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Nov 21, 2023

FIFA Under

SANTIAGO DEL ESTERO, ARGENTINA - JUNE 04: Players of Uruguay prior the FIFA U-20

SANTIAGO DEL ESTERO, ARGENTINA - JUNE 04: Players of Uruguay prior the FIFA U-20 World Cup Argentina ... [+] 2023 Quarter Finals match between USA and Uruguay at Estadio Santiago del Estero on June 04, 2023 in Santiago del Estero, Argentina. (Photo by Tim Nwachukwu - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

This year's FIFA Under-20 World Cup has thrown up some surprise results. With the semi-finals to be played later this week, none of the four teams left have lifted the trophy before.

For large parts of its history, the Under-20 World Cup has been dominated by Brazil and Argentina, who together have won eleven of the 22 tournaments held so far, including eight of the ten tournaments between 1993 and 2011.

Argentina hosted this year's tournament and Brazil's squad looked the strongest on paper, so it looked like they might add to that number.

That all the South American teams in this year's Under-20 World Cup reached the knockout rounds only furthered that opinion. So it came as a bit of a surprise when Argentina and Brazil were both eliminated before the semi-finals.

The South American giants’ dominance of this tournament has waned though since 2011, with England, France, Serbia and Ukraine winning the four tournaments since. And this year, another new name will be added to that trophy.

It could still be a South American name; Argentina's neighbors Uruguay were the highest ranked team going into the tournament, reaching the final in 2013 and semi-finals in 2017.

La Celeste look to go one better this year. Defenses win championships and Uruguay's defense, led by Sebastian Boselli, has kept four clean sheets in the five matches played so far. At the other end of the pitch, Uruguay have spread their ten goals around the team, with no player scoring more than two.

Uruguay face Israel who are making their debut at the Under-20 World Cup after finishing runners-up in the 2022 UEFA European Under-19 Championship. Israel are a side that don't know when to give up, winning their final Group C match against Japan with a last-minute goal to finish second in the group, before beating Uzbekistan 1-0 with another injury-time winner.

In the quarter-finals, Israel produced the shock of the tournament, beating Brazil 3-2 after extra time. Maccabi Tel-Aviv's Dor Turgeman scored the winner after a mazy run inside the box, but Israel later missed two penalties.

SAN JUAN, ARGENTINA - JUNE 3: Cesare Casadei of Italy (C) celebrates with teammates after scoring ... [+] the team's first goal during FIFA U-20 World Cup Argentina 2023 Quarter Finals match between Colombia and Italy at Estadio San Juan on June 3, 2023 in San Juan, Argentina. (Photo by Martin Fonseca/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)

The other semi-final sees Italy take on South Korea. Italy scored a late penalty to get past England in the round-of-16 before beating Colombia 3-1 in the quarter-finals. They have the tournament's top scorer in Chelsea's Cesare Casadei, who spent last season on loan at Reading. Casadei has six goals and two assists so far.

Italy have been knocked out at the semi-final stage of the past two U-20 world cups. Their opponents South Korea went one stage further, reaching the final in 2019.

That South Korean side was dominated by Mallorca star Lee Kang-in. Their team isn't as strong on paper this time around, with Kang Seong-jin the only player with a senior cap. Kang scored a wonder-goal in the Asian qualifying tournament, but has had less impact so far in this competition. Lee Seung-won on the other hand has been involved in five of Korea's eight goals, scoring one himself and providing assists for four more.

South Korea have taken a similar approach to the tournament as they did four years ago, happy to sit back and allow their opponents to have possession before hitting them on the counter-attack. The Taeguk Warriors only had the most possession in one of their five matches so far, and soaked up a lot of pressure in their quarter-final win against Nigeria, who had 22 shots to Korea's four.

One of Uruguay, Israel, Italy or South Korea will be crowned world under-20 champions on June 11 in La Plata. Some of those winning players will go on to greater things, for others, it will be the highlight of their careers. But it will be a first under-20 title for whichever country lifts the trophy.