Saturday, 12 February 2011

The state of play going into the final round of games

There are some great contests lined up for tonight's final round of games from this Championship in Peru.

The evening kicks off (warms up) with Colombia/Argentina. Colombia have nothing to play for in terms of qualifying for other tournaments: they are bottom of the group and automatically qualify for the U20 World Cup as hosts. However this tournament is of course about much more than finishing positions and there are a large number of Colombian players who impressed particularly in the first stage of the tournament and will be keen to shine once more before the end. Argentina's chances of qualifying for the Olympics look slim and they will need a bagful of goals against Colombia to stand even a narrow chance; they also require Brazil to lose.

The second game sees Ecuador take on Chile in what is basically a play-off for U20 World Cup qualification. Ecuador will make it with just a draw whereas Chile need to win. Edson MontaƱo (Gent & Ecuador) and Bryan Carrasco (Audax Italiano & Chile) have been scoring consistently throughout and will be the two to keep an eye on.

The final game of the evening is wonderfully set up in that the winner on the night will win the tournament. Uruguay sit on top of the group with 10 points and Brazil are just one point behind. So it will be similar to the final of a knockout competition only Uruguay will obviously be victorious should they draw.

Here is the final group stage table and a summary of all the possible outcomes:


TeamPldWDLGFGAGDPts
 Uruguay431041+310
 Brazil430193+69
 Argentina42025506
 Ecuador41212205
 Chile410369−33
 Colombia401316−51


Team qualified for both the 2012 Olympics and 2011 U-20 World Cup
Team qualified for the U-20 World Cup but not the Olympics
Team eliminated from Olympic qualifying but may still qualify for U-20 World Cup
Team eliminated from both the Olympics and U-20 World Cup


  • Brazil will qualify for the Olympics if
    • they do not lose to Uruguay or
    • Argentina do not defeat Colombia or
    • the total margin of Brazil loss and Argentina win is fewer than 6 goals (or exactly 6 if Argentina do not score at least 4 goals more than Brazil)
  • Argentina will qualify for the Olympics if
    • they defeat Colombia AND
    • Brazil lose to Uruguay AND
    • the total margin is at least 7 goals (or 6 if Argentina score at least 4 goals more than Brazil)
  • Ecuador will qualify for the U-20 World Cup if they do not lose to Chile
  • Chile will qualify for the U-20 World Cup if they defeat Ecuador

No comments:

Post a Comment