The Japan Football Federation recently announced the list of players participating in women's football at the 19th ASIAD.
The Japanese women's team only brought to the 19th ASIAD a squad consisting of many U20 players.
Notably, this list only has one player who just attended the 2023 World Cup, Reina Chiba.
But in the tournaments in New Zealand and Australia, Reina Chiba also did not often get to play.
Besides, the Japan Football Federation only called one player who is playing football abroad to attend ASIAD 19, goalkeeper Akane Ohba.
Meanwhile, the remaining names of the Japanese women's team are all U20.
This decision of the team from the land of the rising sun is very surprising because before that they were considered the top candidate for the championship of the tournament.
But according to research, Japan sees ASIAD 19 as an opportunity for young players to gain experience and aim for bigger tournaments in the future.
The move of the "female Samurai" will certainly bring joy to other championship candidates such as China, Australia and Korea.
At the same time, this also brings many advantages to the teams in the same group with Japan, including the Vietnamese women's team.
According to the tournament rules, the group winners (5 teams) will qualify for the quarter-finals. The remaining 3 spots belong to the second-placed teams with the best results.
Previously, the Vietnamese women's team was considered to be only second to Japan in the group with the addition of Nepal and Bangladesh.
But the fact that the cherry blossom country team only brought to ASIAD 19 a squad consisting entirely of U20 players will be an opportunity for coach Mai Duc Chung and his team to cause a surprise.
Even the girls in red are completely capable of winning the group to avoid strong opponents in the quarterfinals.
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