On the evening of June 19th local time, the fifth U23 Asian Cup ended in Uzbekistan. The Saudi team, which had reached the final twice before but missed the championship, defeated the host Uzbekistan 2:0 and won the championship of the event for the first time. Moreover, Saudi Arabia scored 11 goals in six games of this event and did not lose a single goal. Uzbekistan, which ranked second in the runner-up, and Japan, both sent U21 to participate, while the Chinese team , which took the initiative to give up the event, will face these opponents in the Paris Olympic qualifiers next year, and the prospects are worrying.
This U23 Asian Cup was held in Uzbek's Tashkent and Karsh, with a total of 16 teams participating. Previously, the Chinese U23 men's football team passed the qualifiers in the first four competitions, but the total score in the finals was only 1 win and 11 losses.
Judging from this U23 Asian Cup, many strong teams have sent teams with 2001-age players as the team, and the Iranian team has sent U21 team (only 3 players over the U21-age players). Although they failed to qualify in the group, the coach, Iranian Iranian legend Mada Wikiah said, "This is an excellent training opportunity for the team to compete for the Paris Olympics. Even if they lose, the team will be valuable."
In the quarterfinals, the Japanese U23 team composed of U21 players defeated the Korean U23 team, which was teamed with 1999 age players, shocked the Korean and even Asian football. After only a few days, this Japanese team lost to Uzbekistan, which also consisted of U21 players, but they easily defeated Australia 3-0 in the finals of the third and fourth place.
According to statistics, the number of players born on January 1, 2001 and after this U23 Asian Cup has increased to 195, accounting for 53.13% of the total number of players. Except for Japan, Uzbekistan, Iran and other players who play as U21-age players, more than half of the U21-age players in Australia and Malaysia are all playing. The U21-age players of the national teams such as Vietnam, Saudi , Qatar , Thailand, Turkmenistan , Tajikistan , etc. are also close to half of them. It is not difficult to see that these countries have already made the Paris Olympic qualifiers the goal of the U21 national team.
On the other hand, the Chinese 2001-age national youth team, that is, the new national Olympic team, have a current preparation situation. After the team ended its training camp in Shanghai on March 27, it has not been concentrated yet due to the epidemic and related objective factors. The previous plan for the U21 national Olympic team to participate in the new season of the China League One has to give up.
In comparison, it won the championship in 2018, entered the top four in 2020, and won the runner-up at home in 2022. Although the Uzbekistan adult national team is only ranked 11th in Asia, the stability of the youth team is still amazing. The important factor is that this Uzbekistan U21 has participated in the domestic Super League for the past two consecutive seasons.
. Currently, among the players of the qualifying age in Super League China League One, only the main players in the team are Tao Qianglong , Liang Shaowen , Zheng Xuejian and so on. Since the Chinese U23 men's football team withdrew from the group stage of the qualifying stage held in Tajik in October last year, they are not eligible to participate in the final stage. Moreover, with the postponement of of the Hangzhou Asian Games, the Chinese team has only one international event in the East Asian Cup match in July.
and the 1999-age age group missed the U23 Asian Cup, which will also affect the teams in the future 2001 age group. Because according to the competition rules of AFC , by the 2024 6th U23 Asian Cup and 2024 Paris Olympics Asian qualifiers, the participating teams will be divided according to the results of the previous event. Because the Chinese team did not participate, they will definitely participate in the group draw as the fifth-level, that is, the worst-level team, which means that they will encounter strong teams in the qualifiers.
Seeing the performance of Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Japan and other countries in this U23 Asian Cup, coupled with the fact that there are only 3.5 places in the Asian region of the Paris Olympics next year, the prospects of China's U21 men's football team are hard to say.
Upstream News Reporter Tang Hao
