The Dominican U-20 soccer (football) men’s team has qualified for the World U-20 Championships in Indonesia and the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. To prepare for these major sports events, the team will play to matches against a similar selection from Colombia this month. On 24 September 2022, the teams will meet in the Cibao F.C. Stadium in Santiago and on 27 September they will meet at the Olympic Stadium in Santo Domingo.
The importance of these preparatory matches cannot be exaggerated as the Dominican selection is slated to participate in the Central American and Caribbean Games in El Salvador, the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile and then the Olympics in Paris. The trip to Indonesia for the World U-20 Championships is scheduled for May 2023.
Playing in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, the Dominican team qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics after defeating the more experienced team of Guatemala 4-2 in a penalty shootout following a 2-2 draw on Friday, 2 September 2022 in the semifinals of the 2022 Concacaf Men’s Under-20 Championship.
It is the first ever Olympic berth for the Dominican Republic in football. The country will also be competing in their first ever World Cup at any age level at next year’s FIFA Men’s Under-20 World Cup in Indonesia.
Concacaf reports that the qualifying was “a remarkable run” for the Dominican Republic. The DR team had qualified for the championship via last November 2021’s CMU20 Qualifiers. The team now has eliminated three sides on their way to a US20 World Cup spot, a trip to paris in 2024 and a place in the CMU20 Final on Sunday, 4 September 2022.
The Concacaf press release highlights the Dominican team got off to a rocky start, as Guatemala grabbed a 2-0 lead at the half-hour mark after goals in the 23’ and 29’.
The Chapines broke the deadlock through Arquimides Ordonez, who scored his fifth tournament goal by smacking a header off a cross from the right for a 1-0 Guatemala lead.
Ordonez was in the mix again on the second goal six minutes later when his poked effort took a deflection off the leg of Dominican Republic DF Sebastian Manon and rolled into goal, giving Guatemala the early 2-0 advantage.
The lead held until halftime, but things turned in the second stanza, as the Dominican Republic stormed back with two goals in just three minutes.
Guillermo De Pena made it 2-1 in the 62’ with a powerful right-footed finish into the top left corner of net, before Edison Azcona’s bouncing shot beat Guatemala GK Jose Aguirre in the 64’ to even things at 2-2.
Each side had looks at a winner before the end of regulation, but could not capitalize, resulting in extra time. In the additional frame, neither team could find the finishing touch for a third goal, meaning a penalty shootout was needed to determine who would claim the Olympic ticket.
From the spot, the Dominican Republic proved the better of the two, with GK Xavier Valdez making a key save and Adhonys Maria converting the winning kick for a 4-2 penalty shootout win and a ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The FIFA U20 Men’s World Cup™ to be held in May 2023 in Indonesia sees 24 nations compete against each other for the prize. With continental qualification pathways leading to an exciting finals event, the competition has seen eleven past champions; Argentina, Brazil, Portugal, Serbia, Ghana, Spain, Russia, Germany, England, France and Ukraine.
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Concacaf
5 September 2022