How is Panama doing? Guatemala’s first U20 rival in the Pre-World Cup – 2024-07-23 07:11:59

National Football

How is Panama doing? Guatemala’s first U20 rival in the Pre-World Cup

The Panamanian national team is in Guanajuato with a full squad to face the “Bicolor” in the first match of the U-20 World Cup Qualifiers.

The Guatemala U20 National Team at the Sergio Leon Chavez Stadium in Guanajuato. (Photo: Fedefut)

The Guatemala U20 National Team begins this Sunday, July 21, its journey to the U20 World Cup that will be played in Chile next year; its first rival will be Panamawho will seek to get off to a good start in this World Cup.

The “Canaleros” They arrived in Guanajuato last Friday to concentrate on where the tournament will be held; they previously completed 10 days of training in the preparation camp on Mexican soil.

Directed by Jorge Dely Valdeswho has been part of the Panamanian soccer structure in lower categories for many years, will seek to place his team in a World Cup again.

Panama has not been able to participate in a World Cup of this category since 2019, This is the one in which they have gone the furthest in the competition; they made it to the round of 16.

The list of those called up includes two who play abroad, such as Martin Kruga defender who plays in Spain, for Levante II; and in the forward line appears Rafael Mosquera from the New York Red Bulls II; most of them are from local football.

In the 2022 World Cup Pre-World Cup, the Panama team failed to qualify after losing in the quarter-finals to Honduras which was the host of the tournament. In the last World Cup, they faced the Guatemalan team itself, The nationals were able to defeat them 3-1 in the second day of the group.

They had a camp in April, where they played 3 friendly matches in Colombia: they debuted on their tour in Medellín with a thrashing by 6-2 to the U-20 of the University of Medellin, expired 2-0 to the U-20 of Independente de Medellín, and won 1-0 to the U-23 of Deportivo Río Negro.

The match will be played at 17 hours in Guatemala, being the start of Group C of the Concacaf Under 20 Pre-World Cup; sharing a group with Mexico and Haiti who will play their first match against each other at 19 hours.