By John F. Molinaro, CBCSports.ca
TORONTO — The winner and still undisputed champion of the world — Argentina.
Matias Cahais, right, and other members of the Argentine team celebrate their FIFA U-20 World Cup title after beating the Czech Republic 2-1 in Sunday's final at Toronto's BMO Field.
(Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)
On a warm, gorgeous summer Sunday afternoon with a perfect blue sky above, Argentina, known as the albicelestes (the white and sky blues) came from behind to successfully defend its world title by defeating the Czech Republic 2-1 in the final of the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
Down 1-0 after 60 minutes, Argentina quickly equalized to stagger the Czechs and Mauro Zarate delivered the knockout blow, scoring the winning goal in the 86th minute to hand Argentina its sixth world title overall and fifth in the last seven tournaments.
Argentine forward Sergio Aguero, the competition's top scorer with six goals, won the Golden Ball award as the tournament's most valuable player, joining the likes of countrymen Diego Maradona (1979), Javier Saviola (2001), and Lionel Messi (2005) who have won the prestigious honour.
"This was a very special tournament for me — to finish as the top scorer and be named the best player and also to win the championship. It will never happen again in my life," Aguero said.
"I'm excited to win the Golden Ball like [Maradona] did," Aguero added.
Touted as the favourites when the World Cup began three weeks ago, the South Americans were the class of the competition, running the table by going undefeated (six wins and one draw) and scoring a competition-high 16 goals while conceding just twice.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter awarded gold medals to the Argentine players and handed the World Cup trophy to Aguero on a makeshift stage at midfield as fireworks shot off and the sellout crowd thunderously applauded.
Argentina coach Hugo Tocalli said the win was the greatest moment in his 13-year coaching career.
"This is for Argentina, this is for my country," Tocalli told reporters after the game.
Argentina's Pablo Piatti, left, and Czech Republic's Ondrej Kudela go head to head for the ball during the first half of the final match at the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
(Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)
Sunday's finale was a contrast in playing styles that pitted European grit against South American flair. The Czechs played a physical game, soaking up the offensive pressure of their opponents before going on the counter-attack. The stylish Argentines relied on a flurry of quick and short passes to move up the field, shifting the ball around with precision and forcing the Czechs to chase.
The Czech Republic was without hard-working midfielder Petr Janda after he picked up his second yellow card in the semifinals, thus earning an automatic one-game suspension.
For Argentina, defender and team captain Matias Cahais, and midfielder Claudio Jacob were suspended. The Argentines, bastions of defensive stodginess in this tournament, struggled at times without their captain, as they tried to fend off the powerful Czechs.
Czechs hang tough
The first half was largely uneventful, but tensions did threaten to boil over as the teams combined to earn six yellow cards (three each) and commit 29 fouls.
The Czechs, the tallest team in the 24-nation tournament, used their size advantage to bully around the smaller Argentines right from the opening whistle. Defender Lukas Kuban picked up a yellow card in the first minute for a rash tackle on Leonardo Sigali.
Argentina enjoyed 61 per cent of the possession in the opening 45 minutes, but the South Americans didn't make good use of it. The Czech defenders continually flustered the Argentine attackers whenever they neared the penalty box, and as a result Argentina never tested goalkeeper Radek Petr.
For all of Argentina's attacking panache, the best scoring chance fell to the Czechs in the 10th minute. A goalmouth scramble ensued after some lax Argentine defending and Marek Suchy pounced by unleashing a shot from in close, forcing goalkeeper Sergio Romero to make a reflex save and deflect the ball off the far post.
"The Czechs dug deep and gave us a hard match. They played physically and made it difficult for us, and forced us to look for open space, especially in midfield," Tocalli said.
With the result still hanging in the balance, the game came alive and erupted with end-to-end action in the second half.
Petr denied Maximiliano Morlalez with a point-blank stop in the 50th minute following a beautiful Argentine passing play. The Czechs marched right down the field and Lubos Kalouda fired a wicked volley from inside the box, but was robbed by Romero who made a sensational save to tip the ball over the crossbar.
As the Czechs grew in confidence they pressed forward and snatched the first goal in the 60th minute. Kalouda slalomed his way past two defenders and fed Martin Fenin inside the box where the forward pivoted around his defensive marker to drive the ball past Romero.
Czech lead was short-lived
Argentina hit back a minute later, as midfielder creator Ever Banega delivered a defence-splitting pass to Aguero who rushed into the box and delicately slotted the ball home at the near post.
The beast had awoken, and Argentina took control of the game, crashing down with wave after wave of attacking play on the Czech penalty box.
"I was shocked when the Czechs scored, but we looked at each other in the face and said we've got to get the game back, so we really worked towards doing it and we were able to gain control back," Aguero said.
Argentina continued to press and was rewarded for its persistence when Zarate scored with four minutes remaining in regulation, beating Petr at the near post on a shot from just inside the box.
"It was a difficult game, but we didn't back down when we were down 1-0. We were confident we could come back, we knew we could do it and Zarate's goal was great," Tocalli said.
The South Americans ran out the clock and were serenaded with deafening chants of "Argentina, Argentina" by the Toronto crowd after the final whistle blew.
"Argentina showed why they are the world champions," said Czech coach Miroslav Soukup. "They outplayed us in the second half."
"It was great that we took the lead, but we needed to hold on for 30 minutes. Argentina is very good at punishing teams and we made mistakes on defence and they made us pay for them," added Soukup.
Hours after the game was over, hundreds of Argentina fans beat on drums, sang songs and waved flags, crowding around the Argentine team bus in hopes of catching a glimpse of their heroes.
Canada sets attendance record
This tournament established a new record for the highest total attendance in FIFA Under-20 World Cup history, finishing at 1,195,239. The previous record of 1,155,160 was set in Mexico 24 years ago.
Including Sunday's final two games, 31 of the tournament's 52 matches were sold out.
"The FIFA U-20 World Cup has been a great success across Canada and we're looking forward to capping off the event in Toronto with a riveting championship match," tournament official Bruce Thomas said before the final.
Earlier on Sunday in Toronto, Chile defeated Austria 1-0 in the third-place game.