MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay edge Italy for U-20 World Cup football title in Argentina

Luciano Rodríguez capitalized on a faulty clearance to make it 1-0 with little time left for unambitious Italy to come back

Uruguayan U-20's 'Celeste' is the new World Champion of the world. Luciano Rodríguez headed home a small box mix-up four minutes from the end to give the South American team their first Under-20 football World Cup title with a 1-0 victory over Italy in La Plata, Argentina.

 Despite 11 minutes of injury time, the Europeans were unable to bring any actual danger to keeper Randall Rodríguez to stretch the definition into 30 minutes of extra time and a potential penalty shootout.

Uruguay came in second in Group E and in the knockout stage beat Gambia, the United States, and Israel. Italy, on the other hand, qualified as runners-up in Group D and then defeated England, Colombia, and South Korea on their way to the final.

Earlier Sunday also at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium, Israel beat South Korea 3-1 to finish third in the tournament with goals from Binyamin, Senior, and Khalaili, while Lee Seung-Won scored a temporary equalizer in the 24th minute from the spot.

According to a report from the Argentine Confederation of Medium-Sized Companies (CAME) released Sunday, some 230,000 foreign travelers visited the country due to the U-20 World Cup spending around US$ 200 daily each during stays averaging 7 days.

“Foreign visitors injected US$ 322 million, equivalent to AR$ 81,949 million. To this, we must add the contributions made by FIFA in organizational expenses, which amounted to another US$ 40 million. Foreigners spent heavily on clothing, footwear, leather goods, and jewelry, taking advantage of the exchange rate difference,” CAME estimated.

Foreign tourists were joined by 184,000 Argentines following their national team adding some AR$ 16,000 (around US$ 33 at the unofficial exchange rate) daily to the tourism business with average stays of 4 days at the different venues.

“La Plata was one of the cities most favored by the ecumenical tournament because it hosted the semifinals and final. It had the presence of World Cup tourists throughout the competition. Even families of nationalities that did not participate in the tournament, such as Chile and Spain, could be seen, and tours were in great demand”, CAME reported.