Daryl's Notebook: Scouting the U20 Asian Cup (Semi-final)
Four teams. Two spots in the final. One chance of eternal glory.
Only four teams left in the competition who will be fighting for the two spots in the final of the U20 Asian Cup. The best talents of Asia have been showcased throughout this tournament, with plenty of flair and technical ability being put into the spotlight. However, only two teams will remain and have a shot at eternal glory. So, who will those teams be?
Saudi Arabia (p)0-0 South Korea
In contrary to China, South Korea approached the first few minutes against Saudi Arabia with a slightly conservative approach. They gave Saudi Arabia control of the ball inside the home team’s half and sat back in a 4-4-2 mid-block while looking to guide Saudi Arabia out wide for easier creation of overloads and regaining possession.
Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, was a bit more aggressive with their press and challenges like they did against China. This was shown clearly when South Korea played the ball wide to their wingers, where the Saudi defenders would aggressively tackle the South Korean wingers in an attempt to prevent them from influencing the match through their dribbles.
South Korea’s winger duo (#12) Park Seung-soo and (#14) Baek Min-gyu had been trying their best to make a difference in the first 30 minutes of the match or so. While they constantly found themselves being teamed up by 2 Saudi defenders, they changed their approach by attacking the backline using runs in behind and encouraged long passes from the centre-backs and the central midfielders.
(#8) Shin Sung and (#7) Son Seung-min also tried their best down the central area with passes and through balls made in behind to encourage runners from South Korea. But similar to their teammates Park Seung-soo and Baek Min-gyu, they got pressed on many occasions where they did not have the space and time to craft a decent pass for the attackers up front.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia continued to rely on their high press to generate turnovers from inside South Korea’s half. They were willing to commit players forward and went man-to-man with South Korea, which would have given them an advantage when they created a counter-attack right after regaining possession. However, that plan faced some problem when the South Korean players proved to be quite good at playing through the press in small spaces, which made Saudi’s press largely ineffective.
As much as South Korea enjoyed a spell of dominance in possession, they were still forced to create chances by playing through Saudi Arabia’s 4-4-2 defensive block, especially when the “home team” regrouped back into their shape. This forced the South Korean players to rely on crosses from the wingers into the box for striker (#9) Ha Jeong-woo, who usually found himself sitting in the channel between the Saudi defenders to pick up the cross. The problem was, he was usually one of the couple players who got into the box, which meant Saudi Arabia’s centre-backs were able to deal with most of the crosses quite easily.
The first half wrapped up with a very interesting tactical battle between a possession-oriented South Korean side against an aggressive, high pressing Saudi Arabia side. But it was hard to see any difference in between both teams when they were both solid in defence and did not allow the opposition to create any dangerous chances towards each other’s goal.
Into the second half and…uhh…things have not changed that much. South Korea continued their dominance and even came close to scoring for a couple of times. But they still did not have the luck to put the ball into the back of the net as Saudi Arabia attempted to pull the game back towards their direction.
I haven’t found much to write about the second half, actually. The game continued to get stuck in a stalemate with both teams defended well, and credits to them for that. This was to be expected from a semi-final clash where a spot in the final was on the line, which left no rooms for mistake and it forced both teams to be more conservative than they normally would in the group stage. At the same time, South Korea did create a fair few chances, but they did not have the luck in front of goal to convert them into goals, or more so what they were doing was “converting goals into chances”.
I think this match was a good reflection of the difference between East Asian and West Asian teams in terms of how they set up and played. Like South Korea, most East Asian teams are very good technically and with a good tactical setup, that can bring the best out of the players in the team, especially midfielders, wingers, full-backs, or strikers. Meanwhile, West Asian teams like Saudi Arabia have good physicality, can win duels and challenges easily, and can press relentlessly, even chase the opposition down inside of their own half. That is not to say there are no West Asian players who have good technical ability, but their game relies more on the physical side of things than having a good tactical setup.
Since coming on, (#22) Yoon Do-young had created a lot of havoc down South Korea’s right-hand side with his dribbles. The confidence that he had to take on two Saudi defenders led to South Korea being able to create more chances down his side and also drawn more fouls for more set piece situations down that side. It was also down South Korea’s right-hand side that they created what might be considered the most noticeable chance of the day when (#10) Kim Tae-won delivered a cutback to (#15) Lee Geon-hee as he touched the ball for an easy tap-in but the ball was cleared quickly by a Saudi defender.
No surprises but even extra time could not determine the difference between both teams. South Korea remained very unlucky in front of goal as they could not put the ball into the net while Saudi Arabia continued to defend strongly and showed their solidity at the back to deny chances after chances. South Korea would now face a second consecutive penalty shootout if they wanted to advance through to the final.
After missing two penalties at the beginning, the South Korean players shook themselves up and built on the confidence that keeper (#23) Hong Sung-min brought to the team to score their next two. Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, missed two in between, but their keeper (#22) Hamed Al Shanqiti kept them in the game and, combining with the fact that some of South Korea’s penalties were quite soft, that won Saudi Arabia the game.
Some standout players at the end of the match:
Saudi Arabia U20: (#22) Hamed Al Shanqiti, (#6) Saleh Barnawi, (#16) Saud Al Tumbukti
South Korea U20: (#20) Shin Min-ha, (#6) Kim Ho-jin, (#14) Baek Min-gyu, (#12) Park Seung-soo, (#22) Yoon Do-young
Australia 2-0 Japan
Have not commented on starting lineups from any teams but this might probably be the first time that I do so. Japan has been very good at rotating their team and give all of their players an equal playing time even against tough oppositions like Australia. This match was not an exception either since a lot of the players who played against Iran like (#3) Niko Takahashi or (#5) Rion Ichihara got dropped to the bench.
Australia have been the dominating team so far in the first 15 minutes. They controlled a lot of the ball, found a way through Japan’s 4-4-2 mid-block by attacking their half spaces, and utilised the techniques of wide players like (#7) Daniel Bennie and (#10) Alex Badolato to take on the Japanese defenders and got into the final third. The Young Socceroos also relied quite heavily on their central midfielder duo (#6) Paul Okon-Engstler and (#17) Frans Deli to help with progressing the ball from deep, and along with (#8) Jonny Yull, they gave Australia a sense of control in the central of the pitch.
Japan, on the other hand, looked towards their striker duo in (#20) Rento Takaoka and (#11) Alen Inoue to create chances. Instead of adopting a possession-oriented style of play, Japan did not hesitate to go long whenever needed through long passes in behind by centre-backs (#4) Kazunari Kita and (#19) Kaito Tsuchiya. Because both of their strikers looked inferior in the air compared to Australia’s centre-back duo, long balls in behind seemed to be the way for Japan to go forward and attack Australia’s penalty box.
Similar to the previous match, this match also seemed to stuck in a stalemate with both teams rolled out with a 4-4-2 defensive block and forced their opposition to play the ball wide. This, as a result, led to plenty of chances created on both sides of the box instead of down the middle, which decreased the probability of scoring a lot more than when those chances were created right in front of goal. Teams countered this by attacking the half-spaces relentlessly, and while that worked to some extent, it made creating good scoring chances a lot harder for many teams.
A great attacking sequence early into the second half put Australia up front in this tight contest. From another right-hand side attack that involved Bennie, the Queens Park Rangers youngster made an overlapped run but then waited for support from Yull, whom he then laid the ball to. A low cross into the box from Yull found (#19) Musa Toure, who was right in front of goal, and Randers’ new signing calmly put the ball into the bottom right corner to open the score for the Young Socceroos.
After Australia’s opening goal, Japan seemed to wanting to response as soon as possible by bringing on a couple of subs including (#10) Yuto Ozeki. Kawasaki Frontale’s youngster almost immediately made an impact with a good long shot from outside of the box but had found the crossbar.
Japan’s 4-4-2 mid block looked quite interesting as they looked disciplined in blocking Australia from playing through their defensive block through the use of the striker duo marking Australia’s central midfielders. The wingers/wide midfielders were also ready to jump on Australia’s full-backs, which gave (#3) Sebastian Esposito and (#4) Panagiotis Kikianis little to no passing options to build out from the back. But unfortunately for Japan, Australia’s centre-back duo was also capable of playing long passes forward, which they usually targeted Bennie on the right-hand side who also won quite a few aerial duels against Japan’s left-back (#16) Rikuto Kuwahara before he got subbed off for Takahashi. Australia’s (#15) Jaylan Pearman’s goal came from a very similar situation to that.
With Australia slowly took their foot off the gas and sat back to defend, it also gave Japan a lot more possession and also more opportunities to create chances. Japan prioritised attacking down their left-hand side after Ozeki and Takahashi came on on that side of the pitch, and along with (#13) Hisatsugu Ishii, they were the players who had been leading Japan’s attack. But even though the Australian defenders made a few mistakes here and there, especially coming from Esposito, the Young Socceroos got away with those mistakes and kept their clean sheet along with a spot in the final of the U20 Asian Cup.
Some standout players at the end of the match:
Australia U20: (#1) Steven Hall, (#7) Daniel Bennie, (#8) Jonny Yull, (#19) Musa Toure, (#10) Alex Badolato
Japan U20: (#4) Kazunari Kiya, (#3) Niko Takahashi, (#10) Yuto Ozeki
After two grueling matches in Shenzhen, China, the 2025 U20 Asian Cup final will be a contest between Saudi Arabia and Australia, literally two nations who are at two ends of the continent. Both favourites for the competition, Japan and South Korea, have been knocked out after they fell to two goals and a penalty shootout respectively. And as I mentioned in the match against Saudi Arabia and South Korea, the final will be a match that highlight the difference in playing style between West Asia and East Asia.
Who will be heading home with a trophy and a gold medal? Who will have to leave China wearing a silver medal but at least can look forward to their trip to Chile in the summer? We will find out this Saturday…