{"id":10253,"date":"2018-01-05T19:25:08","date_gmt":"2018-01-05T10:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/?p=10253"},"modified":"2018-01-06T20:34:02","modified_gmt":"2018-01-06T11:34:02","slug":"afc-u-23-championship-preview-group-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2018\/01\/05\/afc-u-23-championship-preview-group-b\/","title":{"rendered":"AFC U-23 Championship Preview: Group B"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

16 U-23 teams from across Asia will be strutting their stuff in China with various degrees of goals, dreams and aspirations. Some will be using this stage to showcase the wealth of talent at their disposal, some will be looking to leave a strong mark in their debut year, some will be looking to claim avenge unresolved failures from the last edition while some will purely focus on winning the AFC U-23 Championship.<\/p>\n

The stakes are high, the stage has been set and before the tournament officially kicks off on the 9th of January. Our comprehensive preview continues with Group B!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

JAPAN<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo Credit: AFC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Head Coach<\/strong>: Hajime Moriyasu
\nPlayer To Watch<\/strong>: Koji Miyoshi<\/p>\n

The defending champions will again be considered amongst the favorites, but in reality this will be a chance for Moriyasu, who was named head coach of Japan’s 2020 Olympic squad in October, to imprint his philosophy on a crop of promising U-21s.<\/p>\n

The majority of the squad have been drawn from Japan’s U-20 World Cup side, and 6 players who participated in the M-150 Cup also made the cut. Expect lots of lineup changes and players tested in positions different from their usual club assignments, as Moriyasu will be looking for signs of potential from the group of players who participated in the U-20 World Cup.<\/p>\n

“This will be our first ‘official’ tournament so I hope we grow in those conditions,”<\/em> Moriyasu said. With a bigger squad (than M150) I can have a wider look at this generation of players and I hope we can earn good results.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Trivia!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Koji Miyoshi is the only player from recently-crowned J.League champions Kawasaki Frontale in the squad, having made 13 appearances in the 2017 MEIJI YASUDA J1 League campaign. He will spend the 2018 season on loan at Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

DPR Republic<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo Credit: AFC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Head Coach<\/strong>: Ju Song-il
\nPlayer To Watch<\/strong>: Kim Yu-sung<\/p>\n

North Korea will be looking to carry their momentum from 2016 into this year’s edition of the tournament, but things don’t quite look positive. While Qatar needed extra time to knock them out in the 2016 quarterfinal , DPR Republic didn’t look overtly impressive in the qualifying stages last July, barely managing a draw against Hong Kong before qualifying through wins over Chinese Taipei and Laos.<\/p>\n

But that form barely showed any signs of improvement during in last month’s M-150 Cup, where DPR Korea were battered 4-0 by Japan. The squad still promises a top work-rate on the pitch, and that could be enough to drive them across the finish line.<\/p>\n

Trivia!<\/strong><\/p>\n

North Korean attacker Kim Yu-sung, who scored four goals in qualifying, was also the top scorer of the AFC Cup having bagged nine goals for April 25 Sports Club (popularly known as 4.25).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

THAILAND<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo Credit: AFC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Head Coach<\/strong>: Zoran Jankovic
\nPlayer To Watch<\/strong>: Jakkit Wachpirom<\/p>\n

The side that won the gold at last August’s SEA Games are somewhat far off\u00a0 from the standard of football in other parts of Asia. This was evident during the M-150 Cup, where Thailand showed defensive frailty amongst a number of issues that need to be addressed ahead of this tournament.<\/p>\n

On a positive note, Zoran Jankovic’s men did impress on home territory, notching a 2-1 win over Japan and a narrow 0-1 defeat against DPR Korea. That experience should help the Thais deal with these rematches under much higher stakes.<\/p>\n

“I’m confident of beating DPR Korea in the first game because we played them in the M-150 Cup,”<\/em>\u00a0Jankovic said.\u00a0“Similarly, if we play the same way we did against Japan, we can definitely beat them again. I think my team is ready.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Trivia!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thai star Jakkit Wachpirom was recently voted into Football Tribe’s Top 20 Players in Southeast Asia. He was placed 11th after becoming the first Thai player to score in the J.League last December as a member of FC Tokyo U-23.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

PALESTINE<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo Credit: AFC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Head Coach<\/strong>: Ayman Sandouqa
\nPlayer To Watch<\/strong>:\u00a0Mohammed Darwish<\/p>\n

2017 was an amazing year for Palestinian football as they were able to qualify for the AFC U23 Championship for the first time in their history. More incredibly, they were able to do so by finishing as Group E winners in front of a home crowd in Hebron. Their recent form has been very encouraging as well, including two solid results against Oman and a morale-boosting 3-2 win over Qatar.<\/p>\n

With six overseas-based players in the squad, the mood is surely one of hope. “I dedicate the qualification to the Palestinian people, especially as it’s the first in the history of the Olympic team,”<\/em>\u00a0head coach Ayman Sandouqa said.\u00a0“I believe that the players worked hard during the qualifiers which resulted in this achievement.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Trivia!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mohammed Darwish is a product of Hannover 96’s excellent youth set-up and he played a huge part in helping them win the German U-19 Cup not too long ago. He currently plies his trade with Arminia Hannover in Germany.<\/p>\n

Come back to Football Tribe tomorrow for our previews of Groups C and D!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

16 U-23 teams from across Asia will be strutting their stuff in China with various degrees of goals, dreams and aspirations. Some will be using this stage to showcase the wealth of talent at their disposal, some will be looking to leave a strong mark in their debut year, some will be looking to claim avenge unresolved failures from the last edition while some will purely focus on winning the AFC U-23 Championship. The stakes are high, the stage has been set and before the tournament officially kicks off on the 9th of January. Our comprehensive preview continues with Group B!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":10254,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[692,1161,57,1162,68],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10253"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}