By

Eniola Olatunji 

A 20 year old Marcia Ramirez who plays for Atlas W Club of Mexico on Saturday at the Estadio El Campin, Bojota emerged the first scorer of the Columbia world U20 female football tournament scoring against Cameroon in the 3rd minute of play in Group A from a Saldivar set up in attack.

19 year old, Nyah Rose of Canada who is from a football family almost nicked the record scoring Canada’s first goal against France at the Estadio Atanasio, Giradot in the 4th minute. 

Nyah’s mother, Karen Rose had played at University of Toronto while her sister, Jade Rose is a vital player for Havard University. Nyah Margaret Rose plays club football at NDC, Ontario.

Mexico showed super power from a combination of Marcia Ramirez who scored the first goal now giving the ball to Montserrat Saldivar to score the 2nd goal for Mexico in the 40th minute.

Cameroon’s highest goal scorer, Naomi Ndjoah Eto got an assist from Ngueleu in the 52nd minute to register Africa’s goal at the tournament. Mexico 2 Cameroon 1.

Naomi came again to get a brace through a Lamine Mana connect in the 85th minute to end the match two goals each side. Brace means scoring two goals in a single match.
Photo is that of Naomi Ndjoah Eto of Cameroon  

Cameroon U20 and Mexico U20 female teams have never met before not even in a friendly football match.

The Indomitable Lionesses of Cameroon are coming to the party for the first time though the team has been at the African U20 qualifier for seven times. She won the African U20 title for the first time with Naomi Ndjoah Eto emerging the highest scorer with 6 goals.

Cameroon played a friendly before going to the championships final against Central African Republic girls on 13th February 2024 winning 2-0; She on 11th November 2023 beat Kenya in the CAF U20 game3-0 and beat Kenya at their backyard on 17th November 2023 by 3-2; on 12th January 2024 Cameroon slammed Egypt 4-2 but played 1-1 draw on her soil against same Egypt on 21st January 2024 all to qualify for Columbia 2024.

The Tricolor girls of Mexico are in their 9th appearance though the team never earned a podium finish as they were beaten four times in the quarterfinals in 2010; 2012; 2016 and 2022. Spain stopped the team in 2022 on 20th August at the Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica, San Jose by a lone goal before a capacity crowd of 4,914 fans and South Korean Ref Kim Yu-jeong in charge.

All the last five matches of Mexico were preparatory to Columbia 2024. She played goalless with France on 4th June 2024; played 1-1 with USA on 13th July 2024; lost to USA in America 0-3 on 16th July 2024; played goalless with Black Princesses of Ghana on 22nd August 2024 and on the 26th of August beat the Falconets of Nigeria by a lone goal.

Cameroon has her second match in Group A against hosts Columbia on the 4th of September and last match against Australia on 6th September.

Mexico will play Australia in her second match on 3rd September 2024 and last group match against hosts Columbia on 6th September.

Tomorrow Sunday, Spain will play the USA in a group C match at 2100 hours while at the same time Germany will face Venezuela in group D match.

Also tomorrow at midnight Nigerian time, Brazil will tackle Fiji Islands in group B and hosts Columbia will play their first group A match against Australia at midnight. 

The 11th World U20 Football tournament will take place in Colombia from Saturday 31st August 2024 to Sunday 22nd September with an upgrade from a previous 16 nation participants to 24 countries for the first time. 

On parade will be four countries that have always been in the competition from the beginning till now namely Germany; USA; Brazil and Nigeria. Mexico is appearing for the 10th time; Canada and France for the 9th time each and North Korean as well as Japan are showing up for the 8th time each.

Two nations have three titles each in Germany and USA. Germany won in 2004, 2010 and 2014 with Silver in 2012 and Bronze in 2002 and 2008. Second on the Medals table is USA winning Gold in 2002, 2008 and 2012 with no Silver but Bronze in 2004 and 4th place twice in 2006 and   2016.. 

Nigeria, the only African country with a podium finish bagged the Silver twice in 2010 and 2014 with a Bronze in 2012. Nigeria lost to Germany on the two occasions she was Runners-up. Nigeria stopped 5 times at the quarterfinal stages whereas no other African Country reached the quarterfinal. Nigeria’s Falconets won Gold at the 2019 All African Games Football.

Africa will be playing in four different Groups in Columbia. Cameroon is in Group A with hosts Columbia, Australia and Mexico. Morocco will be in Group C with Spain, USA and Paraguay. The Falconets of Nigeria will tackle Germany, Venezuela and Korea in Group D while Ghana will line up against Japan, New Zealand and Austria in Group E.