Korea Faces Tough Road at U-20 Women's World Cup

Korea has set its sights on reaching the semifinals of the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup.

Korea is playing Canada in its first group match in San Jose, Costa Rica on Friday. It will then face Nigeria on Aug. 15 and France on Aug. 18.

The countries in its group are not easy opponents. Canada and France have finished runner-up once each and Nigeria twice at past events.

In the group stage, 16 teams are divided into four groups of four. The top two teams from each group advance to the quarterfinals.

Korea has gone beyond the group stage five times at the biennial event, which has been held since 2012. Its best performance was a third-place finish in 2010.

Korea earned a spot after finishing third at the Asian Football Confederation U-19 Championship. It has been training in Mexico since late last month.