If you were looking for a group draw for the US that would provide some new teams for the US to face at the U-20 Women’s World Cup you’re going to be disappointed. The US and Germany met in the group stage in 2012 and then met again in the final with the US taking home the World Cup 1-0. 2014’s edition has started the same way with the two countries reunited in Group B. The group also includes China (who was in the same group as the USA and Germany in 2012) and Brazil. The US drew 1-1 with China in the group stage in 2012 and advanced over them on goal differential.
This could also be known as the massive population group as it includes four of the 16 largest countries in the world; China-1st, USA-3rd, Brazil-5th, Germany-16th. There are only two other countries in the field that are in the top 16: Nigeria-7th and Mexico-11th.
The US will start their group off with a massive tilt with Germany in Edmonton. Following that game they’ll stick around Edmonton for a game against Brazil before finishing things with China in Moncton, New Brunswick.
In the quarterfinals this group will face the group including host Canada and 2012 U-17 Women’s World Cup winners North Korea. Winner of the US group faces the runner-up of Canada’s group and vice versa. The winner and runner-up will be on separate sides of the bracket though so a German-US rematch in the final is certainly a possibility again.
This makes China the country the US has seen the most in the group stage with this the third time in seven U-20 Women’s World Cups that the two countries have been together. It’s also the third time in a row for China who missed out on the World Cup in 2010. Germany became the fifth country to be drawn into the US group multiple times while Brazil became the 14th nation the US will share a group with in seven tournaments.
Now there is a little more hesitancy to call a group a “group of death” at this kind of tournament because the players are changing every two years. This isn’t a tournament where Landon Donovan can make it to four straight and lead your team, long term success here is about who can continue to develop good talents for many years in a row. Yet even with a good program sometimes teams slip in quality, and it’s not always known beforehand how good these teams will be since they aren’t competing internationally regularly.
Still… this is as close to a group of death as you’ll see I think. Of the six U-20 Women’s World Cups held so far, five have been won by teams from this group (the exception was North Korea in 2006). Three times the second place team has come from this group including two finals between teams in this group (USA-Germany in 2012 and Germany-China in 2004). In fact of the 24 semifinalist spots from the first six World Cups, 15 of them are from this group! That’s a whopping 62.5%. Yes that was heavily weighted by 2002, 2004, and 2006 when these countries represented 10 of the 12 semifinalists but the point remains the same. These are heavyweight countries in women’s soccer.
At the very least I think you can say it’ll be a ton of fun watching the US take on these teams in August. There’s some great talent on the German team and even if China and Brazil are not where they were a decade ago they are still big names in women’s soccer and always fun teams to see the US take on.
There’s a lot to go on between now and then but WeSupportTheUS.com will have full coverage of the US at the U-20 Women’s World Cup when it arrives in August and the US takes on Germany on August 5th.
Schedule:
- August 5th
- USA vs. Germany
- China vs. Brazil
- August 8th
- USA vs. Brazil
- China vs. Germany
- August 12th
- USA vs. China
- Brazil vs. Germany
