FIFA Competitions
- outline
- report
FIFA U-20 World Cup Egypt 2009
- Date
- 9.24.2009 - 10.16
- Host Country
- Egypt
Held every other year, the FIFA U-20 World Cup took place this year in Egypt from September 24 to October 16 at 7 stadia in the 5 host cities of Cairo, Alexandria, Port Said, Ismailia and Suez. Host country Egypt and 23 nations qualifying from the preliminary competition held in their confederations made up the 24 finalists. A total of 52 matches, including 36 matches in the group stage and 16 in the final stage, were held throughout the tournament.
Ghana and Brazil clashed at the final, and neither team was able to prevail after 90 minutes and the match went into extended time. Still tied after 120 minutes, the teams needed a penalty shoot-out to produce a winner. It took the sixth kicker to put an end to the battle, and it was Ghana's Agyemang-Badu who made the last and decisive shot to put his team in the lead 4-3 in the sudden death penalty shootout. Ghana became the first African nation to be crowned champion of the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
A crowd of 67,814 spectators packed the stadium for the final. The aggregate number of stadium spectators throughout the tournament marked 1,295,586 with a match average of 24,915 spectators. The number of total spectators surpassed that of the previous tournament held in Canada (1,195,239), breaking the record for the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
