The U23 Asian Cup and Paris Olympic Games qualifiers are completely over for the National Olympic Games, and they have returned to their respective clubs after the group stage to prepare for the next league. The remaining top eight teams in the U23 Asian Cup have already started their quarter-finals showdown, and are working hard for four Olympic places. The first two quarter-finals were the host Qatar vs Japan and South Korea vs Indonesia, and now the two matches have ended, with Japan beating 10-man Qatar 4-2 to advance to the quarterfinals, while South Korea lost to Indonesia U23 on penalties.
Indonesia defeated South Korea, this upset is more exaggerated than the 2018 U23 Asian Cup, Vietnam Olympic Games to the finals, after all, in our impression, Indonesia is a fish belly team even in Southeast Asia, weaker than Vietnam and Thailand. Unexpectedly, the Indonesian national team crushed Vietnam in the world preliminaries, and Indonesia's U23 also defeated South Korea in the Olympic qualifiers, such a result may not be imagined by anyone. Indonesia also beat Australia and Jordan in the group stage, showing that beating South Korea's U23s was no fluke. Our stereotypes are completely inapplicable to Indonesian football today.
In this game, Indonesia's U23 had the advantage in terms of statistics, with 6 percentage points more possession than South Korea, and 21 shots on goal compared to South Korea's 8 shots. Of course, South Korea's national Olympic team was sent off in the 70th and 98th minutes, and it was not easy to draw Indonesia in regular time with two fewer players. In the final penalty shoot-out, Indonesia had the last laugh. Indonesia will face the winners of Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia for a place in the finals, and the top three teams in the tournament will have to play a play-off match against teams from the African region.
Indonesia is the biggest beneficiary of the naturalization policy, and it is also the team that has taken the naturalization rules to the extreme. Whether it is the Indonesian national team that entered the round of 16 of the Asian Cup and defeated Vietnam in the world preliminaries, or the Indonesian Olympic team that entered the top 4 of the U23 Asian Cup, naturalized players played a central role in these two teams. Especially in the quarter-finals against South Korea U23, naturalized players scored twice and created red cards for Korean players.
Indonesian football, which adheres to the path of naturalization, has ushered in the rise, and the belly of Asian football has turned over, and Indonesia will inevitably appear in the first- and second-rate teams in Asia in the future. And the national football team also has one more nemesis and a strong opponent. On the other hand, in Chinese football, most of the naturalized players have been assimilated, and there is almost no effect on improving Chinese football, while most of the naturalized players in Indonesia are naturalized by blood and still stay in Europe to continue to play, and will not be affected by local players.