On July 28th, an explosive news came: Japan's National Olympic Team beat Mali's National Olympic Team by a narrow margin of 1-0, winning two consecutive matches and successfully advancing to the early round. In response, Soccer Daily quickly published a commentary praising the extraordinary strength of the Japanese National Olympic team, which did not contain any overage players.
Notably, this is the third time an Asian team has progressed through the Olympic men's soccer group stage in consecutive matches since Japan's feat between 1964 and 1968; and the second time an Asian team has progressed through the early rounds of the Olympics since South Korea at the 2012 London Olympics. For the sixth time in 12 trips to the Olympic final round, Japan's men's soccer team emerged from the men's soccer group stage with five appearances ahead of South Korea's four, and continues to hold the record for the most number of times an Asian team has progressed from the men's soccer group stage at the Olympics.
It is worth noting that the Japanese National Olympic Team was the only team to compete in the Paris Olympics with no overage players. As many as 10 U23 age-eligible players were unable to participate for various reasons, including Asia's most expensive player, Kubo Kenyoung, Japan's adult national team's star goalkeeper Suzuki Choyan, former international soccer player Suzuki Viren, and Matsuki Jyusei, who will soon be joining Southampton in the English Premier League. As a result, the team can only be described as the "second national Olympic team".
However, even so, the "National Olympic Team 2" still has as many as seven players who play in Europe. Based on the U23 Asian Cup winning team, they have made the same excellent start to the Tokyo Olympics as they did three years ago. In their opening match, the Japanese national team recorded the biggest victory in the history of Olympic men's soccer with a 5-0 win over Paraguay.
With the suspense of qualification lifted, it is highly likely that Japan's national Olympic team will meet Egypt, the second team in Group C, in the quarterfinals. Looking back to the 2012 London Olympics, the Japanese team had defeated Egypt in the quarterfinals and advanced to the quarterfinals. Nowadays, the Japanese media is full of expectations to repeat the glory of the London Olympics. Since last year, the Japanese men's soccer team has achieved similar success with the U23 age group after winning the U17 Asian Cup and making it out of the group in the U17 World Cup. Despite a slight underachievement in the U19 age group, they still made it to the quarterfinals of the U20 Asian Cup and competed in the U20 World Youth Championships. In the last three U17 World Cups, U20 World Cups and U23 Olympics, Japan has participated in nine major tournaments, failing to make it out of the group on only two occasions, which shows the steady results of combining school soccer with club youth training and remains at the top of Asia.
It is worth noting that this Japanese National Olympic team has four mixed-race players, including midfield captain Jean Ruko Fujita and goalkeeper Reio Ogikubo. In the second half of the match against the Malian national Olympics, Reio Ogikubo managed to save a penalty kick, helping his team to keep zero goals conceded and advance. Of the six goals scored by this team, four were scored by stay-at-home players, with Jean Ruko Fujita also providing an assist to her teammate who scored twice. The main stay-at-home players of this group of Japanese national Olympics are mainly playing for the middle and lower teams in the Dutch and Belgian A, showing the current situation of Japan's stay-at-home players in large quantities and with good quality.
