2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup will be held yet again in Qatar next April/May. It will also serve as qualifier for the 2024 summer Olympic tournament in France in July. Qualifying groups (see below) are under way. Qatar have already qualified as hosts while Vietnam confirmed their place with a win against Yemen today. Group winners qualify along with 4 best runners-up, not counting results against 4th placed teams.
So here are the final qualifiers. Iran are probably the biggest team to miss out, losing the Uzbekistan on the last day and being pipped by Malaysia on disciplinary points as one of the best 4 runners up. Was some real drama on the final game of the qualifiers which was Palestine v Pakistan. With only results against the top 3 in the group (4th placed team results not being counted) due to uneven distribution of groups, it was thought that Palestine would have little trouble winning this but could not qualify as their results against Japan and Bahrain could not see them pip Malaysia to that final best runners up spot. However, bottom placed Pakistan did not read the script, taking the lead and holding on until deep into injury time. This meant Palestine would be bottom, Bahrain 2nd, and results against Pakistan now counting and not Palestine's. This also meant Bahrain would suddenly qualify as a runner up as they'd got 4 points against Japan and Pakistan. However, Palestine scored in the 10th and 15th minutes of injury time to win the game, finish 2nd, but fail to qualify behind Malaysia due to their results against Japan and Bahrain. Anyway, here are the qualified teams - Qatar are hosts, Saudi Arabia holders, and Indonesia will make their debut....
Yes, finalists go to the Olympics... winner of the 3rd place match not only gets bronze but also an automotic spot in the Olympics too. 4th place teams still gets a chance, a playoff vs Guinea in Tokyo on May 9th for the final Olympics spot. That team will automatically go in Group A with France, USA, and New Zealand.
Semifinals are set. While the Japan and Iraq are seasoned Olympians, the other semifinal is attracting the most attention and sold out in a matter of minutes. Indonesia are the de-facto home team at this tournament as their fans are showing up in hordes. I'm not really surprised they got the win vs South Korea, they had 99% of the crowd behind them and everything went against the Koreans, goal disallowed early on, player sent off, and winning penalty save chalked off... I'd think Uzbekistan would be favorites tomorrow but who knows with this crowd behind them... Will go tomorrow but supporting Uzbekistan this time, this is going to be crazy....
About last night... Uzbekistan and Japan did win their matches vs Indonesia and Iraq 2-0 respectively. I was at the first game, Uzbekistan dominated play, hit the woodwork about 4 times but still Indonesia may feel a bit aggrieved about having some key calls go against them, most notably an overturned penalty, disallowed goal, and a red card all by VAR. Mind you, it's the polar opposite of what happened in the previous game when they got the majority of the calls vs South Korea, disallowed goal, red card, and crucial last penalty save overturned by VAR in their favor. It was a historic night for Uzbekistan as it's their first qualification to the Olympics, and only 2nd post-Soviet country to make it after (surprisingly) Belarus. The winner of Japan and Uzbekistan will decide the all-time champ of U23 as they'll be the first 2nd time winner for now....
oh well the final didn't quite have the happy ending Uzbekistan wanted as they went down 1-0 in injury time to Japan. However, Uzbekistan were missing 3 key players as Abdukodir Khusanov, Hojimat Erkinov, and Abbosbek Fayzullaev were all recalled by their clubs I believe having already achieved Olympic qualification. Anyway, here's some highlights from the match: Hard luck Uzbekistan, Congratulations Japan!