Daryl's Notebook: Scouting the U20 Asian Cup (Quarter-final Day 1)
It's the knockout stage of the U20 Asian Cup and things will only get spicy from here...
Even though I did not watch the full group stage, I still got a decent grip on the ability of the teams who have qualified for the quarter-final of the U20 Asian Cup. With the competition heading into the quarter-final stage, key players will have to show up for their respective teams and this is where the best of the best will triumph for a spot at the U20 World Cup later this year. Let’s get into the first two matches!
Saudi Arabia 1-0 China
Slow start from both teams, as expected. During the first 10 minutes or so, both showed signs of being conservative on the ball and tried to figure out what the opposition was trying to do. Again, this was to be expected considering this was the quarter-final and every team wants to win, so taking risk early on might not be the right option for some teams.
China continued to be direct with their attacks and that still worked out for them. The reason why they have been good this tournament was because of how they managed to isolate their opposition’s backline out by baiting them to commit forward and press. That created 1v1 situations for their talented attackers to pick up the ball, take on the opposition, and either draw fouls or get into the final third with ease. Their front four consisted of wingers (#7) Mao Weijie and (#11) Wang Yudong, central attacking midfielder (#10) Kuai Jiwen, and striker (#9) Liu Chengyu consistently run at the opposition’s defence or made runs in behind to pick up through balls or long passes.
That continued to happen against Saudi Arabia and it had worked for them…to some extent. They have managed to draw fouls from the opposition and gave them a tough time. But because the Saudi defenders were also ready to be aggressive along with a bit of tricks to carefully hide the fouls, China have not received as many free-kicks as they had hoped. In contrary, they were the one who had committed more fouls in the first 20 minutes.
The game had become a very physical affair, especially inside of Saudi Arabia’s own half. The Saudis had identified China’s attacking trio as the host’s main attacking threats and they intended on giving them a tough time by marking them tightly. Whenever Mao or Wang had the ball out wide, they would face a 2v1 situation where a full-back and a wide midfielder teamed up to block China’s wingers from advancing any further into their half.
On the flip side, Saudi Arabia looked to use counter attacks as their main attacking plan considering how dominant China was in possession. Whenever the away side got the ball, they would look to get the ball into China’s half as quick as possible and did anything in their power to keep it in there. With the very few chances that they had to attack, however, it was understandable that they did not create any noticeable chances so far in the first half.
Credits where credits are due, but Saudi Arabia’s backline were doing a good job of stopping China from using their preferred way of attacking. Their aggressive way of defending left little space for China’s attacking midfielders to work with and they could not get the ball into the box on plenty of occasions. In turn, however, it left them in a defensive mentality where they were forced to sit back for most of the time and could not progress the ball properly.
All of that aggression accumulated to Saudi Arabia receiving a penalty, which was saved very confidently by keeper (#23) Hamed Al Shanqiti. The way Hamed dived for the shot showed a confidence that he knew where Liu Chengyu would place the ball, meaning that Saudi have prepared well for this match and the way that they played was not something that they had to improvise. They had managed to completely shut down Liu as well with China’s #9 had a very bad day in front of goal.
This felt like the game that would either go down to the penalty shootout to determine the winner, or someone had to make a crucial mistake that would lead to the winning goal being scored. It was very tight between the two, with China still could not create much threat due to Saudi Arabia’s aggressiveness in defence, meanwhile the Saudi players themselves lacked a bit of composure to properly take the very few chances that they had.
For all of that effort, 94 minutes of trying to break Saudi Arabia down, the host now faced elimination from the competition and missing out on a U20 World Cup spot thanks to (#15) Amar Al Yuhaybi’s goal. And again, as I emphasised in the previous point, it came down to a mistake where China’s defence lacked focus after a free kick situation that led to Amar being unmarked at the far post to score the only goal.
Some standout players at the end of the match:
Saudi Arabia U20: (#23) Hamed Al Shanqiti, (#12) Nawar Al Ghulaimish, (#4) Saud Haroun, (#5) Mohammed Barnawi
China U20: (#6) Imran Memet, (#7) Mao Weijie, (#10) Kuai Jiwen, (#11) Wang Yudong
Australia 3-2 Iraq
Early minutes and Iraq seemed to be the dominant team in the match so far. They generated a few good chances that were led by the duo (#9) Mustafa Qabeel and (#10) Amoori Faisal. Both were involved in most of Iraq’s attacks as Faisal had the passing ability to send his teammates, including Qabeel, in behind Australia’s backline. Another way that Iraq used to create chances was relying on long balls that their centre-back duo (#17) Muslim Mousa and (#5) Abbas Mohammed sent in behind the backline for the wingers.
On the few occasions where the Young Socceroos had the ball, they still showed the difference in their technical ability through their short passing sequences between the midfielders and attackers. However, the players seemed to be a bit nervous, which was a bit out of character and led to the Australian players unable to retain the ball for a long period of time.
And…Iraq opened the score early as they capitalised on their dominance in possession. It was none other than Faisal who took the ball from Qabeel and ran down the left-hand side while also took on Australia’s right-back (#7) Daniel Bennie at the same time. Without anyone putting pressure on him and the Australian backline dropped back, Faisal had a ton of space to work with and curved a good ball into the top right corner. Very, very good goal. Then, Australia equalised very quickly not long after, and again, through a very good goal scored directly from a free-kick by their star striker (#9) Luka Jovanović.
It just seemed very interesting to me that Jovanović’s strike partner (#19) Musa Toure got called offside three consecutive times within the span of just 10-15 minutes. Clearly Jovanović’s goal had helped Australia settled quite a bit to help them create more chances, which they did find through having Toure sitting in the channel between Iraq’s centre-backs and run in behind. Not sure if the referee made the right call since the camera angle from the broadcast was not ideal, but getting called offside three consecutive times had to be an alarm for Toure to change his approach a bit.
What lacked during the match between Saudi Arabia and China, this match made up for it! Within the first 30 minutes, three goals were scored as Iraq took the lead after Jovanović equalised for Australia. From a situation where the Young Socceroos did not regroup in time, a long ball (that I suspected was from centre-back Muslim Mousa) was played in behind Australia’s backline and it found Iraq’s other key player in Mustafa Qabeel. Qabeel outran Australia’s captain (#3) Sebastian Esposito, then sent Esposito to a local Shenzhen shop with a quick change of direction, and calmly shot the ball in between (#1) Steven Hall’s leg to help Iraq regain the lead.
Another thing that Iraq were doing very well was their 4-4-2 mid block. Their defensive lines were close to each other and did not leave plenty of space for Australia to play through them or use the short combinations that they had used in the early minutes. This resorted in Australia using long passes in behind for the attackers to run, which did gain them some territory, but Iraq were quick to regroup and stayed aggressive when getting stuck into challenges.
Having got the lead heading into the second half, Iraq started to sit back and was more aggressive with their challenges, which was very similar to how Saudi Arabia played against China. They also wasted time more, which was to be expected because a spot at the U20 World Cup was on the line here. I should also expect to see more of this way of playing in the other two quarter-final matches.
Another set piece situation and another goal for Australia because this just seemed to be one of the very few ways where they could create chances. From a wide free-kick that Iraq could not clear the ball properly, the ball found (#10) Alex Badolato who calmly squared it to an unmarked (#4) Panagiotis Kikianis as Adelaide United’s centre-back also calmly curled the ball to the right side of the goal. And not long after that, Australia took the lead through their first significant open play chance that found possibly the best player of the night, Alex Badolato, for an outside of the boot shot to the top right corner. This game was not short of bangers, I tell you!
Now that Australia had gained the lead, the roles had been reversed, with Iraq the team who had to pour forward in search for a goal while Australia sat deeper to defend their lead. That also brought up Iraq’s problem of not being able to create a proper chance under pressure, which eventually led to them losing the match.
Some standout players at the end of the match:
Australia U20: (#10) Alex Badolato, (#9) Luka Jovanović, (#6) Paul Okon-Engstler, (#4) Panagiotis Kikianis, (#8) Jonny Yull
Iraq U20: (#17) Muslim Mousa, (#9) Mustafa Qabeel, (#10) Amoori Faisal
And with that, the first two teams who have booked their flight to Chile and secured their spots in the semi-final have been decided. Saudi Arabia had to overcome a dominant China side who also had the advantage of playing in front of their home fans, but a solid defensive performance plus a single goal right at the death helped the Middle Eastern side advanced through to the semi-final. Australia then also overcame a resilient, former champion Iraq who put up a performance themselves and held the lead up until the 62th minute when Australia equalised and then subsequently won the match.
Two more semi-final spots and two more tickets to Chile awaits Iran, Japan, Uzbekistan, and South Korea on the second day of the U20 Asian Cup quarter-final. Four teams heading in, only two teams will call up their hotels and inform the receptionists that they will be extending their stay in Shenzhen. Until then, enjoy your day!