The U.S. Under-20 men’s national team got a favorable draw for the 2001 World Youth Championship in Argentina, where they will face Chile (4th in South America), China (3rd in Asia) and Ukraine (2nd in Europe) in Group C. The U.S. will open play against China on June 17, and will follow with matches against Chile on June 20 and against Ukraine on June 23. All six of the Group D matches will take place in the western city of Mendoza. “Our team is extremely excited to finally learn what our next step is going to be, and we are extremely excited to have the opportunity to match up with three quality sides such as China, Chile and Ukraine,” U.S. head coach Wolfgang Suhnholz said. “Now that we know the challenge in front of us — and these three teams will present a great challenge — we can begin preparing and looking forward to June.” The U.S. was drawn into Group C and the city of Mendoza, the westernmost of the six venues that will host matches. The matches will be played at Malvinas Argentinas, a 36,000-seat stadium that was built for the 1978 World Cup. Mendoza is a mountainous region that lies at the foot of the Andes Range, and should provide a home-field advantage for Chile when the U.S. square off against Argentina’s western neighbor on June 20. The U.S. squad that takes the field in Argentina will be one of the most experienced teams that the U.S. has ever fielded at the Under-20 level. On the 18- player roster the U.S. used in the qualifying round, six U.S. players played professionally, eight were on the U.S. squad that finished fourth at the 1999 Under-17 World Championship and two were members of the U.S. Olympic team that advanced to the semifinals of the 2000 Summer Games.

PREPARATIONS

The U.S. Under-20s will regroup for a short camp in the first two weeks of May, before flying to France to play in the prestigious Toulon Festival at the end of the month. In Toulon, the U.S. have been drawn into Group A with Italy, Colombia and the Netherlands. France, Japan, Portugal and Poland complete the eight-team tournament that is considered one of the top annual youth tournaments in the world.

OPPONENTS

CHINA: China grabbed on of the AFC’s four spots in Argentina ’01 by placing third in the AFC Qualifying Tournament. After winning its group, China fell, 2-0, to Japan in the semis and rebounded to top host Iran in penalty kicks for a third-place finish. China will be looking to further the recent rebirth of Asian youth soccer and will be hoping to improve on Japan’s second-place finish in 1999. In February, South American champion Brazil needed an 80th-minute strike to squeeze by China and win a four-nation tournament held in Hong Kong. China topped Argentina with a surprising 3-1 win to advance to the final. As many as six of the Chinese players will be delayed joining the U-20s in early May as they will be preparing for the Asian Club Championship with their club, Dalian Shide. China is led by Qu Bo, who was so impressive in the second half for the Chinese senior team in its 2-1 to the United States in January. The U.S. has only played China previously in a World Youth Championship, when the Americans opened the 1997 championship with a 1-0 win in Malaysia. CHILE: Chile has appeared in two previous World Youth Championships, finishing fourth at home in 1987 and 13th in 1995. Chile qualified for the Argentina 2001 by virtue of their fourth-place finish at the 2001 CONMEBOL Championships in Ecuador. In the final round of the South American championships, Chile topped Paraguay and drew with Colombia and Argentina to secure just their third berth in a World Youth Championship. Chile was led by Mario Salgado with three goals. It featured one European-based player, Jaime Valdez of Italian club Bari. UKRAINE: Ukraine advanced to their country’s first-ever World Youth Championship with a surprising run to the final of the UEFA U-18 Championship in 2000. Ukraine fell, 1-0, to France in the championship game. Ukraine topped Germany and Croatia, before drawing 0-0 with Netherlands in the final game of final round group play to win the group and advance to the final. The Ukrainians feature Ruslan Valeev, who plays for Dutch club Graafschap, and Vitaly Lystyskyy, who played for Dynamo Kiev in this season’s Champions League.

HISTORY

The U.S. will also be looking to break a string of bad luck in their recent World Youth Championships. In 1997, the U.S. advanced out of its group, only to meet Uruguay in the round of 16. The U.S. lost, and Uruguay advanced to the final and eventually took second place. Two years later, the U.S. fell to eventual tournament runner-up Japan in group play, and then advanced to the round of 16, where the Americans fell to eventual winner Spain. The best U.S. finish came in 1989 when the team led by Silver Ball winner Kasey Keller finished fourth. The Americans also reached the quarterfinals in 1993 after a stunning 6-0 win over European champion Turkey.

DRAW

GROUP A Argentina Finland Egypt Jamaica GROUP B Brazil (South America champion) Germany Iraq (Asian champion) Canada GROUP C United States China Chile Ukraine GROUP D Angola (African champion) Czech Republic Japan Australia (Oceania champion) GROUP E Ecuador Ethiopia Netherlands Costa Rica GROUP F Ghana Paraguay Iran France (European champion) ò CONCACAF doens’t hold a final.