Uruguay won the World Youth Championship

The final of the youth, for players under 20 years old, World Cup, held in the Argentinean La Plata, continued a strange series of defeats for Italy, one step away from winning the prestigious tournament. Following three European Cup prizes, she also missed a rather valuable prize for the national teams, losing in the decisive match – 0: 1 – to the Uruguayans due to a goal conceded in the end.

This series actually looks terribly offensive. This season literally screamed about the renaissance of Italian football, and in order for this thesis to sound quite convincing, some valuable prize was required. And there were many chances to get it.

But none of them worked out. At first, it did not grow together with club chances. Saturday’s Champions League final in Istanbul was the third European Cup final in a row to feature an Italian club. In it, Inter lost to Manchester City. And before that, in the decisive meetings of the Europa League and the Conference League, Roma lost to Sevilla, and Fiorentina lost to West Ham, despite the fact that, unlike Inter, the obvious outsider of their confrontation, the losers were quoted quite highly.

The fourth defeat in a row came in a tournament launched by the International Football Federation (FIFA) back in 1977. It is allowed to participate in players aged 20 years and younger, that is, mainly those who make up the nearest reserve of senior teams. The Italians in the previous two championships, 2017 and 2019, stumbled in the semi-finals, and in Argentina, it seemed they were obliged to win gold.

Everything worked out great for them. At the group stage, the Italian team, however, lost to the Nigerians. But in any case, she confidently made it to the playoffs, having managed to defeat the Brazilians, who are always considered the favorites of such championships. Then, already in the cup stage, the Italian team coped with the British, who also looked like unconditional contenders for gold, and after them dealt with strong Colombians and Koreans.

A balanced game and an amazing form of a leader served as the key to future triumph. Attacking midfielder Cesare Casadei, even before the final, in fact, secured the titles of both the top scorer of the tournament and simply the best player with seven goals scored. And, apparently, he secured a good continuation of his club career. Casadei is owned by Chelsea, who bought him from Inter in 2022 for about €20 million, including all bonuses, but even in the winter he loaned the non-starting Italian to Reading, who played in the second-ranking English division . He has already taken off for a division even lower in status, and, perhaps, the leaders of the London Grand after such a performance of their talent decided that he had nothing to sour there.

But in the final, Cesare Casadei was neither seen nor heard. And the fact that the opponents managed to close it tightly became one of the key in the match, which resulted in the victory of the national team, whose path to gold turned out to be quite specific. The Uruguayans were led to it first of all by a fantastically strong defense led by 19-year-old Sebastian Boselli, who will certainly be interested in the Big Five clubs after the tournament. The numbers speak volumes about its reliability. For the entire championship in his seven matches, the Uruguayan team conceded a total of only three goals. They fell on a single meeting in the group lost to the British. In all other Uruguayan gates remained “dry”. And this their almost absolute invulnerability in defense compensated for the lack of sharpness in front. The Uruguayans somehow, but tortured wins in the playoffs in clashes with the national teams of the Gambia, USA and Israel.

However, the main match was a story of a completely different kind. In it, the Uruguayans did not suffer, but crushed opponents who suddenly lost all their gloss. The Italians did not create any sensible moments in an hour and a half, Uruguay had plenty of them. A moment was realized in the end, a few minutes before the final whistle, when the ball stuck in the free ball after a series of ricochets soared into the air and landed on the head of Luciano Rodriguez, who continued with his accurate blow not only the “black” Italian series, but also the South American series with much more pleasant shade.

In the eternal football confrontation between Europe and South America, the latter is now in such a position that it can look down on its rival with a contemptuous smirk. South Americans own all major titles for national teams. In 2021, the Brazilians won the Tokyo Olympics. In 2022, the gold of the world championship in Qatar was won by the Argentines. And now the Uruguayans have climbed to the top of the first most important youth competition.

Alexey Dospekhov