Daryl's Notebook: Scouting the U20 Asian Cup (Day 4)
As teams started to settle into the U20 Asian Cup, more young players will also start to feel more confident to perform.
After matchday 1 of the U20 Asian Cup, the favourites have started to emerge from all four groups as they attempt to establish dominance in their group for an advantageous spot in the quarter-final. Promising youngsters have also slowly stepped into the spotlight as I try to establish a list of ones-to-watch throughout and after this tournament.
With that, let’s head into the first day of matchday 2 to see who will be the first teams to secure a spot in the quarter-final, and who will have to return home very soon!
Qatar 1-3 Australia
Australia have relied on counter-attacking situations to create their goal-scoring chances, where long balls were played towards the striker duo of (#21) Dean Bosnjak and (#9) Luka Jovanović to help the Young Socceroos bypassed Qatar’s press. It did work for them, considering their double pivot of (#17) Frans Deli and (#6) Paul Okon-Engstler was under quite heavy pressure from the Qatari players when Australia played out from the back. It also did not help when Deli looked to be quite nervous when he was under pressure as he could not progress the ball or even made poor passing decisions.
Qatar also looked to use more long passes from deep to bypass Australia’s press as they targeted one of their more stand-out players from last match, right winger (#7) Tahsin Jamshid, quite often. It was also Tahsin who brought the ball down from a long goal kick to him, dribbled at Australia’s (#4) Panagiotis Kikianis, and played a low cross into the box for left winger (#9) Mohamed Gouda to open the score. That seemed to be Qatar’s preferred way of attacking after 1.25 matches so far, relying on wingers to take on the opposition and created counter-attacks through long passes over the top of the backline.
Interestingly, the Young Socceroos seemed to struggle to play through the middle with their midfield duo Okon-Engstler and Deli was marked and pressed quite aggressively. If they could get the ball forward into the final third, however, that was where Australia thrived and created plenty of dangerous chances through their wingers (#11) Tiago Quintal and (#10) Alex Badolato. They were consistently found in free space if a long pass was made forward and that allowed them to take on Qatar’s full-backs and got to the byline for a cutback or a low cross into the box.
Qatar’s goalkeeper (#1) Abubaker Yahia had the tendency of rushing out to claim crosses or to close down the attackers in 1v1 situations, which had cost them a goal against China. Against Australia this time and things still happened pretty much the same way, with a situation in the first half where Jovanović managed to round him and almost delivered a cross to Bosnjak. He repeated that in the second half where in one of Australia’s early corners, he went out to claim the ball, only to miss it and allowed Bosnjak to head the ball into the empty net.
With new substitutions being brought on, Qatar still retained their preference to attack down their right-hand side and they have created a few decent chances from those attempts. Right-back (#12) Fayiz Al Farsi and (#17) Noureldan Tamer came on and brought new life to Qatar’s right flank with their overlapping runs and take-ons the Australian left-back. However, with the Young Socceroos managed to track back and regroup in time, they still managed to shut down those attacks to keep Qatar at bay.
Some standout players at the end of the match:
Australia U20: (#2) Josh Inserra, (#10) Alex Badolato, (#11) Tiago Quintal, (#9) Luka Jovanović, (#21) Dean Bosnjak, (#7) Daniel Bennie, (#19) Musa Toure
Qatar U20: (#7) Tahsin Jamshid, (#9) Mohamed Gouda, (#10) Ibrahim Al Hassan, (#12) Fayiz Al Farsi, (#17) Noureldan Tamer
Kyrgyzstan 2-5 China
Still with a wing-oriented attacking style, China dominated Kyrgyzstan in the first 25 minutes using a reliance on their winger duo (#7) Mao Weije and (#11) Wang Yudong to drive them forward. As mentioned in Day 1, both players possessed good technical ability and pace to take on Kyrgyzstan’s defenders to get the ball into the final third. They also worked very well with striker (#9) Liu Chengyu who also stood out on Day 1 of the tournament. Liu would use his pace to get in behind Kyrgyzstan’s backline, which encouraged more through balls from the wingers and attacking midfielder (#10) Kuai Jiwen, allowing Liu to find himself in 1v1 situations against the Kyrgyzstan’s keeper on a few occasions.
What surprised me was Kyrgyzstan looked more confident as the match went on, which might be because they were not playing against an overly-dominant Australia anymore. Even though they were the underdog of the match, they defended well with a few players like centre-back duo (#2) Emir-Khan Kydyrshaev and (#6) Nazhibullokh Alizhanov, or right-back (#17) Artem Istrashkin who threw themselves into challenges and put themselves on the line to block shots and intercept passes. Even goalkeeper (#1) Aziret Ysmanaliev was also having a decent performance having saved a few shots to keep the score at 2-1 heading into the half-time break.
Up front, Kyrgyzstan did not rely too heavily on (#23) Beknaz Almazbekov to drive them forward anymore. The former Galatasaray youngster still showed up here and there, but the main driving force was the right-sided duo of right winger (#9) Argen Emilbekov and right striker (#10) Umar Madaminov. They were the main targets whenever Kyrgyzstan wanted to create counter-attacking chances as they could use their pace and dribbling ability to take on the Chinese defenders and get into the final third. It was that combination that helped Kyrgyzstan equalised the score at the 25th minute.
After 1.5 matches watched, I am definitely starting to like China’s (#6) Imran Memet more and more. The passes that he made looked very tidy and he showed up at the right places to receive the ball from teammates, then found players who were making forward runs or runs in behind. He definitely has that vision and passing ability to dictate the game from deep while also make a difference whenever he enters the opposition’s half. I want to see more of his defensive side, however, as I want to know if he is better-suited to play in a double pivot or can he play as a single pivot who takes on both the progressor responsibilities and the defensive side of things.
Kyrgyzstan had gone down to 10-men very early into the second half after right-back Istrashkin received a second yellow. Gutted for him since China definitely knew what they were doing by targeting his side more often and put a tricky winger like Wang Yudong on him. He had been making a lot of fouls in the first half, and the fact that he was not taken off as a cautionary effort after half-time seemed to be a mistake. Things have definitely been made harder and harder for Kyrgyzstan in the second half, which was then made harder when Mao Weijie put China up 3-1 right after Istrashkin’s dismissal.
Despite going down to 10-men, Kyrgyzstan still put on a very strong and brave performance against China. With a few subs brought on, they continued to show resilience at the back and continued to put China at bay after they scored the third goal. Meanwhile, they have now relied more on striker (#19) Yryskeldi Madanov as their focal point for counter-attacks, which he had had a few chances to score and took one of them to narrow the deficit down to a single goal.
As Kyrgyzstan continued to push for goals, it also left them more vulnerable at the back and opened up more space for China to create counter-attacks. There have been quite a few instances of the host used long balls to quickly capitalise on the fact that Kyrgyzstan’s defenders were not able to track back and regroup. Two of those instances turned into a goal for them, with substitute striker (#18) Zhu Pengyu scored China’s fourth and fifth goals.
Some standout players at the end of the match:
Kyrgyzstan U20: (#1) Aziret Ysmanaliev, (#2) Emir-Khan Kydyrshaev, (#5) Nazhibullokh Alizhanov, (#6) Atai Eshenkulov, (#9) Argen Emilbekov, (#10) Umar Madaminov
China U20: (#6) Imran Memet, (#7) Mao Weijie, (#10) Kuai Jiwen, (#11) Wang Yudong, (#9) Liu Chengyu, (#18) Zhu Pengyu
With that, group A has confirmed the first two teams to go through to the quarter-final in Australia and China, and the first two teams to be eliminated in Qatar and Kyrgyzstan. This leaves the clash between the top two teams on the final matchday a clash to decide who will win the group and gain an advantage in the quarter-final. Day 5 will also follow suit as group B and C attempt to also determine who will advance and who will return home. But for now, see you very soon on day 5!