The draw for the 2002 Asian U-20 Tournament, to be held in Qatar in October, has been anounced: [Group A] Qatar, Korea Republic, Thailand, Uzbekistan [Group B] India, Bangladesh, Japan, Saudi Arabia [Group C] Syria, China, UAE, Vietnam Winner and runner-up of each group, plus 2 3rd-placed teams will advance to the quarter-finals.
looks like Japan has one tough match.(vs KSA) on the other hand, if Japan beats KSA, the rest should be easy. For Korea, I dunno. Thailand has traditionally been good at youth stages so we can never over-look at them and same goes for Qatar. Uzbekistan? not so sure about them.. For China, they too might struggle if they undermine others. UAE is decent at youth level, Vietnam is newly rising S.Asian nation IMO, and Syria beat Iran to reach this stage.
Korea's U-19 team beat Japan U-19 team twice in a row(1-0) this year and beat China's U-19 team 3-1. But considering that none of the three countries were full-strength, I think those games are meaningless.
You can say that again. Those matches didnt include Abe, Ishikawa, Morisaki or Yamase, who together scored 9 goals at the Toulon festival in France. They also didnt include defenders Moniwa of FC Tokyo or Tomisawa of Verdy. Basically it was a B team plus two or three first-string midfielders. Thats not to say that the Korean team is not strong (the one match I saw they looked like they had a very good attacking offense, especially). I just dont think you should make any judgement on the basis of results against Japan and China's B teams.
So this time Yamase will join the team and play in this competition? Umm... that should be a blow to Sapporo...
That may be true. Only time will tell. However, at the same time that Korea was playing our B team and won 1-0, the A team was playing in Toulon, and beat Ireland, South Africa, and England and drew with Germany. I hope both teams go far in the youth championship, but basically, Japan's U-19 team is not concentrating so much on the Asia championships, but rather, preparing for at least a top-four finish at the WYC in 2003. This team is probably just as talented, and is definitely more experienced, than the team that finished second in Nigeria in 1999.
good luck to the new Japanese team! I cant wait til i see them play. also, I see that both of our teams are well experienced. Again, Korea's goal should be passing the preliminary stages. But watch out for Jung Jo-guk and Choi Sung-guk. I think we'll be hearing those names a lot from now on. who knows, they might be like Hwang Sun-hong and Yoo Sang-chul, playing on the same team (maybe Kashiwa?
Re: Re: Asian U-20 Draw If you mean underestimate, I don't think China will do that. But the draw looks easy for China, they been lucky lately I guess.
Re: Re: Re: Asian U-20 Draw Thats it. Looking at the situation closely about for 3 years i have come up with the ultimate conclusion: China paid off AFC
Weren't they the Japan U-21's in Toulon? And you forgot to mention that they were England B side... But I was still impressed with Japan and China's performance in Toulon!
Almost every Korean team so far, senior or youth, have been rated "the best yet"! There's the media hype for you... Remember '96 with Kim Do-kyun & Lee Kwan-woo, '98 with Lee Dong-guk & Kim Eun-joong, '00 with Lee Chun-soo & Choi Tai-uk?
I dont know about Kim Do-Kyun (I think he was with Verdy), but Lee Kwan woo hasnt been playing much since rookie season cuz of injury. Kim Eun-Joong lost 1 eye, Lee Dong Guk struggled bad after he went to Bremen, but doing good lately. Both Lee chun soo and Choi Tai-uk are doing well in K-league. all those players are starters and important in their teams.
Yes, you are right. That team in Toulon was Japan's U-21, not U-20(current U-19). Our U-21 is playing in Korea for Asian Games. Anyhow, JFA announced 18-men roster of U-19 for upcoming SBS tournamet(Shizuoka prefecture team, Paraguay U-19, Portugal U-19 are participating). 12 out of 18 are either pros or youth players of the J.League clubs. I don't know much about this team and players. I haven't followed them since World U-17 Championship. The players were technical in World U-17 Championship, but as always, they lacked spirits, speed and power against teams like France. The players I know the most is MF Muguruma, MF Kikuchi and FW Abe. Kikuchi drew some attentions from Arsenal and has been invited to train with the club's youth team twice this year. FW Abe made debut for Yokohama F.Marinos few weeks ago. I heard good things about MF Naruoka before, but he didn't impress me in World U-17 Championshihp. I know MF Konno and FW Sakata have played some J.League games already. I don't know about the others.
No, I think the one who played for Verdy was Kim Do-Kun, who then moved to C.Osaka. He should be 29 or 30, so I don't think he's qualified for U-20. BTW, I forgot their names, but aren't the Korean kids in Jubilo Iwata and FC Tokyo eligible for U-20? The one in Iwata may be 18 or 19, and the one in FC Tokyo is 16 or 17(he made debut and set the record of the youngest player ever played in J.League games at age 16).
Hey, Yuke... Yes, I was referring to Kim Do-kyun(25), the Ulsan midfielder, not Kim Do-keun(30), the former Verdy and current Chunnam player. Now, I'm hearing that Kim Keun-chul at Iwata, along with several other overseas players, is not favored by the U-19 coach. On the other hand, Tokyo midfielder O Jang-eun seems to have sealed his spot in the U-19 squad. I haven't seen O play yet, though...
Re: Hey, Yuke... no we don't know yet. He is 17 years old now and he never played any official game with the U-19 squad yet. He was newly added at the July U-19 camp at Paju NFC.
that's what I was trying to say! However, listening to the current captain of the U-19 team, Yuhwan Lim, he says the last U-19 team that played in 2000 had better offense. "ÀÏ´Ü °ø°ÝÂÊ¿¡¼_´Â Àú¹ø ´ëÇ¥ÆÀÀÌ ´õ ³´´Ù°í »ý°¢ÇØ¿ä. ´ç½Ã (ÀÌ)õ¼öÇü, (ÃÖ)Å¿íÀÌÇü µîÀÌ À̲ø¾ú´ø °ø°Ý·ÂÀº ¸·°_ÇßÁÒ. ¹Ý¸é ¼öºñ·Â ¸é¿¡¼_´Â Çö ´ëÇ¥ÆÀÀÌ ´õ ³´´Ù°í ºÁ¿ä. 4¹é ¶óÀÎÀÌ Á¡Â÷ Àß ¸Â¾Æ µé¾î°¡°í ÀÖ°í ¹ÌµåÇÊ´õµéÀÇ ¼öºñ°¡´ãµµ ÁÁ°Åµç¿ä. ¶ÇÇÑ Àú¹ø ´ëÇ¥ÆÀÀÇ ¼öºñÁøÀÌ ¹ßÀÌ Á» ´À¸° Ãø¸éÀÌ ÀÖ¾ú´Âµ¥ À̹ø¿¡´Â ±¦ÂúÀº ÆíÀÌ¿¡¿ä." He was also in the U-19 team two years ago when he was 17. He says that offense-wise, the last team was better and defense-wise, the current one is better than the last one. We all had high hopes with the U-19 team last time until they blew one game against China. The players that were in that team however, produced some WC2002 members though. (Chunsoo Lee, Tae-wook Choi, Jisung Park)
uh...ok. Korea's U-19 team beat Japan U-19 team twice in a row(1-0) this year and beat China's U-19 team 3-1. But considering that none of the three countries were full-strength, I think those games are meaningless.