Vietnam Olympics - Japan Olympics: Vietnam prepares like it's playing the final match
(Baonghean.vn) - The Japanese Olympic team is considered to lack battle experience. However, because the opponent comes from one of the top football nations in Asia, Coach Park Hang Seo's team still needs to be cautious against them. Be cautious, not timid!
Japan Olympic Power
Japan Olympic is not a candidate for the championship of the 2018 Asian Games men's football event. They are not rated as highly as the teams of Korea, Uzbekistan, Iran, China... because they only use U21 forces.
This squad of Japan is to prepare for the Tokyo Olympics on their home turf in two years, not to compete for achievements at the ongoing Asian Games.
Of the 20 players participating in the tournament, four are still university students and not yet members of professional clubs. They are the two goalkeepers Ryosuke Kojima (21 years old) and Obi Obinna (20 years old), and the two strikers Reo Hatate (20 years old) and Ayase Ueda (19 years old). The remaining 16 players (5 defenders, 10 midfielders and 1 striker) are members of professional clubs in Japan, some of whom have only played for youth teams.
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| Japan Olympic team attending Asiad 2018 with U21 team is still considered to lack experience |
Among them is the tall center back Yugo Tasuta (1m89) who has never played an official match for Shimizu S-Pulse. Another case is midfielder Taishi Matsumoto who was promoted to the first team of Sanfrecce Hiroshima Club since last year, but has not played a single match in the professional arena.
Some other players are often loaned out by their home teams to lower-level teams, or to lower-level clubs, such as midfielder Koji Miyoshi, midfielder Ryo Hatsuse, or striker Daizen Maeda..., to help these players have the opportunity to play, even if it is in the lower leagues, because they cannot play in J-League 1 yet.
In particular, the positions considered to be the most inexperienced in the team from the land of the rising sun in this year's tournament are the goalkeeper and striker positions, because the goalkeepers and strikers of Japan participating in the 2018 Asian Games are either university students, or have only played in Japan's lower leagues.
This Japanese Olympic squad participated in the U23 Asian Cup earlier this year, and previously participated in an international tournament in Thailand at the end of 2017, sharing the same tournament with most of the players in the current Vietnamese Olympic team.
At the international tournament in Thailand about 8 months ago, the current Japanese Olympic squad lost to the host team Thailand.
Japanese media highly appreciates U23 Vietnam
After two matches, U23 Vietnam is sharing the top spot in Group D with U23 Japan. Recently, Japanese football magazine Qoly has had detailed analysis of U23 Vietnam.
The content of the article in Qoly football magazine is: "U23 Vietnam will be the main opponent of U23 Japan in Group D. This team has much more experience when in the hands of coach Moriyasu Hajime, it is essentially just the U21 team participating, the core players will compete at the 2020 Olympics.
The best achievement of U23 Vietnam is the runner-up position in the U23 Asia Championship earlier this year. They also set a very high goal in the group stage, and we cannot underestimate them."
Besides, football magazine Qoly also believes that midfielder Xuan Truong and striker Cong Phuong are the two most dangerous players on the U23 Vietnam team.
"Midfielder Luong Xuan Truong has experience playing in the K-League. Cong Phuong was injured while playing in the J-League 2, but his talent is worth waiting for" - football magazine Qoly commented.
Vietnam prepares like playing a final match
Regarding the upcoming match with Olympic Japan, the Korean coach said: "We prepare carefully for every match and study our opponents. We calculate and prepare for each match."
"We have prepared carefully for the match against Pakistan and achieved our set goal. Today we also prepared well for the match against Olympic Nepal and won. For the match against Japan, we also prepared as if we were playing a final match. We will concentrate fully and be fully prepared for this match," said Mr. Park Hang Seo.
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| Current situation of group D. |