Uzbekistan, Japan gun for second title

Uzbekistan head coach Timur Kapadze brushed aside the loss of Abdukodir Khusanov, Hojimat Erkinov and Abbosbek Fayzullaev from his squad for Friday’s AFC U-23 Asian Cup Qatar 2024 final with Japan at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium, confident he has enough depth to compensate for their absence.
The trio rejoined their clubs earlier this week after Uzbekistan secured their first-ever qualification for the Olympic Games with their semi-final victory over Indonesia, but Kapadze believes his team can still succeed despite their departure.
“We don’t only have 11 players, we have 23 players,” he said. “Yes, those players have returned to their clubs and they gave us extra strength but we have other players who are ready to play tomorrow. I don’t think it’s a big problem. We will do our best on our way to achieving our mission.”
Kapadze’s goal is to add the U-23 Asian Cup title in Qatar to the one won in 2018, when Uzbekistan claimed the trophy for the first time with victory over Vietnam, and a win against Japan would see the Central Asians become the first nation to lift the trophy twice.
The two countries have history at the competition, with Kapadze in charge of Uzbekistan when they won 2-0 against a Japan side helmed by current coach Go Oiwa in the semi-finals of the 2022 edition in Tashkent.
The same two tacticians go head-to-head again on Friday, this time with the title at stake, and Kapadze is under no illusions regarding the challenge his players are facing.
“We have a tough game ahead of us but we’re going to try to win using all of our capabilities and according to our plan,” he said. “We know about Japan and Japan knows about us, so we have analysed their games and each team will be preparing for the final. We face a tough and interesting match and we’ll see how we play once we’ve planned for the final.”
The Japanese, who are also still in the running for a second title, will be looking to become the first team to score against Uzbekistan in Qatar, who have yet to concede in five games. Oiwa has previously lamented his side’s inability to turn their dominance into goals, but he believes the advances made by his team throughout the competition mean Japan can prevail in the decider.
“We think that we have created enough goal chances throughout the tournament but unfortunately the number of goals hasn’t been enough,” said Oiwa, whose team have scored nine times in their five matches so far.
“But I believe we are improving match by match and we expect to score in the final, so hopefully we can win.
“We are pleased to have moved to the final and, as always, we’re focused on winning the next match.
“This is our last game and we hope to be well prepared. Of course we remember the game two years ago, but this match is a different match. We’ve had good preparations and we’ve analysed the Uzbekistan team and we’re prepared to win the game.”