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The story
In the men’s soccer first-round group stage at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, the Japan U-21 national team, led by manager Tsuyoshi Oiwa, routed Kyrgyzstan 7-0, clinching a quarterfinal berth with one match still to play. FW Yumeki Yokoyama opened the scoring in the 28th minute with a gorgeous lob shot, and Japan piled on six more goals from there for a lopsided win. The move to swap out seven starters — a response to the lack of finishing flagged after the opening match against Hong Kong (result not specified in the article) — paid off. Reactions on the forum were split between those who discounted the gap by noting Kyrgyzstan played a looser back four than Hong Kong, and those praising manager Oiwa’s knack for getting results.
◆Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games ▽Men’s Soccer First Round, Matchday 2 Japan 7-0 Kyrgyzstan (Sept. 20, Toyota Stadium)
Japan’s U-21 (under-21) national team in Group A crushed Kyrgyzstan 7-0 to secure a quarterfinal spot. With a 6-point gap now over third place in the group, Japan advanced from the group stage with one match still remaining.
Manager Tsuyoshi Oiwa changed seven starters from the opening match against Hong Kong on the 16th, bringing in FW Yumeki Yokoyama among others. In the 28th minute, Yokoyama delivered a brilliant opener: latching onto a long ball from MF Yotaro Nakajima, he lobbed a one-touch shot that sailed over the keeper’s head and dropped straight into the net.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Well, until they hit a match they might actually lose, they'll probably just keep going with Michiwaki and Nwadike up top.
Hong Kong played a back five, but Kyrgyzstan had a back four.
Though Kyrgyzstan's defenders were overage (OA) players.
This is a lack of finishing too.
[Asian Games] Men's basketball: South Korea wins first gold in three Games, comes from behind to beat Japan — Lee Hyun-jung and other NBA hopefuls exempted from military service [Amidagamine★]
https://hayabusa9.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/mnewsplus/1789910570/
⚽ Japan National Team Schedule
Aichi Asian Games, Men's Soccer
9/23 (Wed) 19:30~
Japan vs Thailand 🇹🇭
📺 TBS
Kirin Cup
9/24 (Thu) 19:05~
Japan vs Uruguay 🇺🇾
Q&A Stadium Miyagi
📺 Fuji TV
Kirin Cup
9/28 (Mon) 19:25~
Japan vs Venezuela 🇻🇪
Edion Peace Wing Hiroshima
📺 NTV
Kirin Cup
10/1 (Thu) 19:10~
Japan vs Ecuador 🇪🇨
Yokohama International Stadium
📺 TBS network
Kirin Cup
10/5 (Mon) 19:30~
Japan vs Panama 🇵🇦 or New Zealand 🇳🇿
National Stadium
📺 TV Asahi
Such a shame — it's a full three-week international match window, but Europe's tied up with their own Nations League so no games there, and Asia's flooded with requests so they get turned down too. No wonder the schedule ends up mostly South American opponents.
Can't be helped.
Nobody thought they'd lose.
Japan's the one at fault for losing to a South Korea that's buffed by something as big as military-service exemption.
That's the older brother.
This one's the younger brother, who plays for Cerezo.
That one's the older brother.
This one's Cerezo.
No telling how long he'll stay in the J.League, so they need to find at least one usable left winger before the U-23 Asian Cup (LA Olympics qualifier) in January or April 2028.
The guy who's not getting playing time at AZ?
■Players unavailable for the 2026 Asian Games U-21 Japan squad
Ryunosuke Sato (Spain, 1st division)
Keisuke Goto (Germany, 1st division)
Koki Ando (Belgium, 1st division)
Shion Shinkawa (Belgium, 1st division)
Gaku Nawata (Belgium, 1st division)
Shunsuke Saito (Belgium, 1st division)
Ryoga Kida (Argentina, 1st division)
Kazuya Kita (Spain, 2nd division)
Asuma Ikari (Germany, 2nd division)
Kento Shiogai (Germany, 2nd division)
Reo Takaoka (Belgium, 2nd division)
Muki Yoshinaga (Belgium, 2nd division)
Keito Kojiro (Eintracht Frankfurt second team)
Sora Yamamoto (Borussia Dortmund second team)
Ryota Onoda (Augsburg second team)
Taiyu Yamazaki (Mainz second team)
Wasn't Shiogai called up to the full national team?
Sato, Shiogai, Saito, and Goto are with the A (senior) national team.
If it's Sint-Truiden or a second team, there's a chance the clubs let them go.
For the Paris Olympics too, Sint-Truiden released Kokubo, Chima, and Yamamoto, and the second team released Kein Sato.
Taniguchi's in it (using おる, Kansai dialect for 'is/exists').
Wait, wasn't he dropped from the squad due to injury?
Oh, you can watch it on BS10.
First time I've ever tuned that channel in.
That's because the manager himself is the type who gets dropped.
I think the guys called up right now are more of a 'Moriyasu send-off Japan' — centered on Moriyasu's favorites (lit. 'mistresses,' i.e. pet players), not necessarily the best available.
Baseball's a lost cause now though.
The level's too low — winning this doesn't amount to much.
It's such a low-stakes tournament that everyone except South Korea — who have military-service exemption on the line — shows up with a slapped-together squad.
It's such a throwaway tournament that Japan and Uzbekistan, who'd normally be favorites, field U-21 sides with no overage (OA) players at all.
It's less about the tournament level and more that they landed in a really easy group.
Wish the senior team got this kind of luck in the World Cup draw.
Pretty sure none of the players from last time's squad are on the current national team, right?
This time it's hosted in Japan, so the J.League clubs are cooperating a lot more.
Of the players from the last Asian Games squad, only two — Kein Sato and Sekine — made the Paris Olympics squad.
And of course, not a single one of them has made the senior national team yet.
He's got this mysterious knack for winning the big ones.
Very Kashima Antlers of him.
He gets trashed by the Kashima crowd, but honestly managing the Paris-generation squad wasn't that stressful to watch.
Not widely known, but he's the only manager to have won the AFC Manager of the Year award twice.
Are other countries really slacking though?
The peninsula (South Korea) is clearly going all-out.
Wasn't it Uzbekistan — or some country — that copied Japan and switched to a U-21 squad too? Vietnam did that as well, didn't they?
Re: #71
Of course South Korea goes all-out every time — they've got military exemption on the line.
Uzbekistan's the same as Japan: U-21 only, no overage players.
I mean, the opponent parked the bus way too much.
Don't go getting scared of 21-year-olds, lol.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Men’s soccer at the Asian Games is an age-restricted, U-21-driven competition, and unlike the Olympics, most countries don’t use overage (OA) slots. The exception is South Korea, which — driven by the powerful incentive of military-service exemption for winning gold — fields what amounts to its best possible squad, creating a notable gap in how seriously each country treats selection. The thread repeatedly circled back to this structural question of ‘why is South Korea the only one going all-in?’ Another point of debate was whether swapping seven starters, a response to the lack of finishing criticized after the opening match against Hong Kong, actually paid off — though some discounted the result by noting Kyrgyzstan’s defense was looser than Hong Kong’s. One detail readers might easily miss: many of the top under-21 players at major European clubs, such as Ryunosuke Sato and Keisuke Goto, were effectively impossible to call up, since this tournament isn’t an official FIFA international match window, meaning their clubs are under no obligation to release them. The article also noted that manager Tsuyoshi Oiwa, who also led the Paris Olympics generation, has won the AFC Manager of the Year award multiple times.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geisou Sokuhou+) thread ‘[Soccer U-21] Oiwa’s Japan Thrash Kyrgyzstan 7-0 to Reach the Quarterfinals, Hugely Improving on Their Opening-Match Lack of Finishing — Asian Games.’
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