Colombia calling: FIFA TSG land for U-20 Women’s World Cup

This is the first time the tournament will feature 24 teams, having been expanded from the previous format of 16, with six groups of four teams. The top two teams in each group will progress to the round of 16, along with the four best third-placed teams. Reigning champions Spain will be looking to defend the title they won for the first time in Costa Rica in 2022 while Austria, Cameroon, Fiji and Morocco are all making their debuts.

FIFA’s Technical Study Group (TSG) is on site across the three host cities and will attend, observe and analyse all 52 games across the competition. Our technical experts are supported by a team of analysts from our Football Performance Insights team, and jointly, will collaborate to record and report in detail, on the tactical, technical and physical insights that emerge throughout the tournament. Post tournament, the observations will be explored in greater depth and mapped against the 2022 tournament, to identify, highlight and educate on emerging trends at U-20 level, with all articles available on the FIFA Training Centre’s Tournament Observations page.

Here, we introduce our TSG members and full team for FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Colombia 2024™.

Pascal Zuberbühler is FIFA’s Senior Football and Goalkeeping expert and brings a huge wealth of experience to the group. “Zubi” has been part of the TSG for all FIFA tournaments, men’s and women’s, over the last number of years and is a former Switzerland national team goalkeeper.  

During his club career, he played for seven years at Grasshopper Club Zurich, followed by another seven at FC Basel before spells with Bayer Leverkusen in Germany and West Bromwich Albion and Fulham in England. 

Having attended and observed the U-20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica 2022, Zuberbühler is keen to see the progressions and trends that emerge compared to two years ago.

“Firstly, it is fantastic to see the tournament expanded to 24 teams and to see more players and teams getting the opportunity to compete at this level. When I reflect on the tournament in Costa Rica two years ago, I recall the impressive performances from Spain and especially their forward player, Salma Paralleulo, who went on to play at senior level in the World Cup last year, while Japan’s Maika Hamano (adidas Golden Ball winner), Colombia’s Linda Caicedo and adidas Bronze Ball winner, Tarciane (Brazil) all recently played at the Olympics, so we can see how important this U-20 tournament is for player development.” 

“There are many interesting teams qualified for this tournament and after disappointing campaigns in FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™, teams like USA, Brazil and Germany all performed very well at the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament in Paris a couple of weeks ago, so I am very interested to see if this progress is also coming at underage level. It is very exciting for Colombia to host this tournament, and I think there will be big crowds and great atmospheres at the games. We will also be keeping a very close eye on the standard of goalkeeping, which was very impressive in Costa Rica two years ago,” he added.

Former Sweden international, Anna Signeul, managed Scotland’s women’s national team from 2005 to 2017, during which time she led them to an all-time high of 20^th place in the FIFA World Rankings. She then had a five-year spell as manager of Finland before concluding her role after Euro 2022.  

Signeul started her coaching career in Sweden, working with Caroline Seger, Nilla Fischer and Linda Sembrant at the very start of their youth international careers. In addition, Signeul supports FIFA and UEFA as a consultant on the development of women’s football.

Having attended FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 and FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2022™ as part of the TSG, Signeul is interested to see how players have developed from the competition in India two years ago.

“In that tournament we saw some future stars and I am very excited to see how they have developed and how other players may have caught up with them. Will it be the same players that are standing out? We can learn a lot about player development across the globe by studying these teams and players, and benchmarking this against the last U-20 competition in Costa Rica.

“It is also fantastic to have the increase from 16 to 24 teams and it is good to see four new debutants. Hopefully we will continue to see the same positive development of the game as we saw last summer in the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, where all teams demonstrated their ability to compete at that level,” she added.

Being able to compare what’s happening at U-20 level to the trends that emerged in the recent Women’s Olympic Football Tournament in Paris and other FIFA tournaments is an interesting dimension to the TSG’s analysis work, as Signeul explains.

“By having teams onsite, analysing each tournament, we are starting to see a real picture of how the women’s game is developing globally. Are the tactical trends that we are seeing in senior tournaments being replicated at underage level and what are the world-class qualities that players possess at the highest level? Will Spain and Japan dominate in U-20 level in 2022, or will we see new challengers emerging? Colombia played Spain in the last U-17 World Cup final so as host nation, can they make a breakthrough? It’s going to be an enthralling tournament.”

Carolina Pineda is a right-sided midfielder and currently plays for América de Cali in her hometown city of Cali, one of the host venues for FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Colombia 2024. Pineda has been playing in Cali for 17 years and has seen the development of some of Colombia’s star players (such as Linda Caicedo, Gabriela Rodriguez, Natalia Giraldo and Gisela Robledo) first hand. She also runs a soccer school in Cali, which was inspired by FIFA projects, to create the “World Champions 2022” programme, that aims to develop players into future world champions.

Looking ahead to the U-20 Women’s World Cup, she has high expectations for the tournament: “We are seeing great development at this age level across the world and for me, this is a very even competition. There is greater parity between the teams, and I think we will see a few surprises.

“There are many exciting young players, and it will be interesting to see how they perform on this stage. Colombia as host nation will hope to compete very well, especially with some of our U-20 players already having good experience at senior level (Caicedo, Guzman, Rodriguez). There are traditionally strong teams like Spain, Japan, USA and Brazil but with so many players already playing professionally now, this will be a very competitive World Cup,” she added.

The former USA women’s national team midfielder/winger is a FIFA Women’s World Cup 2015 winner, a FIFA U-19 Women’s World Cup 2002 winner, and a three-time Olympic Gold Medal winner (2004, 2008 and 2012). O’Reilly scored 47 goals in 231 appearances for her country and is tied fifth for the most assists provided by a USA women’s player.

During her playing career, she played for American clubs North Carolina Courage, Boston Breakers and FC Kansas City, winning the NWSL Championship in 2015, 2018 and 2019, while she also had spells playing in Europe, with Arsenal (2017-18) and Shelbourne FC (2022). Since retiring from playing, O’Reilly has started coaching at NCFC, working with the women’s team and U-16 boys' team.

Looking ahead to the tournament, O’Reilly believes the standard will be high. “I’m expecting to see examples of further growth in the women’s game during this competition and with so many of the players already playing professionally with their clubs, I think the standard will be really high. Of course I am looking forward to seeing how the USA fare, especially with this tournament coming so soon after the gold medal win at the Olympics, but I am also very interested in seeing Colombia, particularly as the host nation and defending champions Spain.”

Project Leads  
Arsène Wenger – Chief of Global Football Development  
Steven Martens – Director of Global Football Development  
Tom Gardner – Lead of Football Performance Insights  

Technical Experts  
Pascal Zuberbühler – Senior Football Expert  
Anna Signuel – Technical Expert
Carolina Pineda – Technical Expert  
Heather O’Reilly – Technical Expert  

Football Performance Insights  
Harry Lowe – Team Lead Football Performance Analysis  
Elliott Stonell – Football Performance Analyst  
Connor Grant – Football Performance Analyst 
Harvey Rutherford – Football Data Analyst 
Natascia Prieto – Football Operations Manager  

Technical Football Content   
Lisa Fallon – Tournament Football Content

The FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Colombia 2024 kicks off on Saturday, 31 August as Groups A and B get underway in Bogotá and Medellín.