South Korean players and coaches celebrate their 1-0 win over Germany in their Group D match at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup at Estadio El Techo in Bogota, Colombia, on Sept. 7, 2024, in this photo provided by the Korea Football Association. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea will take on the host country Colombia in their first knockout match of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.
South Korea had grabbed a ticket to the round of 16 by beating Germany 1-0 in their final Group D match on Saturday (local time). With the top two teams from six groups and four-best third-place teams reaching the knockouts, South Korea finished with the third-best record among No. 3 seeds with four points from one win, one draw and one loss.
Colombia, who won Group A with three straight wins, ended up as South Korea’s opponent in the round of 16 following results from remaining group matches on Sunday.
The match will kick off at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Estadio Pascual Guerrero in Cali. It will be 10 a.m. Thursday in South Korean time.
This is South Korea’s first knockout appearance at the U-20 Women’s World Cup since 2014, when only 16 teams competed and the knockout phase started with the quarterfinals.
South Korea began this year’s tournament with a 1-0 loss to Nigeria and then played Venezuela to a goalless draw.
South Korea then upset the favored Germany 1-0 on a first-half goal by Park Soo-jeong.
In defeating Australia, Cameroon and Mexico in succession, Colombia scored four goals and did not concede any.
Colombia finished their group play on Friday and will have had one more day of rest than the South Koreans before the round of 16.
South Korean midfielder Bae Ye-bin will be out to get revenge against Colombia after losing to the same country at the senior Women’s World Cup last year.
Bae was on the bench when South Korea fell to Colombia 2-0 to open the group stage then, with Linda Caicedo, then 18, scoring the second Colombian goal.
Caicedo is still young enough to play for the U-20 team, and she scored against Australia in the group stage this time. Bae, now 19, has started every match for South Korea so far.
“We’re so happy to make the round of 16. We played well in the group stage at earlier tournaments but couldn’t get over the hump,” Bae said in an interview clip released by the Korea Football Association on Monday. “Every team at the World Cup is trying to win the title, and so we don’t think there will be any easy match.”
Goalkeeper Woo Seo-bin, with two clean sheets through three matches so far, said she wants to maintain the positive vibes.
“We’re going into the match trying to do what we’ve been doing all along,” Woo said. “I have complete faith in my teammates and coaching staff. We’ll try to bring home great results from this tournament.”
North Korea breezed into the round of 16 by winning Group F with three consecutive victories. They defeated the Netherlands 2-0 on Sunday to clinch the top seed.
Earlier, North Korea routed Argentina 6-2 and then hammered Costa Rica 9-0.
North Korea will play Austria in the round of 16. The two Koreas are on the opposite sides of the bracket and can only meet in the final or in the third place match.
(Yonhap)
