Football in Asia

[Beepu 1,714]

Hey guys, with the massive growth of football in Asia I thought it is something we can discuss.

Obviously Asians are not that good in football bar South Korea and Japan who have made it through the WC group stages a couple of times.

Since the 2002 WC in those 2 countries, I can see football growing at a fast rate. And as the country gets more developed in football, better players will be produced.

At this moment I believe Japan is the strongest Asian country, with players like Kagawa, Honda, Uchida, Nagatomo and recently Miyaichi playing in Europe. Whom all but Miyaichi are starters for their team.

South Korea have a very young and promising team though and is not far behind Japan. Park is arguably the best Korean player that have ever lived, he is a national hero in korea(with a street named after him in his hometown) but he is past his prime. Son Heung Min is probably the biggest Korean talent at this moment, a bigger talent that Park in my opinion.

Big talents like Son is abit more scarce for Korea though compared to the Japanese. Attack wise, Korea is pretty good with Ki Sung Yong, Son, lee chung yong, park chu young, etc. But seem pretty weak in defense.

Asians are smaller in built as well in general. Son heung min at 1.84m is considered tall for the asians, im still shorter than him at 1.81m. But if you see the Japan or South Korea national play, you will see that most of the players work very hard(imagine 11 players with Park Ji Sung's workrate) and that seems to get them by most of the time.

But as shown by players like mata, messi, etc Size and height is not the most important thing. No asian players are at that level yet, but recently more players with amazing talent has come out from Asia, like Kagawa.

In the past maybe it is more difficult for Asians to make it in football where they value size more, but at this day and age where its not the biggest and most important attributes I hope that football will grow stronger in Asia and for more talents to be produced from Asia(heard that Barca got a couple of Korean monster kids in their academy)

Anyway sorry if i rambled to long.

[nachikethas 1,149]

India is competing to host u-17 world cup in 2017 hope we get selected, could be a great boost for football in India general

[edenhazard17 281]

Son Heung-Min has gone to Bayer Leverkusen for a fee around 10 million euros. A bargain price for his quality and potential. Bayer did a very good job there, in my opinion.

http://www.bundesliga.com/en/liga/news/2012/0000257309.php