U23 Asian Cup top 8: Only one team in the first two brackets is out, and Indonesia has become the only dark horse

Football Newspaper

2024-04-24 12:29Published on the official account of Guangdong Football News

In the early morning of the 24th, Beijing time, the group stage of the U23 Asian Cup was all over, and the top two 8 teams in the group had 7 lines, and only Australia was eliminated by Indonesia, which has 4 naturalized players. Although there are many players in Europe from traditional strong teams, the club refuses to release them and is absent, which affects the strength of the team to a certain extent. But in the end, they still showed the strength advantage they deserved.

However, there are very few new stars who have performed well during the group stage, and almost all of them have senior national team experience and experience in international competitions, so it is reasonable that the U23 Asian Cup and the senior Asian Cup are basically the same.

In this year's U23 Asian Cup, the first-class strong team Iran missed the finals, and in the group stage, although traditional powerhouses such as Japan and South Korea have big-name players of appropriate age in Europe absent, resulting in a decline in the team's strength, the basic advantage is still there. Of the eight teams in Pot 1 (Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzi, Japan) and Pot 2 (Australia, Iraq, Vietnam and South Korea), only Iraq and Australia did not win all the first two games to lay the foundation for qualifying, and in the end, only Australia was out.

The early wins of the six teams in the top two brackets are enough to prove the difference in quality in the U23 age group. The 7 teams that qualified in the first two brackets, the strength of the senior national team is also among the top in Asia. Japan and South Korea are still confirmed to qualify after the first two rounds despite the absence of most of their main players in Europe, while South Korea, which basically relies on K-League players, is one of the two teams in the group stage to win all three games (the other is Uzi).

There are 6 teams that have advanced to the top 8 for two consecutive years, this time only the host Qatar and dark horse Indonesia replaced Australia and Turkmenistan in the previous edition, and the Asian football pattern in the U23 age group is basically stable.

The 7 teams that qualified in the first two brackets have enough advantages over the third and fourth brackets. Tajikistan in the fourth pot lost four goals to Saudi Arabia and Iraq in the first two games, Thailand also lost to Saudi Arabia by five goals in the third pot, Kuwait in the third pot lost to Uzi in the first pot by five goals, and Vietnam in the second pot by three goals. There is a large gap between the third and fourth pots in terms of individual ability and overall tactics, resulting in the first two rounds of the group stage, and the qualifying situation of the four groups is almost clear.

The only exception, or dark horse, is Indonesia, which has four naturalized players, who beat Australia 1-0 in the second round, but Australia, who finished runners-up in the Under-23 West Asia Cup in March, are missing a number of players from Europe. Missed a penalty against Indonesia and hit the post against Qatar, with the advantage but bad luck, the exit was more fortuitous.

Judging from the group stage, the basic pattern of Asian football remains unchanged. Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Uzi, Iraq and Iran and Australia, which are absent from the top eight, are in the first echelon, while Vietnam and Indonesia, which rely on naturalized players to quickly improve their strength, have significantly narrowed the gap with them.

In this year's U23 Asian Cup, there are many "old" new stars who play in the senior national team, such as the top two scorers Yahya (3 goals and 2 assists) and Radif (3 goals and 1 assist). Both are members of the 2022 U23 Asian Cup winning team, Yahya was the MVP at the time, and the number of goals scored in this group stage has been the same as the previous one, and Radif broke through South Korea in the 1/8 finals of the Asian Cup at the beginning of the year, and scored the only hat-trick in the group stage this time, both of them are Golden Boot and Golden Ball favorites.

Uzi midfielder Arolitilov scored 1 goal and 2 assists in the group stage, and was named one of the "60 future rising stars" by the British "Guardian" in 2019, and in the 2022 U23 Asian Cup, he helped the team win the runner-up as captain, scoring 3 goals himself, and in the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, he scored 2 goals and 4 assists to help Uzi win the bronze medal.

Among the 8 newcomers concerned by the AFC's official website before the game, Iraqi winger Jassim, who scored 3 goals and 1 assist, led the team to eliminate Iran in the U20 Asian Cup last year and reached the U20 World Youth Championship. Four goals in five games in the AFC Champions League this season, and three assists in the Asian Cup at the beginning of the year.

In addition, Saudi Arabian midfielder Ghamdi, Qatar's Iraqi naturalized player Ahmed Rawi, and Indonesia's 19-year-old European midfielder Ferdinand are also key players in their respective teams, and they are all senior national team internationals.

South Korea, which lacks players in Europe, relied on the 1.90-meter-tall high school striker Lee Yong-jun to pack the first three goals to qualify, and last year's U20 World Youth Championship, he helped South Korea finish fourth with 2 goals and 1 assist, and FC Seoul's left-back Lee Tae-seok had assists in all three group games, participated in the U17 World Junior Championship in 2019, and became the main player in Seoul this season.

Although Japan lacks attacking power, the performance of FC Tokyo's young captain Matsuki Kushio is worth watching.

Vietnamese winger Bui Wei Hao scored 2 goals and 1 assist in the group stage, and was the biggest contributor to the two consecutive wins. As Vietnam's 2022 U21 League Golden Boot, he led the team to win the U23 Southeast Asia Cup last year. He and winger Qu Van Kang, who participated in the Asian Cup at the beginning of the year, as well as midfielder Vu Hoang Minh Khan Ke and striker Nguyen Van Song, are regarded as Vietnam's hopes for the first echelon of Asia in the future.

Indonesia not only has naturalized defenders Zhou Ya'an and Jenna, central defender Habna and striker Stryk, but also homegrown rookie Ferdinand and defender Taigu, who scored two goals each in the group stage.

It can be said that the two Southeast Asian teams are full of talent and have a promising future.

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