The 19th Hangzhou Asian Games is scheduled to start in September and October this year, and the football event will be launched earlier on September 19. Although up to now, the organizing committee has not announced the final team to participate in the men's football competition, but from the current situation, affected by various factors, this year's Hangzhou Asian Games men's football tournament may become a lower quality of the teams in recent years, the vast majority of the participating teams will participate in the 2001 U22 national Olympic team, and basically will not play with the strongest team, some member associations will even only appoint the U20 national youth team to participate. Of course, from another point of view, this may be more conducive to the Chinese U24 Asian Games team to strive for good results.
China and South Korea are the only U24 teams
Since the Hangzhou Asian Games were supposed to be held in September last year, due to the epidemic decision to postpone it for one year until September this year, many member associations under the AFC dissolved their 99-year-old U23 teams after the fifth U23 Asian Cup in June last year, and many of the original 99-year-old team coaches directly transferred to the 2001 national Olympic team coaches, and some rehired head coaches. In contrast, the AFC's member associations attach more importance to the men's qualifiers for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, which is the sixth U23 Asian Cup in 2024.
So far, one thing is clear: among the teams competing in this year's men's soccer tournament at the Hangzhou Asian Games, I am afraid that only China and South Korea will send players of appropriate age born on or after January 1, 1999. In January this year, the organizing committee officially issued a notice that the age of players participating in the men's football tournament of the Hangzhou Asian Games should remain for players born on or after January 1, 1999. Therefore, the Chinese 99-year-old team continued to be retained, and the Korean Football Association also reorganized the U24 Asian Games team in March this year and pulled the team to Qatar for training and training. In June this year, the Chinese Football Association invited the South Korean U24 Asian Games team to visit China and play two warm-up matches with the Chinese U24 Asian Games team to test the team's strength and level. It can be said that this will be a battle between the two teams with the largest average age during the future Hangzhou Asian Games.
In addition, the highest level football powers in Asian football, including Japan, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Iran, will only send the 2001 U22 Olympic team to China. Moreover, the Olympic Committees of countries such as Uzbekistan and Iran have held meetings with their respective football federations and clearly assigned the 2001 age group to participate, and the Uzbekistan Olympic Committee has been tasked with winning the gold medal in the men's football competition of the Asian Games.
One important reason for this is that the first phase of the Paris 2024 men's Asian qualifiers is scheduled for September 6 to 12, and the men's qualifiers for the Asian Games on September 19 are just a week apart, and most member associations simply do not have time to form two teams to deal with the Hangzhou Asian Games and Paris Olympic qualifiers respectively. Moreover, in terms of personnel, there is overlap and overlap between the two teams. The players of the appropriate age for the men's football qualifiers for the Paris Olympics are naturally the players of the right age for the men's football tournament of the Hangzhou Asian Games.
Moreover, it is precisely because the two events are only one week apart in terms of schedule, so the Malaysian Football Association, after consultation with the Malaysian Olympic Committee, decided to abandon the men's football competition at the Hangzhou Asian Games and let the Malaysian 2001 U22 Olympic team focus on the first stage of the men's qualifiers for the Paris Olympic Games. Similar to the situation in Malaysia, there are several AFC member associations. Therefore, among the 47 AFC-affiliated member associations, the number of member associations that finally signed up for the men's football tournament may not be very large. In the last 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia, only 25 teams participated in the men's football competition, and if it can exceed this number of participating teams, I am afraid it will already be considered a success.
Domestic leagues do not "give way"
Since the first phase of the Olympic men's Asian qualifiers from September 6 to 12 is scheduled to be played during the FIFA-designated national team competition window, and the Hangzhou Asian Games men's football tournament on September 19 is not played during the FIFA-designated national team competition window, when the Chinese U24 Asian Games team draws players from the Chinese Super League or China League One clubs, many clubs will inevitably have some complaints, after all, the Chinese Super League and the Chinese League A have no suspension plan during the Asian Games. The recruitment of personnel will affect at least two or three rounds of the Chinese Super League. However, since the Hangzhou Asian Games are held on the doorstep, after all, there are requirements in terms of results, and even if clubs have opinions, they are unlikely to stand up and publicly contradict it.
However, other member associations may not be as smooth as the Chinese U24 Asian Games team in terms of recruiting players. For example, the Vietnam Football Association decided in March this year to send Vietnam's 2003 U20 youth team to this year's Hangzhou Asian Games, and the head coach will continue to be Trusier. The fundamental reason is that since the Vietnam Football Association will implement the cross-year format from the second half of the year, the 2023 season of the league needs to be completed before September this year, if the 2001 age group players are normally assigned to participate in the team, it is inevitable to draw players from various clubs, and the interests of club teams cannot be guaranteed, so the league can only be suspended. However, if it is suspended, the league will not end as planned. Moreover, due to the 2001 age group's participation in the men's soccer tournament of the recently concluded Southeast Asian Games, the league has been suspended for nearly 50 days, causing many Vietnamese clubs to complain. Therefore, in order to prevent another suspension of the league, the Vietnam Football Association decided to send the U20 national youth team to participate in the Asian Games.
Vietnam's U20 team was the team that missed the quarterfinals of the U20 Asian Cup in March this year, when the Vietnamese team defeated Australia and Qatar, but did not reach the quarterfinals because of the final loss to Iran, resulting in a downward goal difference between the three teams. At the same time, since the 2003 age players will be the appropriate age players for the men's football tournament of the next Southeast Asian Games in 2025, Vietnam decided to appoint the U20 national youth team to participate in the long-term perspective.
Just a few days ago, the Thai Professional League Committee and the Thai Football Association met and decided that the Thai league will not be suspended for the Hangzhou Asian Games in the new season, that is, the 2023-24 season, so Thailand can play the first stage of the Olympic qualifiers in early September with the strongest team in 2001, but when it comes to the Hangzhou Asian Games, the players can only be based on the attitude of the Thai club, if the club is not willing to release people, Thailand can only participate as the "Olympic Second Team".
Similarly, there is Japan. The Japanese Olympic team recently organized a domestic flight training camp, and it is worth noting that the number of university students participating in this three-day flight training has soared, and as many as 18 new faces have been created. Head coach Gang Oiwa specifically explained that since the domestic J-League will not be suspended during the Hangzhou Asian Games, it will be difficult to draw personnel from Japanese professional club teams. In this case, perhaps more players from the university ranks will have to be drawn to deal with the Asian Games.
Based on the above information, it is not difficult to see that the participating teams of the men's football tournament of the Hangzhou Asian Games are affected by various objective factors, and it may be difficult to gather the highest level teams in Asia to participate. However, it also creates an opportunity for the Chinese U24 Asian Games team to achieve good results, after all, it is generally two years older than its opponents in terms of age, and it is also playing on the doorstep. Hopefully, the U24 Asian Games team can achieve the desired result on its doorstep to change the history of the Chinese men's football team in the past three consecutive missed quarterfinals.