2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup

The 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 16th edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup (formerly called the FIFA World Youth Championship), hosted by Canada from 30 June to 22 July 2007. Argentina defeated the Czech Republic in the title game by the score of 2–1, thus managing a back-to-back world title, its fifth in the past seven editions, and sixth overall. Argentine player Sergio Agüero was given the FIFA U-20 Golden Shoe (top scorer, with six goals) and the FIFA U-20 Golden Ball (best player of the tournament), while Japan earned the FIFA Fair Play Award.

The tournament featured 24 teams coming from six continental confederations; Canada qualified automatically as hosts, while the remaining teams qualified based on their rankings at the respective continental U-20 (U-19 in Europe's case) tournaments. UEFA (Europe) qualified six teams; AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean) and CONMEBOL (South America) four teams each; and OFC (Oceania) one team.

The tournament took place in a variety of venues across the country – Toronto, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, Victoria and Burnaby (Vancouver) – with the showcase stadium being Toronto's new National Soccer Stadium where the final match was held. 19 years later Canada will co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

On 28 June 2007, two days before the inaugural match, it was reported that 950,000 tickets had been sold, making it the largest single-sport event ever taking place in the country, and on 3 July, the tournament organizers sold the millionth ticket. On 19 July, the semi-final match between Chile and Argentina marked this edition as the most attended in the tournament's history, with an accumulated attendance of 1,156,187 spectators, surpassing Mexico 1983's 1,155,160 spectators. Attendance totalled 1,195,299 after the final match.

Venues

Qualification

Twenty-three teams qualified for the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. As the host team, Canada received an automatic bid, bringing the total number of teams to twenty-four for the tournament. The final draw for the group stages took place on 3 March 2007 in Liberty Grand Entertainment Complex, Toronto.

:1.Teams that made their debut.

Match officials

Squads

For a list of the squads see ''2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup squads''

Group stage

The 24 participating teams were distributed between six groups of four teams each, according to a draw held on 3 March 2007. The groups are contested on a league system, where each team plays one time against the other teams in the same group, for a total of six matches per group. Each group winner and runner-up teams, as well as the best four third-placed teams, qualify for the first round of the knockout stage (round of 16).

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Group D

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Group E

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Group F

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Ranking of third-placed teams

Knockout stages

Round of 16

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Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

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Match for third place

Final

Goalscorers

;6 goals
* Sergio Agüero

;5 goals
* Adrián López

;4 goals

* Maximiliano Moralez
* Jozy Altidore

;3 goals

* Ángel Di María
* Erwin Hoffer
* Alexandre Pato
* Martin Fenin
* Luboš Kalouda
* Giovani dos Santos
* Dawid Janczyk
* Freddy Adu
* Danny Szetela

;2 goals

* Mauro Zárate
* Rubin Okotie
* Leandro Lima
* Jaime Grondona
* Mauricio Isla
* Nicolás Medina
* Arturo Vidal
* Ousman Jallow
* Yasuhito Morishima
* Abdallah Deeb
* Pablo Barrera
* Ezekiel Bala
* Bruno Gama
* Shin Young-rok
* Juan Mata
* Edinson Cavani
* Luis Suárez
* Rodgers Kola

;1 goal

* Claudio Yacob
* Sebastian Prödl
* Amaral
* Carlos Carmona
* Hans Martínez
* Alexis Sánchez
* Mathías Vidangossy
* Franchel Ibara
* Gracia Ikouma
* Ermejea Ngakosso
* Pablo Herrera
* Jonathan McDonald
* Ondřej Kúdela
* Jakub Mareš
* Tomáš Mičola
* Marek Střeštík
* Pierre Gomez
* Abdoulie Mansally
* Jun Aoyama
* Tomoaki Makino
* Atomu Tanaka
* Tsukasa Umesaki
* Lo'ay Omran
* Christian Bermúdez
* Omar Esparza
* Javier Hernández
* Héctor Moreno
* Osmar Mares
* Jack Pelter
* Chukwuma Akabueze
* Elderson Echiéjilé
* Brown Ideye
* Kim Kum-il
* Jon Kwang-ik
* Nelson Barahona
* Grzegorz Krychowiak
* Vitorino Antunes
* Feliciano Condesso
* Ross Campbell
* Mark Reynolds
* Lee Sang-ho
* Shim Young-sung
* Marquitos
* Alberto Bueno
* Diego Capel
* Javi García
* Gerard Piqué
* Mario Suárez
* Michael Bradley
* Clifford Mulenga
* William Njobvu
* Fwayo Tembo

;1 own goal
* Mathías Cardaccio (against the United States)

Awards

Source:

Final ranking

Controversies

Nigerian accusations of racism

The Chile–Nigeria quarter-final match took place on FIFA's "Say No To Racism Day." During extra time, Chile's Jaime Grondona scored at the 96th minute. The Nigerians argued that it was offside, though referee Howard Webb allowed the goal to stand. Replays showed that a defender was caught out of place on an offside trap. Goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa was shown the yellow card for his protest.

At a post-game news conference, Nigerian coach Ladan Bosso said, "What happened on the pitch, the officiating, I think FIFA has a long way to go to beat racism, because that official showed racism." When asked if he felt Webb was a racist, Bosso said only that "It's good for FIFA to bring in the fight against racism, but they have to follow it to the letter, so the implementation will be done." The coach was fined CHF 11,000 and banned for four months, as the disciplinary committee found him guilty of "offensive behaviour" under the terms of article 57 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) was also sanctioned for allowing the players to wear T-shirts with religious statements under their game jerseys. This was a violation of the regulations of the tournament, which state: "Players and officials are not allowed to display political, religious, commercial or personal messages in any language or form on their playing or team kits..."

Chilean clash with police

On 19 July 2007, Chilean players clashed with the police following the semi-final match between Chile and Argentina. The Chilean players were angry with referee Wolfgang Stark, saying he "lost control of the match early" and complaining about being issued seven yellow cards and two red cards. In total, he issued 53 fouls. Following the match, Stark and his colleagues were surrounded by Chilean players, who had to be restrained by members of the Toronto Police Service. Stark was then escorted off of the pitch and into the dressing room tunnel by police officers for fear that he would be attacked by the crowd or Chilean players. Afterwards, several players and delegates of the Chilean team were involved in a brawl with police outside Toronto's National Soccer Stadium,

Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair said that the melee began when Chilean players got into a scuffle with a rival fan.Chilean officials blame police for melee
, tsn.ca. Retrieved 20 July 2007. He added that "members of the Chilean team then decided to direct some of their aggressive behaviour towards my officers... The job of my officers was to respond in a firm, but fair, manner to end that violence. They are trained to do so, and that is what they did." The Chilean players say that Isaías Peralta walked towards Chilean fans stationed behind a security fence, but was stopped by about ten policemen. They then say a heated discussion took place, where Peralta (who speaks no English) was verbally and physically abused by the policemen.Campbell, Morgan; ''Toronto Star'': CSA seeking witnesses to Chile brawl; 24 July 2007

Peralta was tasered by one police officer and lost consciousness for 20 minutes. The other players then got involved in the struggle with the police, before getting back on the bus and closing the doors. According to eyewitness accounts, the players on the bus began throwing things at police through the windows and tried to grab officers from inside the damaged bus.Chile officials say Toronto police to blame for soccer team's post-match brawl
" ''Canadian Press''. Retrieved 21 July 2007. Three minutes later the president of the Chilean National Association of Professional Football (ANFP), Harold Mayne-Nicholls, asked the players to descend from the bus to take a different one. As the players were getting off the bus, the police then took the players back to the stadium.
La Tercera
'' 21 July 2007 edition

FIFA spokesman John Schumacher said, "The Chilean players were detained by the police to de-escalate the situation that was taking place in front of the stadium. Ten Chilean team members were detained over three hours and then released without charges.

'' 22 July 2007 edition. FIFA president Sepp Blatter said the next day at a press conference in Toronto that the incident was "regrettable" and that he "apologised in the name of FIFA". The ANFP (Chilean Professional Football Association) hired a Toronto law firm to pursue legal action against the Toronto police.

In Chile, the incident was on the front page of every major newspaper. The Canadian embassy in Santiago received a bomb threat and angry Chileans protested outside the embassy with signs reading "Racist Canada". Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said that the incident was "especially serious because, in our opinion, the Chilean delegation suffered unjustified aggression"Chile football players face FIFA probe after brawl
", ''Reuters''. Retrieved 21 July 2007. and lodged a formal protest with the Canadian government.Babage, Maria
T.O. cops under scrutiny
Slam.ca, 20 July 2007 In response, Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper remarked that "international soccer matches are hotly contested and often become very emotional. As you know, there are processes in Canada by which the authorities review these kinds of incidents and I don't intend to comment further."

It was reported in the Canadian media that one of the Chilean team members had punched a female police officer in the face before Peralta had been tasered.Powell, Betsy; Dale, Daniel; ''Toronto Star'': Officers cleared in soccer scuffle; 31 July 2007
Dale, Daniel; ''Toronto Star'': Chilean player admits officer was punched; 30 July 2007
An internal review headed by Superintendent Jim Ramer found that officers had acted professionally and with "an immense amount of restraint" during the conflict outside BMO Field, in which Chilean players "punched, kicked, spat on and kicked" police and security staff. The report stated that the violence started when two people not involved in the game confronted each other. Security guards first attempted to intervene and then police, which is when a Chilean player punched a female police officer in the face. From that point, the report said the violence escalated; Chilean players dismantled the armrests and footrests from the bus seats and smashed the windows in order to spit at and throw these objects, as well as D batteries, clothes hangers and cans of deodorant at the police. Four officers were reportedly injured by projectiles. FIFA agreed to pay for the $35,000 in damages to the team's rented bus.

Harold Mayne-Nicholls, chair of the Football Federation of Chile and a witness to the event, said, "I didn't see any Chilean player hitting any officer except between all the struggling." Patricio Bascunan, president of the Salvador Allende Cultural Society of Toronto, said an independent review was needed.

Chile's Jaime Grondona was suspended for nine months at all levels (domestic and international) and fined CHF 7,000 (including procedural costs) for assaulting match officials. The Chilean football association was fined CHF 15,000 for "team misconduct".

See also

* Canadian Soccer Association
* 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup

References

External links

FIFA U-20 World Cup Canada 2007
, FIFA.com
FIFA Technical Report

{{DEFAULTSORT:2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup

FIFA U-20 World Cup tournaments
FIFA U-20 World Cup
International association football competitions hosted by Canada
Soccer in British Columbia
Soccer in Ontario
Soccer in Quebec
June 2007 sports events in Canada
July 2007 sports events in Canada
2007 in youth association football
International sports competitions in Toronto