South America “Golden Goal Show”

Favorites Brazil and Spain advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2003 World Youth Soccer Championship (under age 20). Host United Arab Emirates (UAE) also defeated “Ambush” Australia, which trounced Brazil in the preliminary match, to surprisingly make it to the final eight. Columbia subdued Ireland to capture the quarterfinals ticket.

With these results, the quarterfinals matches of this tournament have been determined: Japan-Brazil, USA-Argentina, Canada-Spain, and Columbia-UAE.

Brazil, the samba squad shining with four previous tournament championships, came from behind to defeat Slovakia 2-1 at the round of 16 in Sharjah, UAE on Tuesday as Dudu scored the equalizing and winning goals.

Filip Sebo scored for Slovakia by heading in a shot in the 16th minute of the second half to pressure Brazil into a no-way out situation. However, Slovakia didn’t keep this up over the last seven minutes, giving up their chance to win.

Dudu tied the game with his goal in the 38th minute of the second half when defeat seemed certain, getting through Brazil’s crisis, and then scored the winning goal five minutes into overtime to punctuate the fiercely fought match.

Spain, the winner of championship in 1999, defeated Paraguay 1-0 on a goal by Sergio Garcia in the 21st minute of the second half in Al-Ain to advance to the final eight.

The favorite of South America, Columbia, was tied 2-2 during regulation play and shook off Ireland’s chase with Erwin Carrillo`s goal in the 14th minute of overtime.

Columbia seems to have had it in the bag with a goal by Perea Edixon in the 11th minute of the first half and one by Victor Montano in the 25th minute of the second half. However, Columbia allowed goals by Kevin Doyle in the 40th minute of second half and one by Keith Fahey in the injury time to force the match to overtime.

Columbia, which has better team physical stamina, persistently dominated Ireland and Erwin netted in the 14th minute of overtime to conclude the long match.

Host UAE, led by Coach Jean Froncois Jodard from France, stunned Australia 1-0 on a goal by Ismail Mattar in the 89th minute to excite the approximately 12,000 home fans.

Jong-Koo Yang yjonk@donga.com