylyn Howell, Ashley Sanchez and Smith played for the U.S. Women’s National Team. From the U.S. 2022 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup team (the 2020 tournament was canceled due to COVID-19), Jaidyn Shaw, Corbin Albert, Olivia Moultrie and Alyssa Thompson played for the senior U.S. Women’s National Team.
