Reviewing Asian representatives at the 2025 U20 World Cup
Finally, those tournament notes have become useful!
It has been a bit since my last post, but I am hopping in quickly to tell you two things:
Firstly, there is a reason for my quiet period. I have shared bits here and there, but I am working on a project that I hope to release at the end of October. I will also do a full write-up for the Dev Logs series where I document my thoughts and process throughout the development of such project. Please bear with me as I try to push myself to complete it as soon as possible.
Secondly, the U20 World Cup is starting…*checks schedule*…this weekend! As much as I would love to cover the tournament extensively like I did for the U20 Asian Cup and Asian tournaments that happened last year and earlier this year, I am getting stuck into the project that I mentioned above, which means most of my free time is being used for that project. However, I *might* write a matchday/weekly scout report here and there to cover some players who catch my attention during the tournament. I can’t promise that it will happen since it depends on how much free time I have, but keep an eye out for a few articles on the U20 World Cup!
Speaking of the U20 Asian Cup…Even though I do not have the time to write a proper preview for most teams who will be competing in the tournament, I actually can write a preview for the Asian representatives, thanks to the tournament notes from the U20 Asian Cup earlier this year! Finally, those notes will actually come in handy and they will not be wasted.
Everything that I write here are a shortened version of all of my U20 Asian Cup notes about Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Australia, including style of play and players to watch. If you want to read the full review of each gameday of the U20 Asian Cup, you can find them here under the Asian Cup tag. Without further ado, let’s look at the four teams who will represent Asia at the U20 World Cup!
Japan
Japan are probably one of the Asian teams that many expect to do well at the upcoming U20 World Cup thanks to the quality of their domestic talents, especially the players who are playing fairly regular first-team football for their club in the J1 and J2 League. They reached the semi-finals at the U20 Asian Cup before losing out to a slightly stronger Australian side, but Yuzo Funakoshi’s side did demonstrate their strengths on many occasions throughout the tournament at the beginning of the year.
Style of play
Even though Japanese players have been known for their technicality and many will expect them to play a possession-based style with a back four, what the team showed at the U20 Asian Cup was a good counter-argument against that expectation. Just like the first team, Funakoshi also used a back three throughout the U20 Asian Cup and they were capable of adapting to the opposition’s style of play due to their flexibility in possession. Against teams who pressed high up the pitch, Japan were not afraid to go long thanks to the passes from centre-backs Harumichi Shiokawa and Rion Ichihara. Those passes were aimed at runs in behind from Rento Takaoka and Ryunosuke Sato, who both have the pace to attack the channels and receive the ball in behind the opposition’s defensive line. Ichihara’s pass map against Thailand U20 is a good demonstration of Japan’s willingness to be direct in possession.
When they needed to be more possession-oriented against teams who sat deep or defended in a mid-block, Funakoshi’s side also showed that they were capable of playing through a well-constructed, discipline defence from the opposition. This was done against Iran U20 thanks to short link-up plays out the wings where the team utilised the technical ability of their wing-backs, attacking midfielders, and attackers to play through the press and block. Against the same opposition, they managed to enter Iran’s penalty box on multiple occasions and created plenty of good scoring chances inside the area, but were quite wasteful as most of their chances were either blocked by the opposition’s defenders or were completely off-target.
However, expect a lot of wing attacks from Japan whenever they have the ball since their priority will be getting the ball to their most skillful players like Ryunosuke Sato, Hisatsugu Ishii, and Yuto Ozeki to beat the opposition’s defenders and drive the team forward. It is also worth mentioning that both of Japan U20’s formations that they used at the U20 Asian Cup, the 4-4-2 and 3-5-2, allowed for a lot of wing attacks and direct attacks, which I expect Funakoshi will retain heading into the tournament.
Defensively, Japan did not press as often as I expected at the U20 Asian Cup. Instead, with their 3-5-2 and 4-4-2, they set up a very discipline mid-block that aimed to funnel the opposition into the wide areas, where they used overloads to regain possession. Their 3-5-2 formation was very well-suited for their defensive approach thanks to the numerical superiority in the middle and the ability to get extra players out wide without compromising on losing players in the central area. The 4-4-2 was a hit and miss, however, as both Thailand and Australia were able to play through their defensive lines quite easily on a few occasions. I expect Funakoshi will use the 4-4-2 if the team need to attack or chase some goals, otherwise their 3-5-2 (or even 3-4-2-1) will be his preferred formation.
The players
🧤 Goalkeepers
#1 Keisuke Nakamura (Tokyo Verdy), #12 Alexandre Pisano (Nagoya Grampus), #21 Rui Araki (Gamba Osaka)
🧱 Defenders
#2 Rei Umeki (FC Imabari), #3 Keita Kosugi (Djurgårdens IF, Sweden), #4 Kazunari Kita (Real Sociedad, Spain), #5 Rion Ichihara (RB Omiya Ardija), #15 Harumichi Shiokawa (Ryutsu Keizai University), #16 Soichiro Mori (Nagoya Grampus)
⚙️ Midfielders
#6 Kosei Ogura (Hosei University), #7 Ryunosuke Sato (Fagiano Okayama), #8 Katsuma Fuse (University of Tsukuba), #10 Yuto Ozeki (Kawasaki Frontale), #11 Yumeki Yokoyama (FC Imabari), #13 Hisatsugu Ishii (Shonan Bellmare), #14 Shunsuke Saito (Mito HollyHock), #17 Hagumu Nakagawa (Ryutsu Keizai University), #18 Nelson Ishiwatari (Iwaki FC), #20 Sota Hiraga (Kyoto Sanga)
⚡ Forwards
#9 Soma Kanda (Kawasaki Frontale), #19 Rento Takaoka (Valenciennes FC, France)
This will become the theme for all four Asian representatives, but Japan have brought most of the squad that reached the semi-finals of the U20 Asian Cup to Chile. Personally, I am very excited to see Alexandre Pisano, who is slowly becoming more influential at Nagoya Grampus and has made his debut in goal for the first-team at the EAFF Championship last summer.
Playing ahead of (assumingly) Pisano will be Harumichi Shiokawa and Rion Ichihara since they have developed a good relationship with each other at the U20 Asian Cup. Ichihara has also been playing a lot of first-team football for Red Bull’s first Asian team Omiya Ardija in the J2 League, which I think has helped him developed more since the tournament in China. Real Sociedad’s Kazunari Kita will be their rotational option as I think he will get minutes here and there, but the fourth centre-back spot will be pretty much up in the air.
One significant omission from this squad is Cerezo Osaka and FC Barcelona academy graduate Niko Takahashi, who I assume will stay with his parent club and see out the rest of the J1 campaign as he gets more and more playing time under Arthur Papas. Replacing him at left-back will be Keita Kosugi, who has enjoyed a very fruitful spell with Djurgårdens in Sweden and should be on the watchlist of first-team manager Hajime Moriyasu.
I have already mentioned the key players in midfield in Ryunosuke Sato, Yuto Ozeki and Hisatsugu Ishii. I think they will be very fun to watch at the tournament and should get most of the minutes for Japan. Sato and Ozeki will also bring first-team experience with them to Chile as they have played very regularly for Fagiano Okayama and Kawasaki Frontale respectively this season and they have also made their first-team debut under Moriyasu.
Up front, there is no Alen Inoue but Ozeki’s teammate at Frontale, Soma Kanda, will be a decent replacement. Partnering Kanda will be Southampton’s loanee Rento Takaoka, who I will be keeping a very close eye on given the Saints’ struggle to find a consistent striker so far this season. Takaoka has been getting minutes for Valenciennes in the National (French third division), which is a level that I think suits him after making the straight jump from university football.
South Korea
Both Japan and South Korea were in the same group at the last U20 Asian Cup and, coincidentally, they both went out at the semi-final stage and they will also be playing on the opening day of the U20 World Cup. These two East Asian giants just can’t seem to separate from each other, can they?
Style of play
South Korea adopted a simpler style of play at the tournament in China as they were very wing-oriented and relied quite heavily on the individuals in the team. With their 4-2-3-1 formation, they looked towards the full-backs and wingers to provide attacking width for the team. Usually, their full-backs and wingers could be found occupying the half-spaces and wide spaces waiting to receive the ball, where they could then either attack the channel or take on the opposition’s defenders.
Even though it was a fairly simple style of play, it suited the players that they had, particularly wingers like Baek Min-gyu, Park Seung-soo and Yoon Do-young, or attacking midfielder Kim Tae-won. The aforementioned trio had the technical ability and confidence to dribble and get past the opposition’s defenders, which meant that they were often the driving force of South Korea’s attacks. However, as I will discuss their squad later on, Seung-soo and Do-young will not travel to Chile with the squad as they have moved to Newcastle United and Excelsior (on loan from Brighton) respectively, thus their parent clubs have not released them for a tournament that is outside of the FIFA calendar (even though it is organised by FIFA?). Manager Lee Chang-won will have to look towards new talents to replace both Seung-soo and Do-young if he opts to retain his style of play.
Because of the nature of their in possession style, the team relied quite heavily on crosses into the box for the lone striker up front, which were usually made by the overlapping full-backs or the wingers. Once again, South Korea will also miss having Ha Jeong-woo up front, who had a good tournament and demonstrated his potential to be a leading striker for the first-team in the future.
Set piece was also one of South Korea’s strongest weapons at the U20 World Cup as they utilised long throws and corners a lot more often and effective than the rest of the tournament. That was shown in full against Uzbekistan U20, where their first two goals came from two corner situations. Without their key attacking players from the U20 Asian Cup, I somewhat expect South Korea to rely on their set pieces to generate goal-scoring chances, unless manager Lee Chang-won has identified the replacements from K1 and K2 clubs that I have not been aware of.
Defensively, South Korea can also be adaptive to their opposition as they can either sit back in a 4-4-2 mid-block or press high up the pitch. Like most teams, South Korea’s defensive block also looks to guide the opposition out wide, where they can create overloads or box of defensive players to regain possession. A fairly common, ‘nothing-too-fancy’ defensive strategy in modern days that I somewhat expect to see most teams at the U20 World Cup will be using.
The players
🧤 Goalkeepers
Park Sang-young (Daegu FC), Gong Si-hyeon (Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors), Hong Seong-min (Pohang Steelers)
🧱 Defenders
Ko Jong-hyun, Lee Geon-hee (Suwon Bluewings), Kim Ho-jin (Yong In University), Bae Hyun-seo (FC Seoul), Shin Min-ha (Gangwon FC), Lim Jun-young (Chungbuk Cheongju), Ham Sun-woo (Hwaseong FC)
⚙️ Midfielders
Kim Tae-won (Portimonense SC, Portugal), Kim Jun-ha, Choi Byung-wook (Jeju SK), Kim Hyun-min (Busan IPark), Baek Min-gyu, Choi Seung-gu (Incheon United), Shin Sung (Bucheon FC 1995), Son Seung-min (Daegu FC), Chung Ma-ho (Chungnam Asan)
⚡ Forwards
Kim Hyeon-oh (Daejon Hana Citizen), Baek Ga-on (Busan IPark)
With South Korea’s squad, it is still possible to see the core players who have helped the team reached the semi-final of the U20 Asian Cup. But it is also possible to notice that this squad feels quite weaker than what they had in China and I think South Korea will have a tough time due to the absence of their strongest players.
At the back, I expect Park Sang-young to return in goal after a decent U20 Asian Cup along with centre-back Shin Min-ha and right-back Bae Hyun-seo, who also showed promising performances in China. Lee Geon-hee and Kim Ho-jin are also back, but I am unsure if they will be starting or will manager Lee Chang-won give the opportunity to other defenders.
In midfield, look out for the central midfield duo Shin Sung and Son Seung-min (yes, that is his name, I am not making a typo, and yes, I am aware that his name is similar to Son Heung-min). When given the space to control the ball and dictate the play, they can be very good thanks to their passing and dribbling ability, which they did show on multiple occasions at the U20 Asian Cup. If South Korea’s oppositions do their homework well, they will know to mark these two carefully just like how Saudi Arabia U20 neutralised both in the semi-final clash between the two teams.
Up front, Kim Tae-won will be expected to lead the attack as South Korea’s main attacking midfielder along with left winger Baek Min-gyu, who will hope to have a good tournament after seeing both Seung-soo and Do-young earning a move to Europe for their performances at the U20 Asian Cup. With both players now missed out, Min-gyu should be South Korea’s starting option on the left-hand side. The rest of South Korea’s attack will be brand new, so expect to see new talents being showcased by manager Lee Chang-won.
Saudi Arabia
The only representative coming from the West side of Asia and also the runner-up of the 2025 U20 Asian Cup, I think Saudi Arabia will be a hard team to predict. On their best day, they can be good and become a potential dark horse of the U20 World Cup, which they have shown throughout the tournament in China. But they have also shown some shakiness and they can be beaten in a group that also contains teams that can cause upsets like Colombia, Nigeria, and Norway.
Style of play
Unlike the other three teams coming from the Eastern side of Asia (and Oceania), Saudi Arabia focused more on their physicality and aggressiveness, which were also their two key aspects of their playing style. Throughout the U20 Asian Cup, I was more impressed with the team’s press and defence because those were the foundations that helped them regain possession from teams like China or South Korea for the few counter-attacks that they also managed to convert into game-winning goals.
Inside of the opposition’s half, Marcos Soares’ side were not hesitated to press the opposition even close to their goal. They adopted a man-to-man press that aimed to guide the opposition out wide and generate turnovers from inside the opposition’s defensive third, which then gave them the opportunities to create a very quick counter-attack while the opposition tried to regroup. Against China and South Korea, they completely marked both teams’ central midfielders, namely Imran Memet, Shin Sung, and Son Seung-min, out of the game and neutralised them, which forced both teams to play long balls to their attackers instead.
But even then, Saudi Arabia also had a plan to deal with the long balls coming directly from goal kicks. Thanks to their physicality and, sometimes, aerial dominance, they were able to win the 1v1 ground and aerial duels while also prevented the opposition from making runs in behind their high defensive line. Their defenders usually looked to tight mark the opposition’s attackers and left them in a disadvantage position once the ball came to them, thus forcing them to lose the 1v1 duel or not able to control the ball properly, and giving the Saudi Arabian defenders an opportunity to steal the ball.
When they regrouped into their mid/low block, the players showed their discipline and set up a strong defensive block that frustrated many teams throughout the tournament. Because of how narrow their low block was, there were little spaces in between the lines for the opposition’s attackers to work with and they often resulted in making a long shot that goalkeeper Hamed Al-Shanqiti comfortably saved or missed the target completely. Their physicality and aerial dominance also came in handy as they were able to neutralise most of the crosses that came into the box, thus preventing the lone striker from coming close to receive it.
They also made good use of tactical fouls and their aggressiveness when needed, especially higher up the pitch when they could afford to concede free-kicks that would not be very dangerous to Al-Shanqiti’s goal. It was a fairly frequent occurrence to see Saudi Arabian defenders fouling the opposition’s attackers, especially when the opposition had the ball out wide. This frustrated a lot of the technical attackers from South Korea and China since they could not get into their groove and create anything meaningful for the strikers to capitalise.
Expect to see something similar at the U20 World Cup as I do not think Saudi Arabia will be very good in possession. However, their defensive shape did help them massively in getting through the knockout phase and forced teams into penalty shootouts. Against a lot more skillful players from Colombia or Norway, Saudi Arabia’s defence might have a tougher time, but I will not rule them out from scraping their way to a second place in the group and somehow make it into the knockout, where they can shithouse their way through each match.
The players
As of writing, Saudi Arabia are the only Asian team who have not publicly announced their squad, though I think Marcos Soares already has a list of 21 players either submitted or ready to be submitted. I also cannot hide the fact that I do not watch the Saudi Pro League, so I cannot make predictions on who might be in the squad and who might start. Looking at Japan and South Korea’s squads, there will be some players who miss out compared to the squad that played in China earlier this year, so I also cannot use my old predictions until the final squad is released.
Australia
Australia heading to Chile as the last Asian representative and also the winner of the U20 Asian Cup earlier this year. It was not without flaws or imperfections, but the recent investment in youth in both men and women football have started to bear fruits for Australia with lots of promising talents being given regular first-team minutes and secured moves to Europe or the USA.
Style of play
Similar to South Korea, Australia’s style of play was fairly simple but it was catered towards bringing the best out of the talents at Trevor Morgan’s disposal. With defenders and midfielders who were capable of playing out from the back, the Young Socceroos looked to play through the lines by having attacking midfielders dropping in between the lines to receive the ball, which they were then encouraged to dribble forward and take on the opposition’s defenders.
A key cog in that style of play was Paul Okon-Engstler, who was Australia’s deep playmaker at the back with his line-breaking passes and through balls to send other midfielders around him into positions where they could continue progressing the ball. His distribution was important, but his ability to read the game was crucial too as it allowed him to slow the play when needed or baited the opposition to press to create spaces for his teammates. His performance against Kyrgyzstan U20 was a good demonstration of his very mature style of play.
The team were also quite wing-oriented thanks to the talents that they have in the wide areas. The main goal with Australia’s wing attacks was to create spaces either for the wingers to take the opposition’s defenders on or for one of the central attackers (either the strikers or the attacking midfielder) to run into the channel and receive the ball inside the half-space. Most of the Aussie attackers have good pace to make runs in behind, which made this attacking style a lot more dangerous. When needed, they could also utilise long passes to encourage attackers like Luka Jovanović or Musa Toure to run in behind the opposition’s defensive line, which had proven to be successful for Trevor Morgan’s team on several occasions.
Defensively, Australia preferred to press the opposition inside of their own half, but I have found that strategy to be a hit and miss at times. Their press was sometimes effective in funneling the opposition into overloaded areas where they could regain the ball. But, sometimes, it also backfired when the midfielders were not able to win their challenges, which left the defensive line vulnerable to runs in behind. Iraq gave them a very tough time with this vulnerability and punished them a couple of times, which almost pushed the Young Socceroos to elimination at the quarter-final stage of the U20 Asian Cup. Their centre-back pairing of Sebastian Esposito and Panagiotis Kikianis, while was good most of the time, was also slightly vulnerable to making individual errors that left the rest of the team in a dangerous situation.
It will be a problem that Morgan will keep in mind heading to Chile while also hoping that both Esposito and Kikianis have learned a lot more thanks to getting more minutes at their clubs last season. Besides from that significant problem and a fairly simple style of play, if the Young Socceroos can perform at their best, they can definitely go beyond the group stage. But if the players let the nerves get to them and do not show up on the big stage, Australia can very easily go out in a group that has two heavy contenders in Italy and Argentina.
The players
🧤 Goalkeepers
#1 Steven Hall (Brighton & Hove Albion, England), #12 Alex Robinson (Macarthur FC), #18 Daniel Graskoski (Melbourne Victory)
🧱 Defenders
#3 Sebastian Esposito (Melbourne Victory, on loan from Lecce, Italy), #4 Panagiotis Kikianis, #5 Fabian Talladira (Adelaide United), #13 Lucas Herrington (Brisbane Roar), #16 Josh Inserra (Melbourne Victory), #17 Liam Bonetig (Melbourne City), #21 James Overy (Manchester United, England)
⚙️ Midfielders
#2 Daniel Bennie, #15 Jaylan Pearman (Queens Park Rangers, England), #6 Paul Okon-Engstler, #10 Rhys Youlley (Sydney FC), #7 Jonny Yull (Adelaide United), #8 Alex Badolato (Newcastle Jets), #20 Louis Agosti (Dolomiti Bellunesi, Italy)
⚡ Forwards
#9 Luka Jovanović (Adelaide United), #11 Musa Toure (Randers FC, Denmark), #14 Tiago Quintal (Sydney FC), #19 Max Caputo (Melbourne City)
As mentioned earlier, Trevor Morgan has opted to retain most of the squad that won the U20 Asian Cup with only a few changes that added more quality to an already fairly strong squad. Usually one would expect an Aussie talent playing for Man United to start in this team, but James Overy will have to fight for a chance to get minutes against some of the names who started week in, week out in the A-League last season.
At the back, Steven Hall will almost certainly to start in goal for the Young Socceroos, but the big question will be ‘who will Sebastian Esposito’s partner at the back’ with Lucas Herrington enjoyed a fairly successful season with Brisbane Roar and earned him a move to Colorado Rapids in the MLS next year, while Panagiotis Kikianis had a fairly uneventful season with Adelaide United. Another player who has his position locked in is Daniel Bennie at right-back even though he is listed as a midfielder. He was used fairly often as a full-back by Morgan at the U20 Asian Cup and there is no reason for me to believe it will be different this tournament.
Instead of Frans Deli, Paul Okon-Engstler will continue to develop his partnership with Rhys Youlley as Australia’s central midfielder duo after the pair returned from Benfica and Westerlo respectively to play for Sydney FC next season. The #10 spot will be occupied by Jonny Yull, who had a good tournament in China and a decent season with Adelaide, while the U20 Asian Cup Golden Ball winner Alex Badolato will start out wide or as the other #10 depends on whether Morgan chooses to use a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-2-2-2.
Luka Jovanović will get another chance to prove himself at an international tournament as he prepares himself to take over Adelaide’s starting striker spot following Archie Goodwin’s departure to Charlotte FC in the MLS. His partner-in-crime Musa Toure will also aim to get plenty of playing time under his belt having arrived fresh from a year-long season with Randers. Meanwhile, Max Caputo will be way overqualified for a backup striker following a season where he got regular minutes for Melbourne City, albeit did not have a good goal-scoring form.
And that were the four Asian teams who will be competing at the U20 World Cup in a few days time at the time of writing. As mentioned, I might write a few scout reports here and there to highlight players who catch my attention during the tournament. I have already compiled a list of players that I want to watch and I am trying to update it with more squads being released. But if I do not write anything throughout the tournament, I will see you at the end of October for a fairly big project that I am excited to share!