Lincoln - Junior Ari Romero
and the Mexican Under-20 National Team has advanced past the group stage at the
FIFA U-20 World Cup, as Mexico is one of eight countries that has advanced to
quarter finals, which start on Thursday, Aug. 28. It marks the second straight
U-20 World Cup that they have advanced to the quarter finals.
Mexico will
face Nigeria on Thursday at 2 a.m. (CT) in Tokyo and will play at National
Stadium. With a win, Mexico will take on the winner of Friday's game between
Team USA and North Korea on Tuesday, Sept. 4. The four teams on the other side
of the bracket include, Germany, Norway, Japan and South Korea.
In three
games during group play, Romero started each game and played all 270 minutes of
the three contests. She also leads the Mexicans in assists with two.
After Mexico
dropped its first game during group play against Japan on Aug. 19, it responded
with a pair of shutout wins over Switzerland (2-0) and New Zealand (4-0) to
earn a spot in the quarter finals.
Mexico
failed to survive the group phase in 2002 (Canada), 2006 (Russia) and 2008
(Chile), before winning its group at the 2010 World Cup in Germany, but lost in
the quarter-final stage to Korea Republic.
Mexico
earned a trip to the tournament by placing third at CONCACAF qualifying this
past March, as a 5-0 win over host nation Panama secured the bid. Mexico has
taken part in four of the last five FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup tournaments,
but have never advanced past the quarter-final stage.
If Mexico
advances past the quarter-final stage, the semi-final stage starts on Tuesday,
Sept. 4 and the finals are scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 9.
