Synopsis: Uruguay beats USA 0-2 in World Cup to advance to semifinals against Israel (Sports1)
The Israeli national under-20 team was informed tonight (between Sunday and Monday) of its opponent in the semi-finals of the World Cup - the strong Uruguay, which, as usual, presents belligerent and tough and efficient football. Celeste advanced to the semifinals on Thursday at 20:30 p.m. in La Plata after an impressive 0-2 victory over the unbeaten U.S. team until meeting them in the quarterfinals.
Uruguay reached the final twice, in 1997 and 2013, but lost both times and finished fourth in 2017. The 20 Copa America Under-2017 champions started the current tournament well with an easy 0-4 win over Iraq, but a 3-2 defeat to England embroiled them ahead of a 0-1 win over Tunisia that secured promotion to the final eight.
Haas is in decisive stages. Anderson Duarte (Photo by Getty Images, Marcio Machado/Eurasia Sport Images)
In the next round, Uruguay struggled in a nervous match against Gambia with a red card for each side, but a winning goal by Anderson Duarte gave the South American team their ticket and a meeting with the United States in the quarterfinals. Duarte even scored in tonight's game against the United States, and appears to be the ace of the team in the decisive stages. The two midfielders – 18-year-old Franco González and 19-year-old Matías Uvaldo – are the standouts in the tournament squad with 2 goals and an assist each.
This is a team without big stars, with only two players playing outside Uruguay.
This is Israel's third South American opponent in the tournament, having previously beaten Brazil and lost dramatically to Colombia.
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Don't underestimate. Uruguay celebrates (Photo by Getty Images, Marcio Machado/Eurasia Sport Images)
Either way, Uruguay is very enthusiastic about the team's achievement, and the feelings may not compare to the madness felt in Israel, but it is definitely a large-scale story. Luis Suarez, who watched the match from home, tweeted after tonight's game: "How fun it is to be Uruguay! I'm proud of you, kids."
The players are happy with the achievement, but are already looking forward to the next challenge. "We will move forward step by step. We will play hard until the end of the tournament, we will fight with all our might, I promise that," said midfielder Ignacio Sosa, warning: "We have to start thinking about the semi-finals. Israel has an excellent team that did not oust Brazil by chance. We will prepare well for the game and make every effort to reach the final."
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- Israeli football
- Israeli national teams
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- Youth team
