USA to face Spain, Morocco and Paraguay at 2024 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup
CHICAGO – The U.S. Under-20 Women’s Youth National Team will face Spain, Morocco and Paraguay in Group C at the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, which will take place Aug. 31-September 22 in four venues in Colombia. The final draw for the competition took place today at Hall 74 Centro de Eventos in Bogota, Colombia.
The USA 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 faces Morocco on Wednesday, Sept. 4 and finishes the group stage vs. Paraguay on Saturday, Sept. 7 against Paraguay. The U.S. will play its first and second group games at Pascual Guerrero Stadium in Cali, Colombia and its third group game at El Techo Stadium in the capital of Bogota.
This will be the first FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup featuring 24 nations and the 11th overall. This competition started in 2002 as a 12-team tournament played at the U-19 level. The 2004 tournament was also U-19s before moving to U-20s for the 2006 tournament. The USA has played in every FIFA tournament at this age level.
“There are no easy draws, even with the tournament field expanded to 24 countries, so we’re looking forward to great games against Spain, Morocco and Paraguay,” said U.S. head coach Tracey Kevins. “All the teams are highly competitive, and while the World Cup will come when players are at different points in their seasons around the world, this is a great chance for the players to test themselves against the best. This is the last world tournament for these players before they move on to try to make the senior team, so it’s a fantastic audition, a real jumping off point, for those who want to show they can perhaps play for Emma Hayes in the future.”
2024 FIFA U-20 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP GROUP C SCHEDULE
| Date | Match-Up | Venue |
| Sunday, Sept. 1 | USA vs. Spain | Pascual Guerrero Stadium; Cali, Colombia |
| Wednesday, Sept. 4 | USA vs. Morocco | Pascual Guerrero Stadium; Cali, Colombia |
| Saturday, Sept. 7 | USA vs. Paraguay | El Techo Stadium; Bogota, Colombia |
The U.S. is one of four nations to compete in all 11 editions of the U-20 Women’s World Cup, winning the tournament in 2002, 2008 and 2012, which is tied for the most-ever world championships at this age level. Spain are the reigning champions, having won the World Cup Final in 2022, 3-1, over Japan.
The 2024 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup will see the 24 countries divided into six groups of four teams. The top two finishers in each group and the two best third-place finishers will advance to the Round of 16 taking place on Sept. 11 and 12. The quarterfinals will all be played on Sunday, September 15 with the semifinals being contested on Wednesday, Sept. 18 and the World Cup Final is set for Sunday, Sept. 22. This is the first time the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup will feature Round of 16 matches.
The 52 matches of this tournament will take place at four stadiums and in three cities: El Campin Stadium and El Techo Stadium in Bogota, Pascual Guerrero Stadium in Cali and Atanasio Girardot Stadium in Medellin. Three of the stadiums seat 37,000 or more fans. El Techo seats around 10,000.
“We had the opportunity to go to Colombia last February (the U.S. U-20s beat the hosts twice, both by 1-0 scores) and we got a real sense of the fantastic crowds and fans,” added Kevins. “This will be a well-supported tournament in a culture of soccer.”
2024 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Groups
| Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D | Group E | Group F |
| Colombia | France | Spain | Germany | Japan | Korea DPR |
| Australia | Canada | USA | Venezuela | New Zealand | Argentina |
| Cameroon | Brazil | Paraguay | Nigeria | Ghana | Costa Rica |
| Mexico | Fiji | Morocco | Korea Republic | Austria | Netherlands |
The USA was drawn out of Pot 2 that also contained Nigeria, Brazil, Mexico, Netherlands and New Zealand. Teams were sorted into pots that were allocated based on their performances in the five previous U-20 Women’s World Cups, with bonus points added to each of the Confederation’s current champions that won the respective qualifying tournament for this cycle. Host Colombia were automatically seeded and assigned to position A1 and each of the seeded teams were placed in the 1 spot atop their groups. As per usual with FIFA tournament draws, teams of the same confederation will not meet in the group stage.
Spain, which is currently leading the way in global women’s soccer, is the only nation to win FIFA Women’s World Cups at the senior, U-20 and U-17 levels and is the reigning champions at all three levels. Spain won the most recent UEFA Women’s U-19 Championship, defeating Germany in penalty kicks.
Morocco defeated Ethiopia by a 2-1 aggregate in the final of Qualification Group 1 to earn its berth to Colombia. The USA has never faced Morocco in a FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup as this is Morocco’s first appearance in this tournament.
Paraguay finished second, behind Brazil, in the most recent South American U-20 Women’s Championship. The USA has faced Paraguay one time in the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, that coming in 2018 in France, a 6-0 U.S. victory in which current USWNT start forward Sophia Smith scored twice. This is Paraguay’s third appearance in this tournament, having played in 2014 and 2018.
A number of current USWNT players have used the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup as a springboard to the senior team. From the USA’s 2018 U-20 WWC Team, Savannah Demelo, Emily Fox, Naomi Girma, Jaelin Howell, Ashley Sanchez and Smith have played for the full USWNT. From the USA’s 2022 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Team (the 2020 tournament was cancelled due to COVID-19), Jaedyn Shaw, Korbin Albert, Olivia Moultrie and Alyssa Thompson have appeared for the senior USWNT.
