Reborn Liverpool

Chapter 418 Summary of the Asian Cup

With the Chinese team beating Qatar 4-3 to win the championship, the 2019 Asian Cup finally came to an end.

There are two characteristics of this Asian Cup:
First, the tactical play of Asian teams began to be Europeanized, not only in China, Japan and South Korea, but also in Qatar, Vietnam, Bahrain and Jordan;

The second is the decline of traditional strong teams, including Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Australia.

If there is a third characteristic, it is the degree of national civilization, national quality, and national quality, which determine the strength and ability of the team, as well as the psychological state and quality of the players.

With 23 years of undefeated Asian Cup regular time results, Iran was also defeated by Huaguo and could not find North. There are many such examples in the group stage.

The Qatari players always greeted the insults from the audience with a smile, and finally walked into the final with a smile.

In addition, youth training determines the quality of the adult team. Qatar and Vietnam are the best representatives. After 12 years of accumulation, Vietnamese football has finally built itself into a strong Asian team relying on high-quality youth training;
After 12 years of youth training, Qatar has finally built itself into the top team in Asia.

As for the Huaguo team, which won the championship in the end, it was actually the easiest one. The brilliance of the stars covered up all the shortcomings.

The Huaguo team still needs to train U25 players, and the 38-year-old veteran has no follow-up. The Huaguo team in this Asian Cup, even if they won the championship, could not get rid of their stubborn illnesses.

The comprehensive Europeanization of this Asian Cup first started from the competition system:

The Asian Cup officially canceled the three finals. This is a reform of the competition system following the European Cup. Except for the Olympics, the three or four finals of intercontinental football events are just a consolation performance for the losers. The game is not very enjoyable. Including the World Cup.

It is the first time that the Asian Cup has expanded to 24 teams, which is the same as that of the last European Cup. It is fair to say that the overall strength of the 24 teams in this Asian Cup is relatively close. Syria, Yemen and North Korea, from the perspective of historical performance, except for Yemen, the other two teams are not weak.

In addition, Palestine and Lebanon are also considered to be big teams. As a result, Palestine scored one point, while Lebanon won their first victory in the Asian Cup, that is, defeating North Korea.

If you count the Philippines, which was defeated and eliminated in three games, the worst-performing teams in the Asian Cup are the above six teams.

Among these six teams, four were recognized as weak teams before the game, followed by Yemen, Palestine, Lebanon and the Philippines, and Syria and North Korea applied for it themselves. Lebanon, still in the same group.

From this point of view, the expansion of the Asian Cup this year is not considered a failure. In the new army, Kyrgyzstan performed well and almost entered the quarter-finals with the neck of the United Arab Emirates.

Not only the team's overall technology and coordination, but from the perspective of the tactical chain, Japan has been fully Europeanized in this Asian Cup, and Qatar has also been fully Europeanized now. Totally a European team.

Qatari players, regardless of their personal style or execution ability, are already similar to European players. They can rely on their personal abilities to complete faster offense and perfect personal defense. This is the reason why they can stand on the final stage.

Not only Qatar and Japan, including South Korea, Vietnam, Jordan and Bahrain, have also begun to Europeanize in terms of tactics.

Fully Europeanized tactics, pay attention to the combination of passing and control of the ball and personal (off-the-ball) running positions, so as to promote the team's offense as a whole. The running position determines the quality of the pass and the quality of the offense.

At the same time, no matter in offense or defense, after the team loses the ball, one person can lose the ball immediately, and at least two of the supporting teammates around them will counterattack, forming a second attack opportunity.

It was very obvious in the two semi-finals between Japan and China, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates; and the final between Qatar and China.

Whether the ball is lost in one's own side, the opponent's backcourt or in the midfield, Qatar and Japanese players rely on positions (running without the ball) to form at least two layers of defensive protection systems. Two to three running players without the ball near the point of loss, Immediately organize a counter-robbery, and at the same time the formation is not chaotic. The Chinese and UAE players who just got the ball will lose the ball in an instant.

Even for Iranian and Chinese players with excellent personal physique, they can rely on their personal ability to grab the ball, but they will lose the ball again soon, but the players from Qatar and Japan can rely on the position and position of the entire line of players. Run, form an effective second counter-grab, even form a second fast break, and even score a goal.

Take Vietnam as an example. In the match against Jordan, Vietnam had a complete upper hand. The possession rate was 55% to 45%, and the number of shots was 21 to 12. However, both teams are European teams.

Europeanized teams are extremely flexible. Take Japan as an example. In the battle against Saudi Arabia, their ball possession rate was only 28%, but they could still kill Saudi Arabia with a corner kick.

European teams have two obvious characteristics:
The first is that under the overall cooperation of the players and the requirements of tactical discipline, the defense is extremely stable, and it is rare to concede more than two goals in a single game:

Qatar did not concede a goal before reaching the final. After reaching the final, the four goals conceded were largely due to the personal performance of Hua Guo's "two cards".

The South Korean team conceded two goals in five games, including zero goals in the group stage, and one goal in each of the two knockout games;

The Jordan team conceded one goal in four games and one goal in the knockout round;
The Vietnam team conceded five goals in the group stage and two goals in the knockout round. Considering that compared with Iraqi and Iranian players, Vietnamese players are in poor physical condition, this number of goals conceded is acceptable;
Bahrain conceded two goals in the group stage and two goals in the knockout rounds.

These Europeanized teams have a very strict formation, and their personal abilities are fully integrated into the tactical requirements, so their defense is extremely stable.

Japan, only in the semi-finals, was hit four goals by the personal ability of Huaguo players. The Japanese team only conceded three goals in the group stage, and did not concede a goal in the subsequent two knockout rounds.

In contrast, the performances of power-based teams Iran, Uzbekistan, Australia, and traditional West Asian teams Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are not satisfactory:

Take Saudi Arabia as an example. They are a typical West Asian team with a traditional pass-and-control style. In the group stage, they were beaten 2-0 by Qatar;

In the game against the Japanese team, their possession of the ball was picturesque, but they could not form a threatening shot at all, and Japan's anti-counterattack created at least two scoring opportunities.

The slow advancing speed of the Saudi team and a series of problems of waiting for the ball when attacking allowed the Japanese players to easily make predictive actions during the game.

Japan seems to be in a mess, but it is actually extremely relaxed.

Like Iran and the United Arab Emirates, especially Iran, on the surface, they are the best, but in front of the Chinese team, they were beaten five times;
As for the United Arab Emirates, if they can make it to the finals, they will be given more than three by Hua Guo. After all, the power of Hua Guo's "two cards" surpasses all tactical systems in Asian football.

If there are still three or four finalists, the UAE will be scored at least three goals by the Japanese.

As for the power-based teams, Kyrgyzstan is really worthy of praise. In fact, they have also begun to Europeanize.

……

There is also a new feature of this Asian Cup, that is, the team is very obvious, which can be roughly divided into the following five categories:
The first is Europeanized teams, including Qatar, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Jordan, and Bahrain.

Europeanized teams have obvious advantages over other styles of teams. Japan’s pass-and-control style Saudi Arabia fully demonstrates the advantages and strengths of Japanese football: individual defense is accurate, overall defense is stable, and the ability to grasp the offense is excellent.

Qatar played two traditional West Asian teams, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. They scored 6 goals in two games.

In the battle between fully Europeanized teams, the team with stronger offensive power and better state will win. This law has been added to Qatar. When Qatar's players have stronger personal abilities, Qatar will win.

Europeanized teams play other types of teams, whether the opponent is Iran, the United Arab Emirates, or Saudi Arabia, no matter how many goals they score, they are all-round victories.

The second type is the traditional West Asia team, represented by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Syria, including Oman, Lebanon, Palestine (between West Asia and power type), Yemen is also counted.

This kind of traditional West Asian team, the midfield pass control is picturesque, but once they knock down the area near the penalty area, there is basically no way. , and a pass error occurs or is directly blocked.

For example, in the three games the UAE played against Bahrain, Kyrgyzstan and Qatar, the UAE's offense was messy and had no rules.

Take the UAE-Qatar semi-final as an example. After the UAE's Mata and Mohamed came on the field, they could form a real shot. It was because Mohamed could pass the ball and Mata could shoot.

The tactical problems of traditional West Asian teams are as follows:
Passing and receiving is cumbersome and intoxicated, prone to passing errors, inefficient offense and easy to be counterattacked;

Relying too much on the player's personal ability, passing the ball will directly cause the opponent to single-handedly.

Inefficient offense and many defensive mistakes are the characteristics of traditional teams in West Asia.Traditional West Asian teams have declined and started to be eliminated.

The third type is a power-based team, represented by Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan (with a European tendency), and Australia (the British Championship).

The strength team relies on the personal ability of the players to fight. The players have sufficient physical fitness. The most representative team is the Iranian team. They perfectly integrate personal ability and strength.

The Iranian team met two European teams, and although they beat Vietnam 2-0, they were defeated by Hua Guo 5-3 in a more important game.

Powerful teams pay attention to personal ability, like Turkmenistan can also score a goal in Japan through long shots;
The encounter between two powerful teams is boring to the end, see the battle between Australia and Uzbekistan.

Kyrgyzstan pays more attention to overall tactics, but there are loopholes in every line, and they rely more on physical fitness. After playing against the Chinese team, they began to recover their form and almost eliminated the United Arab Emirates.

In addition, Iraq is also a team that pays more attention to personal ability, but it cannot be qualitative.

Powerful teams have generally declined, and facing Europeanized teams, they are at a comprehensive disadvantage.

The fourth type is non-West Asian regional teams, such as India in South Asia, Thailand and the Philippines in Southeast Asia:
Thailand and the Philippines have always been Southeast Asian teams. Although Thailand has a European tendency, their weaknesses are still Southeast Asian, such as lack of physical fitness and general short stature.

India has performed very well, but still lacks experience.The regional teams in West Asia have made great progress, but they still have traditional weaknesses.

The fifth type is Huaguo and North Korea.

The Huaguo team has typical characteristics, that is, there are no technical players to support the midfield, and they have to carry out long-pass attacks when their personal abilities are not outstanding. This kind of player's ability limits tactical arrangements and has to be played. , can be regarded as an alternative to the Asian Cup.

But the Hua Guo team now has "two cards", the offense in the center and front field must hit every hit, and the individual ability of players who break through the sky has no worries in Asia for ten years.

Because of the gap in talent and failed youth training, the Hua Guo team can only make such a choice, and North Korea is no different.

……

It can be seen from this Asian Cup that the territory of Asian football is changing.

Although the Hua Guo team has made it to the top, Qatar, Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam are the real trends in Asian football.

Among the East Asian teams, Japan and South Korea are expanding their lead. Although South Korea did not reach the semi-finals, apart from Qatar and Japan (not counting the wonderful Huaguo), is there any team that can stop South Korea? ?

In West Asia, traditional West Asian powers such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates have all begun to regress, among which Saudi Arabia has suffered the most.

The problem with Saudi Arabia is that in 2015, although Saudi Arabia lost 0-1 to the Chinese team, they actually advanced very fast in the midfield (relying on personal breakthrough ability), but now, they have retreated to the sluggish team of the 90s in the last century. saudi.

The overall coordination of Iran is poor, but their impact is unstoppable. The Iranians themselves are Aryans of the Indo-European language family. Their physical fitness is stronger than that of the Arabs and Mongolians of the Semitic language family.

Qatar's naturalized players kept kissing the Qatar national emblem on their jerseys after scoring a goal. Although Qatar has been besieged by Saudi Arabia in all aspects in the past two years, Qatari players have shown strong unity.

The football map of West Asia has received the most powerful impact in this Asian Cup.Qatar became the uncrowned king of Asia because of their European tactics and outstanding personal abilities of the players. At the same time, they walked all the way amidst the abuse from the stands, and their ability to withstand pressure is extremely strong.

Qatar, Jordan, and Bahrain, these three teams, have got rid of the characteristics of traditional West Asian teams. Their tactics are more disciplined and they are faster.

For Qatar, their only regret is not being able to play against Iran (the two teams played a warm-up match before the Asian Cup, Iran beat ten-man Qatar 2-1).That's probably the only thing Iran can say after the Asian Cup, they will think they have a chance to win against Qatar.

Among the teams in West Asia, Iraq is a pity. Iraq was eliminated without showing its form.

The best game they played was a 3-2 victory over Vietnam, but it is normal to lose to Qatar.

In East Asia, Japan and South Korea have surpassed other teams in the region, even the Chinese team that won the championship this time is no exception.

In Southeast Asia, Vietnam has shed the characteristics of a traditional Southeast Asian team. They are a mature and skilled team. They have a chance to at least reach the Asian finals in the next World Cup.

We can see that the Asian football map is being redrawn.

Huaguo dominates the list because of the heaven-defying "two Zhangs", and Japan and South Korea in East Asia are still strong;
The small country team led by Qatar in West Asia and suppressed by Saudi Arabia and Iran for a long time has begun to show its strength.

In the next four years, West Asian football will form a chaotic situation. Which team has stronger tactical discipline and which team will have better results. Although Qatar lost the Asian Cup, it will still fall into a chaotic situation.

In West Asia, Saudi Arabia's dominance has begun to weaken, and Iran can maintain its strength in West Asia for a period of time by virtue of the strength brought by the players' personal abilities.

The United Arab Emirates, which has reached the semi-finals in two consecutive Asian Cups, is destined to go downhill.

Vietnam is already a strong team in Asia. In the future of Asian football, we will see the dominance of the East Asian duo, the melee in West Asia, and the rise of the Vietnamese team.

It can be seen from this Asian Cup that in Asia, those who get youth training get the future, and those who get advanced modern football tactics get the future!

From these two points of view, the current Huaguo football, which is full of glory, does not actually have a bright future. Because of the youth training and advanced tactics that require the support of players' personal strength, the Huaguo team is far behind the advanced countries in Asia.

(End of this chapter)