2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup

2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup

FIFA U-20 World Cup Canada 2007 Coupe du Monde de Football des Moins de 20 ans 2007
2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup official logo
Tournament details
Host country	Canada
Dates	30 June – 22 July
Teams	24 (from 6 confederations)
Venue(s)	6 (in 6 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Argentina (6th title)
Runners-up	Czech Republic
Third place	Chile
Fourth place	Austria
Tournament statistics
Matches played	52
Goals scored	135 (2.6 per match)
Attendance	1,195,299 (22,987 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Sergio Agüero (6 goals)
Best player	Sergio Agüero

The 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the sixteenth edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup (formerly called FIFA World Youth Championship), hosted by Canada from 30 June to 22 July 2007. Argentina defeated 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^[1] where the final match was held.

On 28 June 2007, two days before the inaugural match, it was reported that 950,000 tickets had been sold,^[2] making it the largest single-sport event ever taking place in the country,^[3] and on 3 July, the tournament organisers sold the millionth ticket.^[4] On 19 July, the semifinal 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.^[5] Final attendance totalled 1,195,299.

Venues

	Victoria	Burnaby	Edmonton
	Royal Athletic Park	Swangard Stadium	Commonwealth Stadium
	Capacity: 14,500	Capacity: 10,000	Capacity: 60,081
	48°25′52.6″N 123°21′14.6″W / 48.431278°N 123.354056°W / 48.431278; -123.354056 (Royal Athletic Park)	49°13′51.0″N 123°01′17.0″W / 49.230833°N 123.021389°W / 49.230833; -123.021389 (Swangard Stadium)	53°33′34.6″N 113°28′34.2″W / 53.559611°N 113.476167°W / 53.559611; -113.476167 (Commonwealth Stadium)
	Toronto	Ottawa	Montreal
	National Soccer Stadium	Frank Clair Stadium	Olympic Stadium
	Capacity: 20,195	Capacity: 26,559	Capacity: 66,308
	43°37′59.5″N 79°25′06.8″W / 43.633194°N 79.418556°W / 43.633194; -79.418556 (BMO Field)	45°23′55.8″N 75°41′03.6″W / 45.398833°N 75.684333°W / 45.398833; -75.684333 (Frank Clair Stadium)	45°33′28.8″N 73°33′07.2″W / 45.558000°N 73.552000°W / 45.558000; -73.552000 (Olympic Stadium)

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 draw for the group stages took place on 3 March 2007 in Liberty Grand Entertainment Complex, Toronto.

Confederation	Qualifying Tournament	Qualifier(s)
AFC (Asia)	AFC Youth Championship 2006	Japan  Jordan1  North Korea1  South Korea
CAF (Africa)	2007 African Youth Championship	Congo1  Gambia1  Nigeria  Zambia
CONCACAF (North, Central America & Caribbean)	2007 CONCACAF U20 Tournament	Costa Rica  Mexico  Panama  United States
CONMEBOL (South America)	2007 South American Youth Championship	Argentina  Brazil  Chile  Uruguay
OFC (Oceania)	2007 OFC U-20 Championship	New Zealand1
UEFA (Europe)	2006 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship	Austria  Czech Republic  Poland  Portugal  Scotland  Spain
Host nation		Canada

Match officials

Confederation	Referee	Assistants
AFC	Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh (Malaysia)	Thanom Borikut (Thailand) Mu Yuxin (China)
	Ravshan Irmatov (Uzbekistan)	Abdukhamidullo Rasulov (Uzbekistan) Bahadyr Kochkarov (Kyrgyzstan)
CAF	Mohamed Benouza (Algeria)	Amar Talbi (Algeria) Mazari Kerai (Algeria)
CONCACAF	Steven Depiero (Canada)	Héctor Vergara (Canada) Joe Fletcher (Canada)
	Joel Aguilar (El Salvador)	Roberto Giron (Honduras) Daniel Williamson (Panama)
	Germán Arredondo (Mexico)	Héctor Delgadillo (Mexico) Francisco Pérez (Mexico)
	Enrico Wijngaarde (Suriname)	Anthony Garwood (Jamaica) Ricardo Morgan (Jamaica)
	Terry Vaughn (United States)	Chris Strickland (United States) George Gansner (United States)
CONMEBOL	Hernando Buitrago (Colombia)	Abraham González (Colombia) Rafael Rivas (Colombia)
OFC	Peter O'Leary (New Zealand)	Brent Best (New Zealand) Kaloata Chilia (Vanuatu)
UEFA	Howard Webb (England)	Mike Mullarkey (England) Darren Cann (England)
	Wolfgang Stark (Germany)	Jan-Hendrik Salver (Germany) Volker Wezel (Germany)
	Viktor Kassai (Hungary)	Gábor Erős (Hungary) Tibor Vámos (Hungary)
	Alberto Undiano Mallenco (Spain)	Fermín Martínez Ibáñez (Spain) Juan Carlos Yuste Jiménez (Spain)
	Martin Hansson (Sweden)	Stefan Wittberg (Sweden) Henrik Andrén (Sweden)

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).

Key to colours in group tables
	Group winners, runners-up, and best four third-placed teams advance to the Round of 16

Group A

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Chile	3	2	1	0	6	0	+6	7
Austria	3	1	2	0	2	1	+1	5
Congo	3	1	1	1	3	4	−1	4
Canada	3	0	0	3	0	6	−6	0

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Group B

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Spain	3	2	1	0	8	5	+3	7
Zambia	3	1	1	1	4	3	+1	4
Uruguay	3	1	1	1	3	4	−1	4
Jordan	3	0	1	2	3	6	−3	1

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Group C

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Mexico	3	3	0	0	7	2	+5	9
Gambia	3	2	0	1	3	4	−1	6
Portugal	3	1	0	2	4	4	0	3
New Zealand	3	0	0	3	1	5	−4	0

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Group D

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
United States	3	2	1	0	9	3	+6	7
Poland	3	1	1	1	3	7	−4	4
Brazil	3	1	0	2	4	5	−1	3
South Korea	3	0	2	1	4	5	−1	2

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Group E

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Argentina	3	2	1	0	7	0	+7	7
Czech Republic	3	1	2	0	4	3	+1	5
North Korea	3	0	2	1	2	3	−1	2
Panama	3	0	1	2	1	8	−7	1

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Group F

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Japan	3	2	1	0	4	1	+3	7
Nigeria	3	2	1	0	3	0	+3	7
Costa Rica	3	1	0	2	2	3	−1	3
Scotland	3	0	0	3	2	7	−5	0

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Ranking of third-placed teams

Group	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
A	Congo	3	1	1	1	3	4	−1	4
B	Uruguay	3	1	1	1	3	4	−1	4
C	Portugal	3	1	0	2	4	4	0	3
D	Brazil	3	1	0	2	4	5	−1	3
F	Costa Rica	3	1	0	2	2	3	−1	3
E	North Korea	3	0	2	1	2	3	−1	2

Knockout stage

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

11 July – Edmonton

Austria

2

14 July – Toronto

Gambia

1

Austria (aet)

2

11 July – Toronto

United States

1

United States (aet)

2

18 July – Edmonton

Uruguay

1

Austria

0

11 July – Victoria

Czech Republic

2

Japan

2 (3)

14 July – Edmonton

Czech Republic (p)

2 (4)

Spain

1 (3)

11 July – Burnaby

Czech Republic (p)

1 (4)

Spain (aet)

4

22 July – Toronto

Brazil

2

Czech Republic

1

12 July – Edmonton

Argentina

2

Chile

1

15 July – Montreal

Portugal

0

Chile (aet)

4

12 July – Ottawa

Nigeria

0

Zambia

1

19 July – Toronto

Nigeria

2

Chile

0

12 July – Montreal

Argentina

3

Third Place

Mexico

3

15 July – Ottawa

22 July – Toronto

Congo

0

Argentina

1

Austria

0

12 July – Toronto

Mexico

0

Chile

1

Argentina

3

Poland

1

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 Abdullah 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 Gómez Kenny 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 Kwang Ik-jon 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

• Mathias Cardaccio (playing against United States)

Awards

Golden Ball	Silver Ball	Bronze Ball
Sergio Agüero	Maximiliano Moralez	Giovani dos Santos
Golden Shoe	Silver Shoe	Bronze Shoe
Sergio Agüero	Adrián López	Maximiliano Moralez
FIFA Fair Play Award
Japan

Final ranking

Rank	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Argentina	7	6	1	0	16	2	+14	19
2	Czech Republic	7	2	4	1	10	7	+3	10
3	Chile	7	5	1	1	12	3	+9	16
4	Austria	7	3	2	2	6	6	0	11
Eliminated in the quarter-finals
5	Mexico	5	4	0	1	10	3	+7	12
6	Spain	5	3	2	0	13	8	+5	11
7	United States	5	3	1	1	12	6	+6	10
8	Nigeria	5	3	1	1	5	5	0	10
Eliminated in the Round of 16
9	Japan	4	2	2	0	6	3	+3	8
10	Gambia	4	2	0	2	4	6	–2	6
11	Zambia	4	1	1	2	5	5	0	4
12	Uruguay	4	1	1	2	5	6	–1	4
13	Congo	4	1	1	2	3	7	–4	4
14	Poland	4	1	1	2	4	10	–6	4
15	Portugal	4	1	0	3	4	5	–1	3
16	Brazil	4	1	0	3	6	9	–3	3
Eliminated at the group stage
17	Costa Rica	3	1	0	2	2	3	–1	3
18	South Korea	3	0	2	1	4	5	–1	2
19	North Korea	3	0	2	1	2	3	–1	2
20	Jordan	3	0	1	2	3	6	–3	1
21	Panama	3	0	1	2	1	8	–7	1
22	Scotland	3	0	0	3	2	7	–5	0
23	New Zealand	3	0	0	3	1	5	–4	0
24	Canada	3	0	0	3	0	6	–6	0

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 Mauricio Isla 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.^[6][7]

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."^[7] 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 Nigerian Football Association 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 ..."^[6]

Chilean clash with police

On 19 July 2007, there was a very controversial semi-final match between Chile and Argentina. Referee Wolfgang Stark was criticized by the Chilean players for his officiating, having "lost control of the match early"^[8] and for issuing seven yellow cards (out of nine players) and two red cards against Chile during the match.^[9] In total, he issued 53 fouls, 30 of which he charged to Chile.^[10] Chilean striker Nicolás Medina hinted that he felt that the referee was favouring the Argentine team, stating, "Eleven against eleven, the game would have been much more fair."^[11] Added to this is the perception that the Argentine players were able to employ "diving" tactics and "theatrics"^[11] to influence the referee's calls.

Following the match, Stark and his colleagues were surrounded by livid Chilean players that were restrained by members of the Toronto Police Service. Stark then had to be escorted off of the pitch and into the dressing room tunnel by police officers for fear that he would be attacked by the crowd and/or Chilean players at the National Soccer Stadium.^[12]

Afterwards, several players and delegates of the Chilean team were involved in a brawl with police outside Toronto's National Soccer Stadium,^[13] which ended with several Chileans injured, then handcuffed and detained inside the stadium. How the events unfolded is not unanimous, with two currently existing versions.

Players' version

According to the Chilean players and some witnesses, at 10:22 p.m. (local time) Chilean player Isaías Peralta – before getting on the team bus – walked towards a crowd of Chilean fans stationed behind a security fence some 50 metres away from the bus, but was stopped by about ten policemen some 30 metres away from the fence. A heated discussion took place, where Peralta (who speaks no English) was verbally and physically abused by the policemen. Peralta was tasered by one police officer and he lost consciousness for 20 minutes. Chilean player Arturo Vidal arrived at the scene to help his teammate and got involved in a struggle with the police. Other eyewitnesses stated it was Chilean goalkeeper Cristopher Toselli who walked towards the fans when he was grabbed by a security guard, prompting the melee.^[14] This was noticed by the other players inside the bus, who also got involved in the struggle with the police. All players – except Peralta, who lay unconscious on the ground – got back on the bus and closed the doors to keep the police out. A policewoman noticed this and threw a tear gas canister (or something to that effect) inside the bus. The players panicked and started breaking windows to let air in. 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 they were violently detained by police; some players were even handcuffed. Alexis Sánchez – who was coming out of the antidoping test – heard some people screaming and arrived at the scene, but was also beaten by police. The police then took the players back to the stadium. Christian Suárez – arriving from the mixed zone – was also detained.^[15] Peralta claimed that after he regained consciousness: "I saw 10 police officers were hitting me and throwing acid in my face;"^[16] and also claimed the police removed an object the size of a match from his back so the press wouldn't be able to see it.^[17] Other Chilean players said to the Chilean press that the Canadian police treated them like criminals, used pepper spray and Tasers on them, threatened them with legal action, and that while they were on the team's dressing room showing each other's wounds, they were laughed at.^[15][17] During the Sunday final Mayne-Nicholls – who is also a FIFA official – allegedly identified the policeman who gave the order to use gas on the players and asked him why he had acted that way; Mayne-Nicholls claimed the policeman responded: "We use gas and electricity when we deal with criminals like yours."^[18]

Police version

The police version of the events, as given by Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, claimed that the melee began when Chilean players got into a scuffle with a rival fan.^[19] 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."^[19] 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.^[20] 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."^[16]

Eyewitness accounts stated that the altercation began as the Chilean players were heading to their bus, across the driveway from the doors of the stadium. There was apparently yelling near the bus, and then a scuffle erupted. Nathan Denette, in a reported for The Canadian Press, stated, "Next thing you know, the bus just unloads and there's eight, 10 players come off the bus and there's just fists flying everywhere, between the cops, the security guards, a couple of ladies were involved that were security." As the conflict became more heated, a police officer did use a Taser – though it was unclear if it was used on a player or an official with the Chilean team – after which the brawl became even more intense.^[16] It was also asserted that any bruises sustained by anyone involved were "tiny."^[21]

Press shut-out

The Chilean press alleged that all press were removed from the area by security personnel since the incident's start, threatened with the removal of their tapes if they recorded anything and locked inside a room for several minutes.^[22]

Aftermath

Ten Chilean team members were detained over three hours and then released without charges.^[23] FIFA president Sepp Blatter said the next day at a press conference in Toronto that the incident was "regrettable" and that he "apologized in the name of FIFA."^[24] The ANFP (Chilean Professional Football Association) hired a Toronto law firm to pursue legal action against the Toronto police.^[15]

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."^[25] Chile President Michelle Bachelet said that the incident was "especially serious because, in our opinion, the Chilean delegation suffered unjustified aggression,"^[24] and lodged a formal protest with the Canadian government.^[26] 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."^[26]

It was reported in the Canadian media on 30 July 2007 that Isaías Peralta had confessed to Santiago's El Mercurio that one of the Chilean team members had punched a female police office in the face before Peralta had been tasered, but maintained that the Toronto police had assaulted the Chilean team members before they retaliated. The following day, however, Peralta denied making the comments.^[27] Police spokesperson Mark Pugash affirmed a female officer had been hit in the face, and stated the Chilean's violent behaviour prompted police to use Tasers and pepper spray, upholding the story that the Chileans had started the mêlée by confronting an Argentine fan.^[28] After an internal review headed by Superintendent Jim Ramer – in which witnesses, including event security officials, members of the Ontario Soccer Association, the BMO Field event coordinator, and the driver of the Chilean bus, offered statements – a report issued by the Toronto Police Service on 31 July 2007 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, plus D-cell 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.^[27]

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.^[27]

Disciplinary measures

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
• RSSSF > FIFA World Youth Championship > 2007
• FIFA Technical Report

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