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FIFA U-20 World Cup: Spain, Colombia open with big victories and more

Rodrigo (Getty Images)

Spain's dominance on the world stage has extended to the FIFA Under-20 World Cup.

The Spaniards opened their tournament with a thorough 4-1 beating of CONCACAF runner-up Costa Rica behind two goals from Rodrigo on Sunday. Spain wasn't the only team to impress in the opening round of games, either. Host Colombia thumped France, 4-1, responding to Gilles Sunu's opening goal with four unanswered strikes, including two by Luis Muriel.

Nigeria posted a 5-0 victory on Guatemala, the team that prevented the United States from qualifying for the tournament, behind two goals from Edafe Egbedi. In one of the higher-profile opening games, Argentina topped Mexico in a battle of Group F powers on the strength of young standout Erik Lamela's 70th-minute tally.

Here are the other results from the weekend's matches:

FIFA UNDER-20 WORLD CUP RESULTS

Brazil 1, Egypt 1

Austria 0, Panama 0

England 0, North Korea 0

South Korea 2, Mali 0

Portugal 0, Uruguay 0

Cameroon 1, New Zealand 1

Australia 1 Ecuador 1

Saudi Arabia 2, Croatia 0

Games resume on Monday, with Egypt playing Panama and Brazil facing Austria in Group E and Mexico meeting North Korea and Argentina squaring off with England in Group F.

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What did you think of the opening games of the tournament? Do you see Spain as the favorite to win it all? Surprised that Brazil and England were held to draws? What'd you think of the Argentina-Mexico match?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. I read this and wondered “WTF?!?”-

    “Argentina topped Mexico in a battle of Group F powers on the strength of young standout Erik Lamela’s 70th-minute tally.”

    YOUNG standout? YOUNG? He’s 19! It’s an UNDER-20 tournament. How much older can he get?

    Big Tight-End
    Wily Veteran
    Young Standout on the U-23/U-20/U-17 teams…

    Just print “19 year old who wold have been playing for the newly demoted RiBer (sic) Plate who will be playing in the B league next year if he hadn’t been sold to Roma.”

    That provides more than “YOUNG standout” for one of the oldest players on a youth team.

    Reply
  2. Why didn’t we make it, I though Klinnsman was the savior of american soccer.

    yes i do understand that he was not the coach when they didn’t qualify

    Reply
  3. The 4-1 Spain score doesn’t tell the whole story. Costa Rica was always in the game and could have leveled the score at 2-2 at one point.

    Reply
  4. Seriously! I’m pretty sure we could have done better than losing 5-0 to Nigeria. Man that draw against Guatemala was really unfortunate. Our young guns really missed a great opportunity to gain experience by blowing that Guatemala game.

    Reply

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