The eyes of Asia will again be focused on Doha over the coming weeks as the AFC U23 Asian Cup gets underway to determine which nations will represent Asia at this year’s Olympic Games in Paris.
The AFC U23 Asian Cup, now in it’s sixth edition since launching in 2013, has become one of the continent’s most exciting tournaments, showcasing the rich array of talent coming through across Asia.
But will that be the case this year? With the tournament held outside of the FIFA international window, a final legacy impact of COVID-19 on the football calendar, many of Asia’s best players will instead stay with their clubs in Europe having been denied permission to travel for a tournament during the season.
What impact will that have on this year’s tournament and who are the teams to watch in Doha?
We answered those questions and more on The Asian Game Podcast.
The timing will impact the outcome
Paul Williams
Certainly going forward you’d like to see this played in a FIFA window, because increasingly we’re seeing more and more young players from Asia move to Europe. And in most cases, the clubs in Europe aren’t going to oblige and allow players to play outside of FIFA windows. So for the integrity of the competition, we want to see the best players playing in these tournaments.
But it’s undoubtedly going to have an effect in this tournament. We’ve seen nations, particularly like Australia and Korea, get effected. Australia has lost a host of players (not available).
I was looking through the list today: Louis D’Arrigo was called up and then his club rescinded at the last moment. (Patrick) Yazbek is another one, Calem Nieuwenhof, (Cameron) Peupion, Alex Circati, Nectar Triantis. There’s a host of players that would be absolute locks to be in this Olyroos squad that aren’t in here and that could seriously impact Australia’s chances of qualification.
We know the importance of an Olympic football tournament in terms of the development of players. Graham Arnold spoken about it a lot of times how important this is. Korea is going to be in the same same boat – Bae Jun-ho, Kim Ji-soo, Yang Hyun-jun at Celtic as well and a host of others that ordinarily perhaps would have been selected, but their clubs in Europe aren’t going to allow them.
So it is going to have an impact. There’s there’s doubt over (Abbosbek) Fayzullaev from Uzbekistan as well. So unfortunately, a lot of the names that we saw at this tournament two years ago that we wanted to see come and shine again may not be here because it falls outside that FIFA window.
I think because of that, it does make it such a wide open tournament, because you don’t know necessarily then how these teams are going to cope with not having those players available.
Doubts over Japan
Scott McIntyre
I don’t know about this Japan squad to be honest. I don’t I don’t think they have a goalkeeper. I don’t think they have a striker, and I think their defence is pretty ordinary.
I think there’s some quality in midfield. Obviously, (Kuryu) Matsuki, and (Ryotaro) Araki has done very well on loan at FC Tokyo, like very, very well this year. But I think the defence is weak. Like I said, I don’t think there’s a first choice goalkeeper and I don’t think there’s a first choice striker. I mean, a couple of years ago Mao Hosoya grabbed headlines as maybe a rising star, (but) hasn’t scored in the first seven J.League games for Kashiwa.
They’ve got three or four kind of good midfielders, and I think that’s it. This squad is one of the weakest, and obviously, again, they would have had players in Europe that could have been here as well. I honestly think it’s an average looking squad, and I think I think they’re gonna struggle to be honest.
Saudi Arabia’s unsung hero
Michael Church
Saudi Arabia in particular, obviously, winning the last edition of this. They’re working with a coach, Saad Al-Shehri, who has a huge amount of experience working at this level. He’s coached the U20 teams, he was he was coached when Saudi Arabia reached the final of the U19 Asian Cup back in 2016. He’s always in and around these age groups a lot. He knows a lot about working with players at this stage in their development, (so) I think Saudi will be strong.
Paul Williams
Saad Al-Shehri, that Michael mentioned there, is a real sort of unsung hero, really, because we don’t see a lot of Saudi Arabian coaches, anywhere really, not even in their domestic leagues, because it’s completely foreign dominated.
So there’s not a lot of opportunities for their coaches to develop, but he is one that’s done fantastically well. As Michael said, made the U19 final, won this tournament last time around as well. So if he can qualify them to the Olympics… He doesn’t probably get the credit that he deserves, but a great young Asian coach doing things in Asia, I think is always good to see.
The best young talent in Asia… so why isn’t he here?
Scott McIntyre
Let’s just finish up on the on the Nestory Irankunda thing, the wonder kid of Australian football, signed for Bayern Munich, who for me, I’ve never seen a better player, a better attacking player at this age anywhere in Asia in the time I’ve been doing this.
He’s an extraordinary player, and I can’t fathom for the life of me why he’s not in this squad. We understand that there’s apparently some issues regarding maturity or something. But when you’ve got a talent such as this, I think you need to find (a way), particularly given the players that you’re already missing that we’ve gone through. So this is a guy that was eligible that would have been released and could have come. For him not to be there is just, it’s astonishing.
What makes it even more astonishing, for me, is that then when there was an injury to Marco Tilio that he was, we’re led to believe, that he then he got the call to come up as a replacement. So he wasn’t mature a week before, but now he is a week later.
I just don’t get the whole thing at all. I think it’s been mishandled and it’s just astonishing that this guy, and I think Paul you said it in our chat as well, that he not only should be a lock for this team, he probably should be a lock for the the senior team as well. So what he’s doing here, I just cannot fathom it at all.
Listen to Episode 219 of The Asian Game Podcast as we discuss the AFC U23 Asian Cup and AFC Champions League semi-finals
