Venezuela U21

The squad that goes out under this badge trains on an island. The Centro Nacional de Alto Rendimiento sits on Margarita, off the coast of Nueva Esparta, and it is where the Venezuelan federation gathers its youth sides — the under-20s and whatever under-21 group the calendar demands — before they travel. There is no home ground in the ordinary sense. Matches land where the fixture puts them: Metropolitano de Lara in Cabudare, or arenas in Caracas and Valencia.

That looseness runs through the whole thing. CONMEBOL holds no regular under-21 competition, so the category exists in Venezuela only when a tournament calls for it. The Central American and Caribbean Games, where the age limit shifts between under-21 and under-23 depending on the edition, account for most of the team's appearances. Golds came in 1982 and 1998, when the football tournament was played by under-20 sides. Since then the finishes have piled up on the second step: Cartagena in 2006, Veracruz in 2014, Barranquilla in 2018 — where Colombia won 2-1, the same margin and the same opponent as twelve years earlier.

Then there was Toulon. In 2022 the side reached the final of the Maurice Revello Tournament, an invitational with no qualifying and no stakes beyond itself, and Telasco Segovia — a midfielder then at Sampdoria — was named the tournament's best player.

Mexico and Colombia turn up again and again on the other side of these draws, but nothing hardens into a rivalry when the team assembles once every four years and dissolves afterwards.