Japan's U-23 national team announced "Hwang Sun-hong's showdown"
The list of Japan's U-23 national team has been confirmed to compete for pride in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Under-23 Asian Cup with "Hwang Sun-hong" for men's soccer qualification at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The Japan Football Association announced the final list of 23 members of the U-23 national team led by coach Ko Oiwa on the 4th. Japan's U-23 national team will compete with South Korea, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and China for the quarterfinals in Group B of the 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup, which will open in Qatar from the 15th. The first to third-place teams in this tournament will go straight to the Paris Olympics, while the fourth-place team will challenge Guinea, the fourth-place team in the African Football Federation (CAF) qualifying round, to secure tickets to the finals. Among the 23 players were five, including Kokubo Leo Bryan (Benfica, GK), Takashi Uchino (Düsseldorf, DF), Gain Sato (Berder Bremen), Rihito Yamamoto, and Joel Chima Fujita (Sintrawidean, MF). In addition, striker Kotaro Uchino (Tsukuba University), the only college student player, was also selected. The Japanese national team will play a closed exhibition match against the Iraqi U-23 national team on the 11th local time, followed by China on the 16th, the UAE on the 19th, and South Korea on the 22nd.