Japan players during their practice session in Kolkata on Friday. Photo by: AFC/Stanley Chou

By Chetan Kulkarni

KOLKATA: Having seen their title hopes dashed no less than fives times in the Final of the AFC Youth Championship, Japan will be eager to draw a line under the past when they take yet another tilt at glory, this time against archrivals DPR Korea, in Sunday’s grand finale.

The two sides will be meeting for the second time in the space of two weeks with the first round in the battle of East Asian teams going to Japan in Bangalore when they won the opening Group C encounter 2-0.

They have a long history of rivalry in this tournament, having crossed swords four times. In 1976, the Japanese defeated DPR Korea in the group stage but the Koreans went on to share the title after a goalless draw with Iran. The Koreans leveled the issue two years later. In the qualifiers this year, the Japanese faced tough resistance from DPR Korea and a last-gasp goal from Michirio Yasuda saw them through to the tournament proper.

The fourth match between these two sides in Bangalore was also a keenly-contested affair but strikes from Kazuhisa Kawahara and Yosuke Kashiwagi led to a Japanese win.

“Our youth team was unfortunate on five previous occasions but this time I am confident that the team will deliver the title,” said Japan coach Yasushi Yoshida. Japan’s confidence is based on the quality of players Yoshida has at his disposal.

Tsukasa Umesaki, who struts his stuff for Oita Trinita and also plays for the senior national team, Atsuto Uchida (Kashima Antlers), Mike Havenaar (Yokohama F Marinos) and Sho Ito give Yoshida abundant options on the pitch so much so that the last two players found themselves warming the bench for most of the tournament.

If Yoshida needs a pair of fresh legs then he has super-sub Kota Aoki, who has earned the well deserved reputation of a match winner with his late strike in the quarterfinal against Saudi Arabia. Midfielders Yasuhito Morishima and Kazuhisa Kawahara have been in brilliant touch and if anything have proved to be more productive than some of the bigger names in the team.

“It has been a good tournament so far for us and I hope it will end on a winning note. We will put in all our efforts for our first title but we cannot underestimate our rivals,” Yoshida declared.

Japanese players would do well to heed that warning as DPR Korea’s talents on the pitch are not something to be scoffed at. Though their progress through the group stage was not very impressive, Jo Tong-sop’s young guns are perfectly capable of peaking at the right moment as they showed in the elimination stage against Iraq and Jordan.

“We played Japan before and we know their strengths and weaknesses. We also know where we can improve to turn the tables on them,” said Jo.

The players to watch out for in Jo’s squad are Kim Kum-il and Jong Chol-min, the main architects of the team’s progress to the summit clash. Kum-il is the joint top goal-scorers with the Korea Republic pair of Shin Young-rok and Shim Young-sung. All three have scored four goals each.

The Koreans, who qualified for the Finals after a gap of 16 years, will also be banking on their backline comprising Pak Nam-chol, Yun Yong-il and Ri Kwang-hyok to stop Japan’s feared forwards. “Our journey to the final was not so easy and my players have worked very hard to reach this stage. I hope they will continue their good show in the final and get us the trophy,” said Jo.

The match begins at 1900 hours local time.