2014 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup

• 1. Introduction

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  The 2014 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup opened with a detail that is easy to overlook: Canada was hosting the tournament for the second time, making it the first country ever to stage this competition twice. The first time had been the inaugural edition in 2002. Now, twelve years later, the same country was welcoming the world's best young women footballers to four cities spread across its vast geography. What followed over twenty days in August was a competition that produced records, controversies, and a final between two familiar rivals. The questions worth following through this tournament are simple enough: who were the players who seized the moment, what nearly unravelled the whole event before a ball was kicked, and how did Germany come to lift a trophy for the third time in this tournament's short history?

• 2. Canada's Second Turn

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  FIFA awarded Canada the hosting rights on the 3rd of March 2011, and the path to that decision was unusually smooth. Two countries had initially expressed interest: Canada and Zimbabwe. Two days before the official vote was due, on the 1st of March 2011, Zimbabwe withdrew entirely, leaving Canada as the sole bidder. The process that had looked set to be a contest became a formality. Canada's successful bid for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup was the catalyst. FIFA had adopted a policy, as it had done in 2010, of automatically awarding the U-20 tournament to whichever country would host the senior women's tournament the following year. Four cities were chosen: Edmonton, Moncton, Montreal, and Toronto. The announcement came on the 2nd of June 2013. Montreal, Moncton, and Edmonton had already been lined up for the 2015 senior tournament; Toronto was a different case. Toronto had opted out of the 2015 bid because of scheduling conflicts with the 2015 Pan American Games, but faced no such conflict in 2014. Ottawa was notably absent from the host-city list. The capital had indicated in late 2012 that construction delays at the Lansdowne Park redevelopment would prevent it from participating. The slot allocation for the tournament's sixteen teams was approved by the FIFA Executive Committee in May 2012, drawing from qualifying tournaments across all six confederations.

• 3. Nigeria's Near-Exclusion

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  In July 2014, with the tournament only weeks away, Nigeria's entire football programme came under a FIFA ban. The reason was government interference with the national football association, a violation of FIFA's foundational rules about political independence. Every Nigerian national team faced exclusion from international competition. For the Falconets, Nigeria's U-20 women's side, this meant the real possibility of being removed from a World Cup they had already qualified for and travelled to compete in. The ban was lifted nine days later, allowing Nigeria to remain in the draw. The episode underscored how fragile participation in international football can be when governmental and sporting authority clash. Nigeria had previously lost the 2010 final to Germany, a defeat that gave them bitter experience of what it meant to fall at the last stage. Their return to this tournament, even under a cloud of administrative crisis, set up a final that carried genuine historical weight on both sides.

• 4. Records on the Pitch

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  Germany and China played a group stage match that produced something the tournament had never seen before. Their game ended 5-5, a draw that tied the existing tournament record for the most goals in a single match and simultaneously set a new record as the highest-scoring draw in the competition's history. The schedule for the group stage had been announced on the 6th of August 2013, nearly a full year before the tournament began, giving teams and supporters time to plan around matches in Edmonton, Moncton, Montreal, and Toronto. BMO Field in Toronto operated under a different name during the competition, styled as the National Soccer Stadium, a consequence of FIFA's policies prohibiting corporate sponsorship names on tournament venues. The same arrangement had been used during the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Toronto's ground had a listed capacity of 21,859 for the tournament, while Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton dwarfed all other venues with a capacity of 56,302. The Olympic Stadium in Montreal held 65,255, and Moncton's ground had a base capacity of 10,000, expandable to 20,000.

• 5. Asisat Oshoala's Tournament

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  Asisat Oshoala finished as the tournament's leading scorer with seven goals, a number that placed her well clear of the two players tied in second on five goals each: Pauline Bremer and Sara Dabritz, both of Germany. Oshoala claimed three of the individual awards: the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player, the Silver Ball as runner-up in that same category (which is awarded separately), and the Golden Shoe as top scorer. Her output was the defining individual story of the competition. Griedge Mbock Bathy of France won the Bronze Ball, and Claire Lavogez, also of France, claimed the Bronze Shoe after scoring four goals. The Golden Glove for best goalkeeper went to Germany's Meike Kamper. Germany also collected the FIFA Fair Play Award. The awards ceremony reflected a tournament split between Nigerian individual brilliance and German collective strength. Oshoala's seven goals came for a side that reached the final and lost; Dabritz and Bremer's goals helped Germany win the whole thing. Both Dabritz and Bremer would go on to careers at the senior level, making the 2014 tournament a formative stage for players who later shaped European club football.

• 6. The Final

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  Germany beat Nigeria 1-0 after extra time in the final played on the 24th of August 2014. The match required the additional thirty minutes to separate the sides, with two periods of fifteen minutes each played under the tournament's knockout-stage rules. The scoreline mirrored the result of the 2010 final between these same two nations, though that earlier meeting had ended 2-0. Germany's victory made it their third title in the tournament's seven editions, placing them level with the United States at the top of the all-time winners list. For Nigeria, it was their second final defeat. The draw for the group stage had taken place on the 1st of March 2014 in Montreal, with confederation champions France, South Korea, and the United States placed in Pot 1 alongside hosts Canada. Germany's path to the final was shaped by that same draw, which ensured no two teams from the same confederation would meet during the group stage. Lindsey Horan of the United States scored three goals during the tournament; Rose Lavelle, who would later become one of the most recognisable names in American women's football, scored once in this competition at the start of what became a long international career.