I'm wondering if anyone feels the results at this year's Asian Games will reflect the new order of (Asian) soccer powers by the Asian Cup, in 2004, and World Cup, in 2006. Will the current crop of today's youth play a significant role by then, or will the "seniors" (i.e. H. Nakata, Daei, et cetera) still be the determining factor. I read the below article... http://footballasia.com/mrel/news_44731_E.html ... and thought this could lead to some interesting discussions.
it`s to early to shake off the old guards in asian football, despite that the youth are climbing in the ranks i still believe countries like japan, south korea,iran, etc will need the experience of the old horses to play a significant impact on the youth. for the asian games countries tend not to call up thier european based star players, but they are surely needed for the world cup. the youth are now in many managers` players both at club and country level but the experienced veterans are even more needed.
geez what kind of "interesting discussions" are you refering to!?!?! You know this place very well already, right?
I don't think the Asian Games result means much. Several countries sent U21 teams, and KSA didn't participate.
It is hard to tell from these results who the next king of Asia will be. Youth results are a poor indicator of future success. How well has Nigeria done in age group competitions. For example, winning the gold at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Athens, GA (A match I was at by the way). Has that translated into anything for the "A" national side? Not really. Also, as someone already pointed out, not everyone sent their U-23 teams. China and Japan sent their U-21 teams, and both did rather well in the tournament with those teams.
I'm in complete agreement with you, as I still see the future for Korea and Japan to look bright by the next WC, assuming the veterans play as well as they did this year in Korea/Japan. Iran should fill the third spot, provided Karimi and co. step up, whereas it could be a toss-up between China and KSA for the "possible" fourth and final spot.