2023 South American U-20 Championship

2023 South American U-20 Championship
CONMEBOL Sudamericano Sub-20 Colombia 2023
Tournament details
Host country	Colombia
Dates	19 January – 12 February
Teams	10 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	4 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Brazil (12th title)
Runners-up	Uruguay
Third place	Colombia
Fourth place	Ecuador
Tournament statistics
Matches played	35
Goals scored	78 (2.23 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Vitor Roque; Andrey Santos; (6 goals each)

The 2023 South American U-20 Championship was the 30th edition of the South American U-20 Championship (Spanish: CONMEBOL Sudamericano Sub-20, Portuguese: CONMEBOL Sul-Americano Sub-20), the biennial international youth football championship organised by CONMEBOL for the men's under-20 national teams of South America. It was held in Colombia between 19 January and 12 February 2023.

The South American U-20 Championship returned after 4 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic forcing CONMEBOL to cancel the tournament in 2021.

The tournament served as qualifier for two international events. The top four teams qualified for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup as the CONMEBOL representatives. The top three teams also qualified for the 2023 Pan American Games men's football tournament, in addition to Chile who automatically qualified as hosts.

After twelve years, Brazil won the tournament again after finishing first in the final stage's group, which meant the twelfth title in their history. Champions Brazil, runners-up Uruguay and the hosts and third place Colombia qualified for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup and 2023 Pan American Games. Defending champions Ecuador managed to reach the last berth for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup after finishing in fourth place.

Subsequently, Argentina qualified for the 2023 U-20 World Cup as hosts after FIFA awarded the country the rights to organize the tournament in place of the original hosts Indonesia. Argentina had failed to qualify for the World Cup after being eliminated in the first stage.

Uruguay would go on to win the 2023 U-20 World Cup that year.

Teams

All ten CONMEBOL member national teams are eligible to enter the tournament.

Team	Appearance	Previous best performance
Argentina	28th	Champions (5 times, most recent 2015)
Bolivia	25th	Fourth place (2 times, most recent 1983)
Brazil	29th	Champions (11 times, most recent 2011)
Chile	30th	Runners-up (1 time, 1975)
Colombia (hosts)	28th	Champions (3 times, most recent 2013)
Ecuador (holders)	25th	Champions (1 time, 2019)
Paraguay	28th	Champions (1 time, 1971)
Peru	29th	Fourth place (5 times, most recent 1975)
Uruguay	29th	Champions (8 times, most recent 2017)
Venezuela	26th	Third place (2 times, most recent 2017)

Venues

Colombia had been originally chosen to host the South American U-20 Championship that was to be held in 2021. That tournament ended up being canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, Colombia maintained its right to hold the South American U-20 Championship but in 2023. This was the fifth time that Colombia hosts the tournament having previously done so in 1964, 1987, 1992 and 2005.

Cali and Bogotá were selected as host cities. Cali hosted the first stage's matches in two venues, the Estadio Olímpico Pascual Guerrero and the Estadio Deportivo Cali. The final stage's matches were played in Bogotá also in two venues, the Estadio El Campín and the Estadio Metropolitano de Techo.

Cali		Bogotá
Estadio Pascual Guerrero	Estadio Deportivo Cali	Estadio El Campín	Estadio Metropolitano de Techo
Capacity: 35,405	Capacity: 42,000	Capacity: 36,343	Capacity: 8,000

Match officials

On 9 December 2022, CONMEBOL announced a total of 11 referees and 22 assistant referees appointed for the tournament, included a Portuguese refereeing team. For the first time, a UEFA refereeing team will participate in the South American U-20 Championship as part of the UEFA–CONMEBOL memorandum of understanding signed in February 2020, which included a referee exchange programme.

Portuguese referee João Pinheiro was replaced by his fellow countryman António Nobre.

Nicolás Lamolina
- Assistants: Maximiliano Del Yesso and Facundo Rodríguez
Ivo Méndez
- Assistants: Ariel Guizada and Carlos Tapia
Braulio Machado
- Assistants: Fabricio Vilarinho and Rafael Alves
Cristian Garay
- Assistants: Claudio Urrutia and Alejandro Molina
Carlos Ortega
- Assistants: Jhon León and John Gallego
Guillermo Guerrero
- Assistants: Ricardo Barén and Dennys Guerrero

Derlis López
- Assistants: Roberto Cañete and Luis Onieva
Augusto Menéndez
- Assistants: Stephen Atoche and Leonar Soto
António Nobre
- Assistants: Bruno Alves and Luciano Maia
Gustavo Tejera
- Assistants: Andrés Nievas and Horacio Ferreiro
Yender Herrera
- Assistants: Lubin Torrealba and Alberto Ponte

Squads

Players born between 1 January 2003 and 31 December 2007 were eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team could register a maximum of 23 and a minimum of 19 players, including at least 3 goalkeepers (Regulations Articles 46 and 49).

Draw

The draw of the tournament was held on 21 December 2022, 14:00 PYT (UTC−3), at the CONMEBOL headquarters in Luque, Paraguay. The ten teams were drawn into two groups of five. The hosts Colombia and defending champions Ecuador were seeded into Group A and Group B respectively and assigned to position 1 in their group, while the remaining teams were placed into four "pairing pots" according to their results in the 2019 South American U-20 Championship (shown in brackets).

Seeded	Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Colombia (4) (Hosts, assigned to A1) Ecuador (1) (Title holders, assigned to B1)	Argentina (2) Uruguay (3)	Brazil (5) Venezuela (6)	Chile (7) Paraguay (8)	Peru (9) Bolivia (10)

From each pot, the first team drawn was placed into Group A and the second team drawn was placed into Group B. In both groups, teams from pot 1 were allocated in position 2, teams from pot 2 in position 3, teams from pot 3 in position 4 and teams from pot 4 in position 5.

The draw resulted in the following groups:

Group A
Pos	Team
A1	Colombia
A2	Argentina
A3	Brazil
A4	Paraguay
A5	Peru

Group B
Pos	Team
B1	Ecuador
B2	Uruguay
B3	Venezuela
B4	Chile
B5	Bolivia

First stage

The top three teams in each group advanced to the final stage.

Tiebreakers

In the first stage, teams were ranked according to points earned (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers would be applied in the following order (Regulations Article 21):

Head-to-head result between tied teams;
- Points in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
- Goal difference in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
- Goals scored in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Fewest red cards received;
Fewest yellow cards received;
Drawing of lots.

All match times are in COT (UTC−5), as listed by CONMEBOL.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Brazil	4	3	1	0	9	3	+6	10	Final stage
2	Colombia (H)	4	2	2	0	5	3	+2	8
3	Paraguay	4	2	1	1	5	4	+1	7
4	Argentina	4	1	0	3	3	6	−3	3
5	Peru	4	0	0	4	1	7	−6	0

Source: CONMEBOL
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

19 January 2023