U-20 Women’s long winding road to Costa Rica WC finals

In the corridors of Fufa, president Moses Magogo’s dream of qualifying at least one team to a World Cup is a known secret.

Maybe what is even a poorly kept secret is that Magogo suspects there is a better chance with the age group sides, especially the U-20 women’s national team coached by Ayub Khalifa and is one of the 41 in contention for one of Africa’s two slots at the 10th edition of the Fifa U-20 World Cup in Costa Rica next year.

Khalifa and his girls graduated from the U-17 level, where the Covid-19 pandemic stood between them and 180 minutes showdown with Cameroon for a place in the 2020 Fifa U-17 Women’s World Cup in India.

Whether they would have beaten Cameroon, who Khalifa admitted to knowing “nothing about” despite their appearances in the 2016 and 2018 World Cups, is something we will never know.

What we are sure of is that Khalifa’s team is seeing “this opportunity” to play in the U-20 World Cup qualifiers “as a chance to redeem and remedy that dream.”

The 7-2 lead going into Friday’s second leg of the second round qualifier against Kenya at St Mary’s Stadium, Kitende, offers an almost certain chance to make the third round.

Third round
Here they confront either Mozambique or South Africa, who lead that tie 1-0 with the second leg at home.

Mozambique remain an unknown quantity but Khalifa will be happy to learn that the Basetsana head coach Jabulile Baloyi selected majority of his squad from the U-17 team that Uganda beat 2-1 in the finals of Cosafa 2019. 

For now, Uganda U-20 will also keep a keen eye on the second round tie between Zambia and Malawi as the winner here plays Ghana in the third round. Zambia recorded an emphatic 6-0 first leg win at home.

Ghana became only the third African country to qualify for the finals in 2010 after DR Congo (2006 and 2008) and Nigeria, which has been at all the previous nine editions since 2002 alongside Brazil, USA and Germany.

Ghana, who have qualified for the last five editions; 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018 (2020 abandoned due to the pandemic), are the favourites on Uganda’s end of the draw. 

But they also got the 2014 slot after Uganda pulled out of the final qualifiers due to financial constraints. Should Uganda get past Kenya and South Africa/Mozambique, there is a chance this fixture with Ghana will be revisited in the penultimate round. 

Fifth round
Should Uganda get past Ghana, there is also a chance to renew their rivalry with Tanzania in the final qualification round.

Tanzania eliminated Uganda from the botched 2020 qualifiers 4-2 on aggregate and have a more favourable draw this time round. Uganda was at the time coached by Oliver Mbekeka, who is now Khalifa’s assistant.

First, they lead Eriteria 3-0 in the second round with the second leg happening in Dar-es-Salaam. Their potential third round match might be against Burundi, who lead Namibia 3-0 in the second round. 

Football is never easy to predict but if things go according to plan, Khalifa’s side have a long winding road – full of grudge matches – to Costa Rica.

Fifa U-20 WC finals slots

Africa | two slots
To be determined through ongoing five rounds of qualification
Asia | three slots
To be determined
Europe | four slots
Teams nominated after cancellion of 2020/21 Women U-19 Euros
Spain (U20WWC runners-up 2018)
France (U20WWC runners-up 2016)
Germany (U20WWC champions: 2004, 2010, 2014)
Netherlands (U20WWC quarter-finalists 2018)
*N. America | 3 slots + hosts Three slots to be determined through the 2022 Concacaf U-20 Women Championship
Oceania | one slot
To be determined through the 2022 Oceania U-20 Women Championship in April 
South America | Two slots
To be determined through the 2022 South American U-20 Women Championship

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