# 2015 South American U-20 Championship

The 2015 South American Youth Football Championship (Spanish: Campeonato Sudamericano Sub-20 "Juventud de América" Uruguay 2015, Brazilian Portuguese: Campeonato Sulamericano Sub-20 "Juventude da América" Uruguai 2015) was the 27th edition of the biennial international youth football tournament organized by CONMEBOL for the men's under-20 national teams of South America. It was held in Uruguay from 14 January to 7 February 2015.
The tournament served as qualifier for several competitions. The top four teams qualified for the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup in New Zealand as the CONMEBOL representatives. Brazil, as hosts, and the champion team qualified directly for the 2016 Summer Olympics men's football tournament while the runner-up team advanced to a play-off against a CONCACAF team for the final berth in the Olympics. Finally, the four teams ranked third to sixth qualified for the 2015 Pan American Games men's football tournament in Canada.
Argentina won their fifth title. defending champions Colombia finished second, Uruguay finished third, while Brazil finished fourth.

## Teams

All ten CONMEBOL member national teams entered the tournament.
| Team | Appearance | Previous best performance |
| Argentina | 25th | Champions (4 times, most recent 2003) |
| Bolivia | 22nd | Fourth place (2 times, most recent 1983) |
| Brazil | 26th | Champions (11 times, most recent 2011) |
| Chile | 27th | Runners-up (1 time, 1975) |
| Colombia (holders) | 25th | Champions (3 times, most recent 2013) |
| Ecuador | 22nd | Third place (3 times, most recent 2011) |
| Paraguay | 25th | Champions (1 time, 1971) |
| Peru | 26th | Third place (2 times, most recent 1971) |
| Uruguay (hosts) | 26th | Champions (7 times, most recent 1981) |
| Venezuela | 23rd | Third place (1 time, most recent 1954) |

## Venues

Uruguay was chosen as host country of the tournament on 23 May 2012 at the CONMEBOL Executive Committee meeting held in Budapest, Hungary, prior to the 62nd FIFA Congress. The matches were held in 4 venues in 3 host cities, Estadio Profesor Alberto Suppici, Colonia del Sacramento (group A) and Estadio Domingo Burgueño, Maldonado (group B) for the first stage while the final stage took place at Estadio Gran Parque Central and Estadio Centenario in Montevideo.
| Colonia | Maldonado | ColoniaMaldonadoMontevideo |
| Estadio Profesor Alberto Suppici | Estadio Domingo Burgueño | ColoniaMaldonadoMontevideo |
| Capacity: 12,000 | Capacity: 22,000 | ColoniaMaldonadoMontevideo |
| ColoniaMaldonadoMontevideo ||
| Estadio Gran Parque Central | Estadio Centenario | ColoniaMaldonadoMontevideo |
| Capacity: 28,000 | Capacity: 65,235 | ColoniaMaldonadoMontevideo |

## Squads

Each team could register a squad of 23 players (three of whom had to be goalkeepers).

## Match officials

The referees and assistants referees were:

## Draw

The draw was held on 29 September 2014, 20:15 UYT (UTC−3), at the Hipódromo Nacional de Maroñas in Montevideo. The ten teams were drawn into two groups of five. Argentina and Brazil were seeded into Group A and Group B respectively and assigned to position 1 in their group. Paraguay and Uruguay were also seeded into Group A and Group B respectively but assigned to position 2 within their group (As host, Uruguay decided to play in group B). The remaining teams were placed into "pairing pots" (Colombia–Ecuador, Chile–Peru, Bolivia–Venezuela) and drawn to determine their group as well as the position within it.

## First stage

The top three teams in each group qualified for the final stage.
When teams finished level of points, the final order was determined according to:
* superior goal difference in all matches
* greater number of goals scored in all group matches
* better result in matches between the tied teams
* drawing of lots
All match times are in local Uruguay Summer Time (UTC−02:00).

### Group A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Group stage result |
| 1 | Argentina | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 14 | 5 | +9 | 9 | Advance to Final stage |
| 2 | Paraguay | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 5 | +2 | 7 | Advance to Final stage |
| 3 | Peru | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 7 | −1 | 7 | Advance to Final stage |
| 4 | Ecuador | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 8 | +1 | 6 | |
| 5 | Bolivia | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 13 | −11 | 0 | |

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Group stage result |
| 1 | Uruguay (H) | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 2 | +7 | 9 | Advance to Final stage |
| 2 | Brazil | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 4 | +2 | 9 | Advance to Final stage |
| 3 | Colombia | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 3 | +2 | 6 | Advance to Final stage |
| 4 | Venezuela | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 5 | −4 | 3 | |
| 5 | Chile | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 11 | −7 | 3 | |

## Final stage

When teams finished level of points, the final order was determined according to the same criteria as the first stage, taking into account only matches in the final stage.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Argentina | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 2 | +8 | 13 | 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics |
| 2 | Colombia | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 2 | +5 | 9 | 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup and Olympic play-off |
| 3 | Uruguay (H) | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 3 | +3 | 8 | 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup and 2015 Pan American Games |
| 4 | Brazil | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 5 | +2 | 7 | 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup, 2015 Pan American Games and 2016 Summer Olympics |
| 5 | Peru | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 14 | −9 | 3 | 2015 Pan American Games |
| 6 | Paraguay | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 10 | −9 | 1 | 2015 Pan American Games |
* ↑ Brazil qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics as hosts.

## Winners

* 2015 South American Youth Football champions
* Argentina Fifth title

## Goalscorers

There were 99 goals scored in 35 matches, for an average of 2.83 goals per match.
9 goals
* Giovanni Simeone
5 goals
* Gastón Pereiro
4 goals
* Ángel Correa
* Marcos Guilherme
* Jeison Lucumí
* José Francisco Cevallos
* Alexander Succar
* Franco Acosta
3 goals
* Thalles
* Miguel Parrales
* Mauro Arambarri
2 goals
* Cristián Cuevas
* Rodrigo Echeverría
* Jarlan Barrera
* Rafael Santos Borré
* Joao Rodríguez
* Sergio Díaz
* Beto da Silva
* Adrián Ugarriza
1 goal
* Facundo Cardozo
* Lucio Compagnucci
* Rodrigo Contreras
* Sebastián Driussi
* Tomás Martínez
* Facundo Monteseirín
* Leonardo Rolón
* Maxi Rolón
* Leonardo Suárez
* Erick Iragua
* Alberto Pinto
* Gabriel Barbosa
* Kenedy
* Léo Pereira
* Malcom
* Nathan
* Yuri Mamute
* Mauro Manotas
* Juan Ferney Otero
* Robert Burbano
* Luis Cangá
* Luis Amarilla
* Enrique Araújo
* Iván Cañete
* Jesús Medina
* Danilo Santacruz
* Gustavo Viera
* Alexis Cossio
* Aurelio Gonzales-Vigil
* Sergio Peña
* Rodrigo Amaral
* Gastón Faber
* Jaime Moreno
1 own goal
* Rodrigo Echeverría (against Uruguay)
* Brian Bernaola (against Argentina)
* Daniel Prieto (against Argentina)

## Qualification for international tournaments
### Qualified teams for FIFA U-20 World Cup

The following four teams from CONMEBOL qualified for the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup in New Zealand.
| Team | Qualified on | Previous appearances in FIFA U-20 World Cup |
| Argentina | 4 February 2015 | 13 (1979, 1981, 1983, 1989, 1991, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2011) |
| Brazil | 4 February 2015 | 17 (1977, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011) |
| Uruguay | 4 February 2015 | 12 (1977, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1991, 1993, 1997, 1999, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013) |
| Colombia | 4 February 2015 | 8 (1985, 1987, 1989, 1993, 2003, 2005, 2011, 2013) |
    $^1$ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

### Qualified teams for Pan American Games

The four teams which finished third to sixth, Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, and Paraguay, qualified for the 2015 Pan American Games men's football tournament in Canada. This was changed from the previous set-up where the South American Under-17 Football Championship was used as qualification for the Pan American Games football tournament.
The following four teams from CONMEBOL qualified for the 2015 Pan American Games men's football tournament.
| Team | Qualified on | Previous appearances in Pan American Games |
| Peru | 4 February 2015 | 0 (Debut) |
| Paraguay | 4 February 2015 | 4 (1951, 1987, 1995, 2003) |
| Brazil | 7 February 2015 | 10 (1959, 1963, 1975, 1979, 1983, 1987, 1995, 2003, 2007, 2011) |
| Uruguay | 7 February 2015 | 5 (1963, 1975, 1983, 1999, 2011) |
    $^1$ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

### Qualified teams for Summer Olympics

Same as previous Youth Championships that were held one year prior to the Olympics, CONMEBOL used the tournament to determine which men's under-23 national teams from South America qualify for the Olympic football tournament. Since Brazil already qualified automatically as hosts of the 2016 Summer Olympics men's football tournament, the top-ranked team other than Brazil qualified directly, while the second top-ranked team other than Brazil advanced to a play-off against the third-placed team of the 2015 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship for the final berth in the Olympics. Since Brazil finished third in the tournament, Argentina qualified for the Olympics, while Colombia advanced to the play-off, where they defeated the United States to become CONMEBOL's third Olympic representative.
The following three teams from CONMEBOL qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics men's football tournament.
| Team | Qualified on | Previous appearances in Summer Olympics |
| Brazil | 2 October 2009 | 12 (1952, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012) |
| Argentina | 7 February 2015 | 7 (1928, 1960, 1964, 1988, 1996, 2004, 2008) |
| Colombia | 29 March 2016 | 4 (1968, 1972, 1980, 1992) |
    $^1$ Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year. Statistics include all Olympic format (current Olympic under-23 format started in 1992).

## Media coverage
### South América

* Argentina: TyC Sports (all matches are broadcast live) and Channel 7 (Argentina matches only)
* Brazil: SporTV (all matches) and SBT (all matches of Brazil and some matches)
* Colombia: Caracol TV (all Colombia matches live)
* Paraguay: Tigo Sports (all matches are broadcast live) and La Tele (all matches of Paraguay and some matches)
* Peru: América Televisión (all matches are broadcast live)
* Uruguay: Tenfield (all matches are broadcast live on VTV, VTV Plus and GolTV Latin América)

### North America

* USA: beIN Sports (all matches live on beIN Sports en Español)

### Europe

* United Kingdom: Bet365 online streaming (all matches live)