What level of team is the Japanese U15 who lost to China in the East Asian Cup?

China's U15 national junior team won the U15 East Asian Cup in Qingdao by beating Japan 4-2 on penalties in the final. Although it is only the East Asian Cup champion, it is also gratifying, after all, China's men's national team has been away from the championship at all levels for some time. At the same time, however, some people questioned the lack of quality of the Japanese U15 team, and even called these players substitutes among substitutes. What are the facts?

Training + competition is divided into two ways

The main reason for questioning the quality of Japan's U15 is that on September 4-6, almost at the same time as the East Asian Cup, the Japan Football Association held a training camp for the U15 national team in Chiba Prefecture, with the participation of coach Reiji Hirata, who rushed to China to lead the team to the semifinals and finals of the East Asian Cup after the training. From a normal understanding, this is indeed suspected of favoring one over the other.

On August 29, the Japan Football Association announced the list of 42 players for the Chiba training camp, with players from clubs at all levels across the country, including players from the China Sports Federation or the High Sports Federation. In addition to head coach Reiji Hirata and Masanaga Kageyama, who is in charge of youth training at the Japan Football Association, six coaches and two goalkeeper coaches were recruited, and then 42 players were divided into three teams for training.

Reiji Hirata (left) Masanaga Wakageyama

In addition to the first day of training on September 4th, these three teams, together with the U16 selection team from Chiba Prefecture, held a mini-round-robin tournament in the morning, afternoon and morning of the 6th, so that each team could play three games.

The Japanese Under-15 team is aiming for the U17 World Cup two years later. Reiji Hirata believes that he is best at exploiting the potential of young people, so he needs to let different players try different positions to determine where these young people can be used by the team in the future. After the training camp, Hirata said that he saw a variety of possibilities, which was more exciting than the Osaka training camp in March.

After the training camp on the 6th, Reiji Hirata flew to Qingdao to lead the team to participate in the semifinals of the East Asian Cup with South Korea and the final with the Chinese team on the 7th and 8th, and finally won the runner-up.

It should be noted that in the 2023 schedule announced by the Japan Football Association at the end of last year, the team conducted a total of four domestic training camps in February, June and September after the official formation this year, and went overseas for training in April and November. In other words, the U15 East Asian Cup, a tournament sponsored by the East Asian Football Federation, was not planned by the Japan Football Association, but joined temporarily.

Subsequently, the Japan Football Association adjusted its plan in February this year according to the schedule of the event, and the two Osaka training camps originally scheduled for February were changed to March, and the Chiba training camp in September remained unchanged; April, June and November are for overseas training competitions. However, in April this year, the East Asian Football Federation began to promote the U15 East Asian Cup, which was finally decided in June, drawn in August, and started in September, but because the last domestic training camp originally scheduled for September was difficult to cancel, the Japan Football Association and the U15 coaching staff finally decided to divide the training into two, some people participated in domestic training, and some people went to participate in the East Asian Cup.

And Reiji Hirata's rush is also understandable, after all, the East Asian Cup Japanese team team team team in the group stage opponents are Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei and Guam, even if assistant coaches Yasuhiko Kimura and Hiroyuki Nishijima lead the team, they will not lose. It is too late to go to the semifinals, not to mention the domestic training arranged at the end of last year, and there are more than 40 people waiting for inspection and guidance.

There is no main substitute for personnel

After the domestic training camp and the East Asian Cup in September, some Japanese media calculated that since the first training camp of the U15 national junior team in March this year, Reiji Hirata and the coaching staff have selected a total of 92 players (including those who withdrew from training due to injury) in the past two domestic training camps (Osaka in March + Chiba in September) and three overseas training + matches (Spain in April, South Korea in June, and East Asian Cup in September).

I have classified the 92 men, there are 10 goalkeepers, 30 defenders, 32 midfielders and 20 strikers. However, whether it is due to their young age and future development, or because of the time spent in the team and the number of training camps, it is difficult to distinguish them between main players and substitutes.

Including the Chiba training camp and the East Asian Cup in September, all 92 players can only participate in a maximum of four training camps, including goalkeepers Watanabe Mashu and Keita Shinhori, defenders Haruai Watanabe, Haruka Tanaka, Ryuku Oshima, Yuya Yoneminato and Yuki Sakaguchi, midfielder Minato Hara, forwards Eita Hirota, Minami Yoshida, Yuto Kamo and Anzai Laiki, a total of 12 people, participated in three of them, the most frequent players, and traditionally seem to be the "main force".

However, in the Chiba training camp, only goalkeeper Watanabe Mashu, Shinhori Kenta and striker Anzai came up with 3 players, and they were players who participated in 3 training camps; In the East Asian Cup roster, defenders Haruto Watanabe, Yuki Sakaguchi and midfielder Minato Hara are also players who participated in three training camps. The other six of the 12 players mentioned above participated in training camps in March, April and June, so they were not selected for either side in September. It can be said that the distribution of this personnel is very balanced.

The two lists in September totaled 42+20 people, and 39 of the 62 were participating in the training camp for the first time. Taking goalkeepers as an example, among the four newcomers, Hiroshi Matsuura Vieira and Kazuhiro Kutomi participated in the East Asian Cup with the team, and Miyamoto Yamagishi Katsuto participated in the Chiba training camp. As for forwards, there are a total of 8 players selected for the first time, and 4 players each participate in the East Asian Cup and Chiba Training, and the distribution is also very balanced.

There are a total of 13 newcomers in the guards, 9 of whom participated in the Chiba training camp, while Haruki Watanabe and Yuki Sakaguchi, who participated in the 3 training camps mentioned earlier, and Haruko Yoshida, who participated in 2 training camps, took 4 newcomers to the East Asian Cup. There are 14 newcomers in the midfield, 9 of whom participated in the Chiba training camp, and the other 5 followed Minato Hara, who participated in 3 training camps, and Naomi Ogawa, who participated in 2 training camps, to the East Asian Cup. The midfield and defenders are both "old with new" combinations, and the coaching staff is probably quite careful when determining the roster.

In fact, the Chiba training camp and the East Asian Cup in September should be seen as a simultaneous inspection of the 2008 age group by the Japan Football Association, rather than distinguishing which side is the main player and which side is the substitute. If there had been no unplanned East Asian Cup, perhaps Reiji Hirata and the coaching staff would have even directly recruited the number of four teams to play against each other, instead of inviting the Chiba U16 selection team to play against the three squads.

Therefore, this Japanese U15 is neither the legendary prefectural team nor the school team, nor should it be called the third team and the fourth team, but only a new team for this age group, with the old to lead the new inspection team. For us, there is no need to feel that Chinese football has great hope since this age, nor is there any need to be arrogant because the opponent is not the main force. For a 15-year-old, it's enough to win, to be happy, to enjoy football more.