Fans of Asian football will note that preparations for the East Asian Cup are already underway. In July 2022, the East Asian Cup will be held in Japan.
The 9th East Asian Cup, which was originally scheduled to be held in China, was moved to Japan due to epidemic prevention and control reasons. This tournament believes that fans will not be unfamiliar, basically the competition between the three teams of China, Japan and South Korea. But perhaps not many people thought that in the previous 8 East Asian Cups, the national football team had won the championship twice, while Japan only won once, and the other five were arranged by the South Korean team.
At present, the strength of Japanese football is slightly stronger than that of South Korea and far more than China, but why did they perform poorly in the East Asian Cup?
This is the sixteenth issue of "Starting Japanese Football", and we continue to focus on Japan. Why is the Japanese team at the East Asian Cup so "dish"?
Note: The column "Starting from the Bottom of Japanese Football" will start from the Meiji era of Japan more than 150 years ago, trace back to the roots of Japanese football, and dig deep into the development process of Japanese football in the past 150 years. Each issue involves campus football, professional paths, naturalization, etc., and I believe it can give you different inspirations for those who love football.
01
Japan's East Asian Cup runner-up spell
In fact, the East Asian Cup has been held until now, slowly losing his gold content, and the three teams of China, Japan and South Korea probably think so. In this East Asian Cup, the national football team reserve sent U23 teams to train troops, which is not the strongest lineup. Similarly, the Japanese team is not considering sending the strongest lineup, they are organizing U21 to compete, and only South Korea is still thinking about this matter.
In fact, the Japanese team did not take the East Asian Cup seriously at the beginning, as it is now. In the first East Asian Cup in 2003, the Japanese team participating as the host was almost all the main players, and finally won 2 wins and 1 draw and accumulated 7 points, but due to the disadvantage of goal difference, it lost to the South Korean team, which was also 2 wins and 1 draw, and unfortunately won the runner-up.
The second East Asian Cup can be said to be the highlight moment of the national football team. At that time, the country was enough to win the championship with 1 win, 2 draws and 5 points! The Japanese team faced the national football team that was not bad at the time, drew 2-2, and lost to North Korea 0-1, 1 win, 1 draw, 1 loss and 4 points to get the runner-up again...
In the third East Asian Cup, although the Japanese team took revenge on the national football team, it faced two draws in South Korea and North Korea, and finally was suppressed by the South Korean team with a goal difference disadvantage, and once again won the runner-up...
3 consecutive runners-up, the Japanese team is really a bit numb, but at this time the strength of the Japanese team is quietly improving....
02
Boldly choose "lie flat"
The Asian Cup has already won the championship, and the World Cup has scored three times in a row. So they made a bold decision from the fourth East Asian Cup, no longer sending the full main team to play.
Obviously, the Japanese team no longer values this event, and they will focus more on the Asian Cup and the World Cup.
With the exception of japan, which won their only East Asian Cup in 2013 with a second-team squad, they have never won the East Asian Cup again.
In the 2015 East Asian Cup, the Japanese team created the worst result in history, 2 draws and 1 loss directly at the bottom, you must know that even the national football team has not been at the bottom of the East Asian Cup.
In the face of the East Asian Cup, the Japanese team completely lay flat, and sending new people or substitutes to train became their main purpose.
03
Leave your energy to stronger opponents
Looking back at the last East Asian Cup, the Japanese team may have sent their three teams, but even this lineup can turn the second team's national football team around. In the end, facing South Korea, which played almost all the main forces, the Japanese team lost 0-1 and won the second place. At the same time, the real Japanese team is training with the strong teams in South America and Europe, which may be their highlight.
In the upcoming 9th East Asian Cup, the Japanese team decided to directly send U21 teams to compete. In the same period, in order to prepare for the World Cup, they spent a huge amount of 300 million yen to invite Brazil, the first fifa team, to participate in the warm-up match.
The Japanese team in the East Asian Cup is very good, but people only save their energy to stronger opponents. Except for the South Korean team that can play against the Japanese team, the other opponents of the East Asian Cup are too chicken ribs for the Japanese team. Spending too much time and energy on the East Asian Cup is not a wise choice for the Japanese team.
In the face of the "lying flat" in the East Asian Cup, we are not qualified to laugh at the Japanese team, even if they have only won one championship, they are still at the bottom of the stigma, but it does not prevent the Japanese team from becoming one of the top teams in Asia at present.
How to efficiently spend energy on meaningful things, Japanese football tells us the answer in a "lying flat" way.
(To be continued)...