This Sunday, with forward Gisella Robledo as a great figure, the Colombian women's under-20 team won 3-0 over Uruguay, on the third date of the final home run of the South American Championship in Chile, and qualified for the World Cup in Costa Rica, which will be held from August 10 to 29.
The national team, led by Carlos Paniagua, improved on the way. After a draw against Argentina and Venezuela, in the group stage it beat Peru and Chile. And in the final he fell to Brazil, but then defeated Venezuela and Uruguay by a rout, to accompany the greenyellows to the World Cup.
On the other hand, it should be borne in mind that, just a month ago, also with Paniagua in the lead, the U17 team qualified for the World Cup in its category, which confirms the good moment of women's football in our country, which will host, next July, the America's Cup for seniors.
This will be the second women's national group, from the U-20 category, to go to a FIFA World Cup. It took 12 years for a new generation to take on the challenge left by players such as Natalia Gaitan, Yoreli Rincón and Daniela Montoya in the South American competition held in Colombia and later at the 2010 World Cup in Germany.
At that time, the 2010 Colombia Women's U-20 team was led by Ricardo Rozo, who managed to qualify for the World Cup after being runner-up for the South American in Bucaramanga. In that edition, the national squad finished first in group A with 12 points, having won all its rivals: Chile, Ecuador, Argentina and Bolivia.
In the semifinal he had to face Paraguay, a duel in which he won after leaving the score 2-1, where the authors of the goals were Jessica Paola Sánchez and Lady Andrade. The final was played against Brazil, where he lost 0-2, but achieved World Cup qualification. In the world championship, organized by Germany, Colombia was part of group A. This time, it reached the quarterfinals as second with 4 points after the draw against France and the victory against Costa Rica.
He only lost to the locals. In the next phase he eliminated Sweden (2-0), but in the semifinals he lost to Nigeria. In the match for third place he fell again, this time against South Korea by the slightest difference. The Germans were crowned world champions.
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In this selection we saw the names of: Lina Marcela Taborda, Carolina Arias, Melissa Cepeda, Ingrid Vidal, Yulieth Domínguez, Katerin Castro, Daniela Montoya, Alexandra Avendaño, Liana Salazar, Jessica Sánchez, Natalia Ariza, Tatiana Ariza, Lady Andrade, Paula Forero, Yoreli Rincón, Jackeline Fonseca, Natalia Gaitan, Melissa Ortiz, Ana Maria Montoya, Vanessa Aponte and Catalina Perez.
Finally, the two most outstanding Colombians in the World Cup in Germany were Lady Andrade, who was the fourth best player of that edition, and Yoreli Rincón, distinguished by FIFA for having scored the 'goal of the tournament' with a mid-distance shot to Sweden in the quarterfinals.