Brazil and Uruguay open as favorites the hexagonal of the South American U-20, Ecuador seeks to defend its crown

The South American Sub-20 enters his final phase this tuesday with Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and the hosts Colombia as favorites to keep the four places for the World Cup in Indonesia-2023 that delivers the final hexagonal.

Venezuelawho scratched the pass to the second phase at the point of penalty goals, and Ecuador, the team that passed the first round with the fewest points (5)complete the group of finalists who will be measured with a format of all against all in the height of Bogotáat 2,600 meters above sea level.

The mini-Tri draws with Uruguay and accesses the final hexagonal of the South American Sub-20

In the first working day, Paraguay will face Venezuela at the Estadio Metropolitano de Techo at 3:00 p.m. in Ecuador. At 17:30 Brazil will play against the Mini-Tri at the El Campín Stadium and the hostess Colombia will face Uruguay at 8:00 p.m. local time, on the same stage.

The hexagonal also delivers three tickets for the Pan American Games in Santiagowhich will be held in October and November.

After a first phase with matches practically every 48 hours, lFatigue could make a dent in the youth.

Brazil and Uruguay -who qualified early as leaders of their respective groups- they were able to give rest to some figures and they will have a slight advantage.

“We had the opportunity to see all the players (…) and we were able to leave out some players very important so as not to run the risk of losing them” for the finals, valued the DT of Brazil, Ramón Menezes, who in the last date of the groups sent Andrey Santos and Vitor Roque to the bench, both scorers of the team with three goals.

“We have a few days to recover these athletes. The competition is very tough, we already feel it (…) difficult games”, explained the Brazilian strategist.

Uruguay, which added 10 of 12 possible points in the group stage like Canarinha, is not intimidated by the height of the Andean city.

“We’re going to play the same, we know it’s going to be tougher, but we continue with the mentality we came from,” midfielder and captain Fabricio Díaz, also scorer of three goals in the competition, told the press.

For his part, Luciano Rodríguez, another sky-blue player who has stood out with three goals, said he knows Colombia well, his rival on Tuesday: “We’ve seen them a lot and we’ve faced them several times. They are local, they are a very seasoned team, they fight for every ball, but I think we are going to play a great role against them”, said the Uruguayan Liverpool striker.

the second step

the coffee growers -the only team to take points from the Brazilians in Group A- and Paraguaywho defeated Argentina (2-1) in their debut, They have shown arguments to fight the hexagonal.

The hosts showed their best version in the draw against Brazil. For the second phase they recover Gustavo Puerta, signed by Bayer Leverkusen after that game. The small but energetic defensive midfielder has already served his penalty for accumulating yellow cards and will move the coffee strings against Celeste.

The press questions the offensive capacity of the team led by Héctor Cárdenas, who has not yet found a replacement for star attacker Jhon Jader Durán, called up by his new team, Aston Villa, on the eve of the tournament.

“Through the games the team grew with very good moments, others to improve,” Cárdenas defended himself. The midfielder Daniel Luna is in doubt due to a blow to the ankle during the last match against Argentina.

On his side, the coach of Paraguay, Aldo Bobadilla, will miss Diego Gómez and Nelson Gauto, two of his regulars in midfield.

“Now we have five finals in the hexagonal, it was the first goal we set ourselves, we qualified in a very difficult group,” Bobadilla celebrated after finishing in third place in Group A with 7 points.

Venezuela, who fell in their first two outings and won the next two by the minimum, against Chile and Ecuador, he hopes to have overcome the turbulence:

“You come with the illusion of nine months of work and you find yourself with two games that you do not expect, that It was hard (…) to raise their heads”, recounted the coach of Vinotinto, the Argentine Fabricio Coloccini, after beating Chile on Saturday in a direct duel for qualification in Group B.

Ecuador, which scratched the last place in the group stagewill not be able to count on the midfielder Gilbert Sánchez, sent off in the last group game, in their commitment on Tuesday against Brazil.

La Tricolor, however, has the advantage of having several local players used to playing above 2,500 meters above sea level. (D)