Quarterfinals of Asiad 2018: Identifying the opponent of U23 Syria

Experienced team

U23 Syria came to Indonesia to attend the 2018 Asian Games with a squad considered to be a collection of the best young football talents in this country.

In addition to 3 players added from the national team, coach Mohand Al Faqir has 12 players aged 21-23.

That also means, U23 Syria is a group of players who have begun to mature in tactical thinking and have a lot of experience in competition, unlike the opponents that U23 Vietnam has faced since the beginning of the tournament.

The average age of the U23 Syria squad at Asiad is 22. Coach Park Hang Seo's U23 Vietnam squad has an average age of 21.The age difference is only 1 year, but in reality this is a big difference in youth football.

Besides, U23 Syria is considered to be the team with the best physique and physical strength at Asiad 2018.

Before going to Indonesia, to cope with the 2-day/match schedule, Coach Al Faqir had very important physical training exercises.

"Tickling" strategy

Before the quarter-finals, U23 Syria had 3 wins and 1 loss against U23 China.

Although losing 0-3 to U23 China, U23 Syria is a team with a solid playing style, emphasizing pragmatism to create safety.

In matches, coach Al Faqir always lets his players enter the game with a "tough" style of play, to limit the excitement of the opponent.

That's why U23 Syria is among the teams with the slowest start.

U23 Syria has not scored any goals in the first 30 minutes of the match at Asiad 2018. As for U23 Vietnam, in the first 30 minutes, there were 2 goals scored.

In contrast, entering the second half, Syria exploited their physical strength to attack overwhelmingly. 42.9% of the goals of coach Al Faqir's team were scored in the first 15 minutes of the second half, along with 28% of the goals in the last 15 minutes of the first half.

U23 Syria spent 2/3 of the first half of the second half looking for a goal, and then parked the "bus" in front of the goal to protect their advantage.

Good at acting, good at kicking

Coach Ayman Sandouqa of Palestine U23 shared that Syria U23 is very good at acting to frustrate opponents, after his team was eliminated in the round of 16.

In fact, U23 Syria had many situations that lured U23 Palestine players into traps. That made the opponent lose control of their mentality.

Acting out situations by pretending to fall, or making falls more serious, is also a strong point of U23 Syria.

In the context of not using VAR technology, drama is an advantage for Syria, and they applied it quite a lot.

Typically, Youssef Al-Hamwi once had an act of diving to get a penalty against U23 Palestine. The referee was not fooled, but he also did not show this player a card.

As part of the tactic, many of Syria U23's hidden fouls escaped the referee's sight.

In the loss to U23 China, U23 Syria played quite tough, but was only fouled 10 times compared to 20 by their opponents. In the match against UAE, they committed 14 fouls.

Coach Al Faqir announced that he has a plan to counter U23 Vietnam - one of the two teams that have not conceded a goal, along with Uzbekistan. That plan could be muscular, tricky and dramatic moves.