The 2024 CONMEBOL Pre-olympic Tournament, which took place from January 20 through February 11 in Venezuela, saw Inter Miami CF’s Diego Gómez represent Paraguay’s U-23 national team in search of clinching a spot in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games. Let’s take a look below at how our midfielder and Paraguay fared in the competition.
Diego Gómez - Paraguay U-23
Group Stage
To start off the 2024 CONMEBOL Pre-olympic Tournament Paraguay and Gómez, who donned the team’s captain’s armband throughout the competition, were drawn alongside Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Peru in Group B for the Group Stage. La Albirroja successfully claimed one of the top two spots in the group to advance to the Final Stage of the tournament after collecting seven points from two wins, a draw and a loss: Paraguay drew 1-1 against Argentina, defeated Uruguay 4-3, topped Peru 1-0 and narrowly fell 1-2 against Chile.
Gómez was a standout for the team throughout the group stage fixtures, registering three goals and an assist by bagging the team’s only goal in the match against Argentina and netting a brace, including a fantastic free kick goal, and registering an assist against Uruguay
Final Stage
Paraguay and Gómez would then face Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela in the group of four in the Final Stage of the 2024 CONMEBOL Pre-olympic Tournament looking to claim one of the two tickets for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games. La Albirroja didn’t skip a beat and continued performing brilliantly as throughout the group stage, earning a 1-0 win over Brazil, tying 3-3 against Argentina and defeating Venezuela 2-0 to tally seven points and top the group to be crowned champions of the competition for a historic second time and qualify for the Summer Olympic Games for the first time in 20 years.
Gómez once again came up big in the three Final Stage matchups, registering a goal and an assist in the draw against Argentina and scoring the opener in the decisive win over Venezuela in the final game of the competition. Overall, Paraguay’s captain concluded the competition as one of the three joint top-scorers with five goals to his name in seven appearances, while also registering two assists in the process.
