Mexico drawn in Group F of 2023 U17 World Cup

Mexico has been drawn into Group F for the 2023 U17 World Cup, which will be held in Indonesia. Mexico was the seeded team, and will be in the group along with Germany, Venezuela, and New Zealand. The group is almost a copy of the 2017 U20 World Cup group, where Mexico faced two of the three teams they will face now. The top two teams in the Group will qualify, as well as the fourth best placed 3rd place teams. Mexico will be hoping to make history again after winning the 2005 and 2011 World Cup and finishing in second place in the last competition, held in 2019.

After the 2021 U17 World Cup was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament returns. Indonesia is hosting the competition after Peru, the original host, was deemed not ready to held the tournament. Indonesia was slated to host the 2023 U20 World Cup, but after protests and even a government boycott because of the participation of Israel, the tournament was taken away from Indonesia and given to Argentina to host it. Israel didn’t qualify for the 2023 U17 World Cup, so Indonesia was given the tournament. Mexico came in as the seeded team after winning the 2023 U17 CONCACAF Tournament by defeating the United States in the Final. Mexico went all the way to the final of the U17 World Cup in 2019 but lost against hosts Brazil by a 2-1 score.

Mexico will share the group along with Germany, Venezuela, and New Zealand. In a strange coincidence, this is an almost copycat group to the one Mexico faced in the 2017 U20 World Cup. In that tournament, Mexico was also the seeded team and faced Germany and Venezuela along with Vanuatu. While Vanuatu didn’t qualify to the U17 World Cup, Mexico will face another OFC team in New Zealand. So as in 2017, Mexico will face Germany, Venezuela, and an OFC team. Mexico will open their tournament facing Germany (Nov 12). They will then face Venezuela (Nov 15), and close out against their group stage participation against New Zealand (Nov 18). All their matches will be played in Jalak Harupat Stadium in Bandung. The top two teams in the group qualify to the Round of 16 as well as the four best third place teams in the group stages.