The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has just released notable figures at the AFC U23 Championship, where U23 Japan defeated U23 China 4-0 to win the championship. U23 Vietnam surpassed U23 Korea 7-6 (drawing 2-2 after 120 minutes) to rank third.
U23 Japan excellent: U23 Japan has written a new chapter in the history of the tournament by successfully defending the championship. They are also the first team to be crowned in this tournament 3 times. That is a completely deserved victory when coach Go Oiwa's students almost made no mistakes, only Jordan was the most difficult opponent in the quarterfinals.
U23 Japan scored 16 goals, leading the tournament, and with most of the players eligible to participate in the 2028 tournament, they will be a bright candidate for the championship title 2 years from now.
Goal explosion tournament: Although there were a few goalless draws, this was a tournament full of goals, with 73 goals scored when the rising young talents of the continent showed all their abilities. The match with the most goals was the 4-2 victory of U23 Korea over U23 Lebanon in Group C, while the match with the biggest difference was the U23 Japan winning against U23 Syria 5-0.
Shoot as soon as there is an opportunity: Statistics show that attacking players do not hesitate to shoot as soon as there is an opportunity. U23 Japan leads the statistics with 97 shots in 6 matches, followed by U23 South Korea (80), U23 Uzbekistan (60) and U23 Saudi Arabia (59). Ali Al Azaizeh of Jordan is the player who made the most shots, with 12 times.
Defense weakness: Surprisingly, the two defeated teams in the semi-finals, U23 Vietnam and U23 Korea, conceded the most goals in the tournament, 8 goals each. U23 Japan defended extremely solidly, only Jordan could penetrate their defense in the quarter-finals.
Number of passes: U23 Korea, a master of passing, has topped the rankings with a total of 3,443 passes in the six matches they have played. U23 Japan (2,890), U23 Vietnam (2,421) and China (2,048) are in the following positions. The duo Shin Min-ha (489) and Lee Hyun-yong (476) of U23 Korea have the highest number of individual passes, among the players participating in the tournament.
Surprise U23 Iran: U23 Iran did not pass the group stage, but they are the team with the highest passing accuracy rate in the tournament with 89%. They rank above U23 Korea (86%), U23 Japan and U23 Saudi Arabia (both 84%) also have quite good statistics.
Keeping a clean sheet: The fact that U23 China and U23 Japan are competing for the championship is not surprising, as both have kept a clean sheet for 5 matches. Before the final, U23 China did not even concede a goal, thanks to the excellent performance of goalkeeper Li Hao.
The opposite situation of U23 Uzbekistan and U23 Korea: With being eliminated in the quarterfinals, U23 Uzbekistan for the first time could not participate in the semi-finals after 4 consecutive appearances before. Meanwhile, U23 Korea returned to the semi-finals for the first time since raising the championship cup in 2020, after reaching the semi-finals in the previous four tournaments.
