The 2024 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup draw was held in the Dominican Republic today. (Photo by Jaydee … [+]
The stage is set for the eighth edition of the 2024 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, which will be the final edition of the tournament in its current format. From next year onwards, it will expand to 24 teams and shift from a biennial to an annual format.
This edition of the tournament will also be very special for the host nation, the Dominican Republic. This will be the first-ever FIFA event they host and also mark their debut at a FIFA Women’s World Cup for any age group. Joining them will be giants from various confederations including Brazil, Japan, Nigeria, Spain and the Under-17 United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) among 16 competitors altogether.
The format of the competition sees the team divided into four groups of four to kick things off, with the top two in each group advancing to the knockouts starting with the quarterfinals. The group stage draw was held today, already teasing us with some very interesting matchups before the tournament gets underway in mid-October.
As per tradition, the hosts were the first team drawn. The Dominican Republic will make their tournament debut on home soil, with their only previous major international experience at this level coming in the 2022 CONCACAF Women’s U-17 Championship which they also hosted. They were thumped 10-0 by Mexico in the quarterfinals then, so their realistic target must be to put together three competitive performances.
Fellow debutantes Ecuador will join them in the group after qualifying by finishing an impressive third in this year’s South American Under-17 Women’s Championship. The favorites to advance to the knockouts, though, will be New Zealand and Nigeria, who will be making their 7th and 8th U-17 WWC appearances respectively.
Two-time defending champions Spain were drawn into Group B, which turned out to be a bit of a group of death. Their under-17s won the European Championship earlier this year in dominant fashion as they won all five games with 19 goals scored and one conceded, so they are firm favorites to make it three World Cups in a row at this level.
Spain’s U-17s have been the most dominant team at this level since the turn of the decade. (Photo by … [+]
They were soon joined by the U-17 USWNT, who have surprisingly never won the World Cup at this level and only reached the final once despite their dominance in CONCACAF and at the senior level. In fact, they have only reached the knockouts once since the inaugural edition of the World Cup, and that record might not improve in such a tricky group.
South Korea are the third team in the group, so at least one giant is set to be knocked out prematurely. They seem the weakest of the three having only qualified as the third-placed team in the Asian Cup, so the 2010 champions will have to step up to make this a real battle.
Colombia certainly cannot be written off either as they finished as the runners-up in this year’s South American Under-17 Women’s Championship and made the final in the last World Cup. They certainly have the potential to cause problems for the likes of Spain and the USWNT.
North Korea won the AFC U-17 Women’s Asian Cup in May, which was their third continental title out of the last four editions of the tournament. They will be making their first World Cup appearance at this level since 2018, though, having withdrawn from the previous edition in India.
Mexico’s last World Cup knockout appearance at this level also came back in 2018. The squad that finished as runners-up in the latest CONCACAF Women’s U-17 Championship will surely hope to change that, though they will face a tough test in this group.
Kenya are surely in for a very tough time on their U17 WWC debut, as the final team in this group are England. This will only be the Y oung Lionesses’ third World Cup appearance, but they will back themselves to advance having reached the Euro final earlier this year.
Japan were the first team drawn in Group D, where they will hope to continue their record of reaching the knockouts in every edition of the World Cup. Debutantes Poland might not pose too great a challenge to them, but back-to-back South American Under-17 Women’s Championship winners Brazil surely will and Zambia’s talent could cause some problems too.
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