Carlos Paniagua, after losing the South American U-17 Women's Championship title: "I congratulated the girls; we wanted more."

The Colombian U-17 women's national team narrowly missed out on the title of the South American Championship held in the country, where Paraguay won the title, beating Ecuador 1-0 this Saturday in the final match of the hexagonal tournament.

Carlos Paniagua's team lost 1-0 to Brazil at the Pascual Guerrero Stadium early on, leaving them fourth in the tournament with seven points. That was enough to qualify for the U-17 Women's World Cup in Morocco in October.

It's worth remembering that the tournament format was changed this year due to FIFA increasing the number of participating teams to 24. And that, in Paniagua's assessment, ended up weighing heavily on the team's failure to win in the final two rounds.

"The first format in this category was nine matches, up from seven. It was very tough, not just for Colombia, but for all the teams. We were feeling the effects physically. Paraguay scored against us in the same minute (as Brazil), in the 69th," Paniagua explained.

The coach acknowledged the squad's efforts. "I congratulated the girls; fortunately, our goal of going to the World Cup in Morocco was achieved. It makes me very sad not to be able to be on the podium here playing at home. In the two previous U-17 tournaments, both in Uruguay and Paraguay, we were on the podium, but this time it wasn't possible," he noted.

The Colombian coach said the team felt the loss of several key players for his vision.

"We started the hexagonal tournament very well, finishing first in the third round. We were starting to feel physically weak. There are some very important players who weren't there, like Sofía Ortiz, América's center back; Brenda Cardona, from Santa Fe; Laura Acevedo, who was at the World Cup last year. They're players who can be there for the World Cup. That's what we're going to work on now: building a more competitive team to go to the World Cup," he insisted.

"To these girls, I'm nothing but grateful. We did our best; we wanted more. This South American tournament left us with a tremendous amount of learning; we have nine more international matches," he emphasized.

Paniagua feels the losses left the team at a bit of a disadvantage. "The biggest learning curve is in the roster. Because of those players who were missing, we fell a bit short. This is a completely new generation. New processes against teams that are rolling with players from previous seasons. This added value is a great learning curve for what's to come," he revealed.