A movie script could be made of the events in Honduras this past week. A young and generally inexperienced team of Dominican soccer players, members of the U-20 national team, were vying for a spot in the FIFA World U-20 Championship. To punch that ticket they needed to defeat Jamaica in San Pedro Sula, Honduras where the Concacaf U-20 Championships was held.
In the quarter-finals, the Dominican team defeated Jamaica, 1-0, and so the team got the ticket to the FIFA World U-20 Championship. This is the first world event ever for a Dominican football team. It culminates over 55 years of frustration and is the result of a concerted effort to improve.
A Mexican commentator said a few years ago, when the Cibao F.C. played Guadalajara, that the DR would become an emerging worldclass player. That day has come.
After winning the game against Jamaica, the Dominican side faced Guatemala in the semi-finals, with a ticket to the Paris 2024 Olympics in play. They won that game 4-2 on penalty kicks after a 2-2 tie at the end of the golden score.
The Dominican Republic then matched the United States in the finals. The US would win the 2022 Concacaf Men’s Under-20 Championship for a third straight time, defeating the Dominican Republic 6-0 in the CMU20 Final on Sunday night, 3 July 2022, at the Estadio Olimpico Metropolitano in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
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4 July 2022