Saudi Arabia has been eliminated! I'm sure somebody will pop up and hit back at this but this team was lucky to be here. Their goal differential was 0 in the qualifiers and they could have easily been pipped by Myanmar/Iran/UAE. They then proceeded to get handed a manageable group only to crash out with zero wins and a loss to a tournament debutant. I also did not think Oman would do so poorly- not sure what happened there. China's group stage exit was also unexpected. Happy to see Palestine find a way to get to the quarterfinals- absolutely sensational 5-1 win over Thailand!
We'll see what happens on Friday. We beat Qatar in a friendly before the tournament. I think the attack in this team is absolutely sensational (and all- Dabbagh, Yousef, Darwish, El-Kayed, Qumbor- will be back for the 2020 edition with the exception of Abu Warda) Keep in mind that we don't have the best U23 talent in this team (Ostersunds's Hosam Aiesh). While I like the CBs in the team Saado Abdelsalam (Palatnias/Greece Super League) and Michel Termanini (AFC Eskilstuna/Swedish Allsvenskan) not being able to keep a clean sheet has been an issue for us. In the knockout stage you cannot count on outscoring teams but fingers crossed we either find a way to win 1-0 vs. Qatar or beat them 3-2 like we did when we met in the friendly.
Not taking anything away from Uzbekisutan but Japan sent an U-20 side, which lacked more than half of the players who played the U-20 World Cup in 2017. Glad to see Vietnam improving. They made it to the semi-finals at the U-19 Championship in 2016 too.
Many teams do that- or attempt to- to give players experience ahed of the edition that acts as qualifiers for the 2020 Olympics. It was a miserable capitulation- I don't think the age of the players can be used a fig leaf.
Congrats Vietnam. I'm glad Iraq is out of this tournament. This was a good opportunity to test out new players, but we failed to do so. The coach called up experienced NT players. How stupid can you be? This was a meaningless tournament with no qualification for Olympics. Iraqi youth football is a joke.
4-0 is too much for a Japanese U20 side as well, however I highly doubt that even Japanese U23 side could have beaten this generation of UZB players
Japan is the only U-20 team in the tournament. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_AFC_U-23_Championship_squads
This is the first time that a Southeast Asian team has reached a final of the Asian continental championships at U-19 or higher level since Myanmar and Indonesia did it at the 1970 U-19 Championship.
I think a Uzbek U23 squad made entirely of non-Russian Euro-based players can even beat Germany. They are like shadow warriors. No one can see them and no one can beat them.
Indeed the new UFF president recommended to participate in this tournament without foreign-based players, therefore two key players of national team - Eldor Shomurodov (FC Rostov, Russia) and Otabek Shukurov (FC Sharjah, UAE) weren't capped.
I don't think anybody considers UAE to be European and you don't have any players unavailable due to training for WC 2018.
I've written foreign-based players, not European, they are regular NT players and for sure could have strengthen current U23 team
But other countries could have strengthened their squads even more if they had access to their top players or if the clubs did not refuse to release some of the top players and the NT gave up some of the players to this meaningless tournament instead of bringing them to the winter training camp for WC. You don't have any of that because you have never qualified for WC.
Okay just stop crying! Sorry for this shameful defeat. This tournament became meaningless for you after your elimination.
Since when English became native for Koreans? Actually it is fourth language for me, so better call it EFL