Don't think anyone can see in the future! I'm serious, who knows? They will surely raise the team but it will also depends on the OA players and the OA players of the other teams
Idk he gave them the first goal with that bullshit of indirect kick and messed up the momentum and soon Japan was 2:0 down. But they let Egypt pass the ball too much. When Japan tried to build up play they pressed
No question about it, that's how we felt pitchside and you're backing it up. Really frustrating because it was a crazy game, started under the sun, then a slight rain, then the two big chances by Takagi and Usami that were not buried (never a good sign), the Egyptian goals followed by a heavy rain and by the time half time was whistled, hailstones were falling. Apocalyptic weather, then they miraculously mounted a come back early and after the equalizer, they were looking so good I thought they would pull it off.
Thanks Saku. Just reading the tweet by this fan (the one with the hat) that he talked with Japanese refs and they (inofficially) told him that the FIFA observers rolled their eyes at every decision of this guy. Of course it's easy to blame the ref, but you don't award indirect FKs 5 meters from the goal in a situation where the defender can not do anything else than touching the ball so that it goes into the hands of the goalie. I remain that this was even better than a PK for Egypt.
If one could bet this game and knew who will be the referee for this game... That's how it looked with Egypt players knowing about that. They had 4 shots on goal. You could blame Japanese players for not scoring in those situations but... I bet no one of us will ever hear a name of any Egyptian player who took part in this farce, and in the future those of them will only see Japanese names on screens of thier computers reading sport's news...
Anyway, my photos https://plus.google.com/photos/1177...ms/5747354579661354289?authkey=CL7p7e_g-cKudA
Better have worst ref ever and unlucky times now than at the Olympics guys... If this team have potential, not a ref will stop him to show it in the near future.
But we all know how a bad ref can change the flow of a game or the team. People says everything is 90% Effort, 10% Luck. But Luck itself is important. With a bad ref, all our hard work could potentially all for naught. It's not easy to shake that off.
The rate we get disadvantaged (and it's not like it happens on rare occasions if you look at the constellations of the Asian federation), I am concerned it harms our development. Having said that, we should have won either way, like the full NT did at the Asian Cup, but it's not easy for the young ones.
Maybe some of the guys were overrawed by the occasion, since not many of them would have played outside of Japan before against non-AFC teams. I'm confident they'll use this tournament as a positive experience.
I would say the played really well in the last 2 games. It was a little bit unlucky that they loose,defence was shaky but offensive was maybe one of the hole tournament.So if the can improve a little more in defense then the olympics should be fun.
As I only saw the last match in full, I can only refer to this one... but all central positions with defensive duties (Ogihara, Matsumura, Yamamura, Suzuki) were underwhelming, while Gotoku had to cope with Egypt's best player and had his difficulties in the first half. Out of all defensive players I liked Oiwa the best.
I did not really like Oiwa because he's not great at anything, however I thought Muramatsu had a great tournament and should be a lock for the team right now.
IMO Suzuki probably wasn't comfortable playing new defensive combinations with Yamamura instead of Hamada during the qualifiers. Ogihara and Muramatsu were both poor, but reckon Ogihara will bounce back, I just wish Yamamoto was given more opportunities. Pleasant surprise with Oiwa, didn't know what to expect from a rookie with a few games of J2 under his belt.
Eh... Muramatsu of course. I had some problems with the way the DMFs lost possession when the team moved forward, and the not so uncompromising defensive play of our CBs.
Speaking with some scouts, they were disappointed at how soft some players and Muramatsu was one of the few they were pleased with, day and night with Yamamoto who played the first match. The CB pairing was not really good as you said and Yamamura is the target of all the critics, let's see if Sekizuka will dare to leave his captain out of the team
when you're talking about scouts, is it from J.League or European clubs? mix of boths? It's funny how things work out. While Japan defeated the Netherlands U-23, the supposedly best team in the group, Japan lost to Turkey and Egypt, who before this tournament, I'd imagine rank lower than Japan.
I think that Yamamura already lost his place in the starting eleven already. Remember when Gonda gave him captain's armband after last qualification game? That was a nice gesture but said a lot about his place in the team now.
Wait for the next generation guys. Hopefully Ueda and Iwanami will be the centerback pair that we can rely on for upcoming years.
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20120527-00000014-sph-socc Chelsea scout dubbed Usami as the number one player he saw so far.
