Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
The all-conquering Japan women's team have certainly set a high standard for the rest of Asia to follow.
Following the senior Nadeshiko’s triumph in the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany, Japan once again stamped their mark, this time in the AFC U-19 Women's Championship in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, by successfully retaining their crown.
The unbeaten Japan finished atop the six-team table with 13 points from five matches, having needed a late goal to snatch a 1-1 draw in their opening encounter with China.
East Asian rivals DPR Korea and China finished second and third respectively and along with Japan qualified for the next edition of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup to be held in Uzbekistan from August 18 to September 9, 2012.
AFC Technical Study Group Officers Mohammed Basir and Abdulla Hassan Abdulla are all praises for the Young Nadeshiko.
"Japan yet again asserted their superiority in the women’s game,” Singaporean Basir told the-AFC.com. “Their emergence as a victorious team is a culmination of intense short-term preparation and more importantly long-term development plans initiated by the Japan Football Association (JFA).
"Japan’s disciplined tactical performance, technically sound individuals and consistency in the appointment of coaching staff and team development should be exemplary. There will be high expectations on them, along with the other representatives, DPR Korea and China, to refine their factors of performance in order to achieve victory in the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup 2012, through proper planning.
"Victory is by design and not by chance,” he said.
Basir has also hailed the new format of competition.
He said: “The new single round-robin format means that every match was keenly contested and all the teams had to play with each other, reflecting a more accurate final ranking. Every team played to their maximum capacity, making the tournament consistently exciting.
"This was a new experience for the teams. Adaptability and recovery played a big factor in their success," he said.
Abdulla, of UAE, hoped that Japan's victory will spur their Asian counterparts.
He said: "Due to different factors like preparation time, tactical readiness, technical ability and players’ availability, gaps are still visible among the teams. Having said that, credit must be given to DPR Korea, China, Korea Republic, Australia and Vietnam for their hard work and competitiveness.
"Clearly, besides the JFA, the other Member Associations have also undertaken development work and this has resulted in very competitive, outstanding matches in this tournament."
He summed up by praising the juniors for displaying a much more mature performance in the tournament.
"The juniors in this tournament are a good indication of the respective national teams in the years to come. Other than Vietnam, all the other teams were a continuation of their U-16 teams which participated in the AFC U-16 Women’s Championship in 2009,” he said.
"The core of the teams was retained as well as the coaching staff for Japan (11 players), Korea Republic (10 players), Australia (14 players) and DPR Korea (6 players). The tactical awareness, maturity, flexibility, sound technical abilities, overall mental and physical consistency observed augurs well for the next phase of development for these players.
"In comparison to the statistics from the previous edition, despite the different format, there has been no data indicating a drop in the level of performance judging by the number of goals scored and competitiveness in the matches,” added Abdulla.
- Tan Boon Piaw