Ethiopia the surprise package

Ethiopia were helped at home by strong support

Durosimi Thomas, who will be in Argentina covering the Under-20 World Cup for BBC Sport Online, assesses the chances of Ethiopia.

Ethiopia surprised everyone, including themselves, by reaching the World Youth Championships.

It was the first time in Ethiopian footballing history that a national team had qualified for any Fifa competition.

They were helped to a large extenet by the fact that the qualifying tournament for the World Cup, the African U-20 Championships, was held in Addis Ababa.

  Group E

Ethiopia

Ecuador

Netherlands

Costa Rica

Still, few expected the team, which has little in the way of expereince, to make it out of the group stage.

However, they confounded the pundits, and got to the semi-finals to confirm their place in Argentina.

Helped by fans and altitude

The Ethiopian style of play is attractive to watch. They are very fast and fluid - a characteristic that stood out over the other African sides in Addis.

However, they were playing at altitude and backed by the home fans, which gave them an advantage over their opponents.

Zwedu Bekele converts a penalty in the key win over South Africa

That was certainly the case when an angry crowd forced the Cameroon v Egypt match to be abandoned when both sides looked to be playing for a point in the final group game which would have taken them both through.

The Confederation of African Football then made the extraordinary decision that the game would be replayed, but only to eliminate one of the teams, leaving the door open for Ethiopia to reach the semi-finals.

Coming down to sea level in Argentina may lessen Ethiopia's athletic edge, but the team have the stamina to still cause problems to other sides.

First to arrive

Despite the fact that few people expect much of them, the Ethiopians have taken their preparations for the tournament seriously and were the first foreign side to arrive in Argentina, flying in at the end of May.

Compared to other sides, Ethiopia lack much in the way of international exposure, and need as long as possible to acclimatise to the rigours of a world championship.

Yordanos Abay is Ethiopia's main source of goals

They could still produce some stars, and Yordanos Abay is a striker of immense talent.

He has the ability to run at defenders and also has a dangerous curling free-kick in his armoury.

He could have been the top scorer in Addis with the number of chances he had in front of goal, but a lack of composure let him down.

Goalkeeping deficiencies

The captain, Ashenafi Girma, who has the job of controlling the midfield, has tremendous vision and is the side's chief motivator.

But whatever outfield prowess the Ethiopians might show, they will surely be exposed by their serious goalkeeping deficiencies.

Neither Deyas nor Solomon impressed in Addis Ababa. Their performances were marred by indecision, an inability to judge crosses and regular mistakes. These deficiences will only be more exposed against the best youth sides in the world.

Theirs is a tough group and they are likely to struggle to avoid three straight defeats.

This has to be put in perspective though - this is brand new territory for Ethiopia.