First asian side to beat a South American in World Cup history. First time Japan has beaten Colombia.
Is it Nishino, or are Japan just so dilligent at sprinting back after a loss in possession? Colombia could not counter at all. The power of running that Japanese players have...it'll carry the Samurai far. Also, Honda should start. 22 out of 35 goals on this WC were scored from dead balls. That's just too many to risk not having Honda in.
1st Asian side to score two goals against South America side too. This is some crazy stuff. Even Kagawa played well.. at least compared to how awful he has been for the past decade for NT.
just my two yens, kawashima: continues to make me anxious at every set piece or receiving the ball from deep sakai: very solid second half. made a real effort to make some threatening runs with the numerical advantage. yoshida: very good game against the diving cheat (sorry, falcao). dangerous header from set piece. shoji: like yoshida, very solid. no problems with the colombian speed or physicality. played like a veteran. nagatomo: rock solid both in attack and defence. lucky that cuadrado substituted so early. hairstyle looks really good now. hasebe: more confident on the ball as the colombians tired. was there for every 50/50 second ball in midfield. shibasaki: outstanding. great distribution, always looked to move the ball forward. made some great last ditch tackles. haraguchi: ran and ran and ran and ran. thought he was going to pass out. kagawa: very sharp on the ball, showed brief moments of his old brilliance. best game from him in years. great to see him scoring that penalty, confidence should be sky high. inui: looked lost until late into the second half. his dribbling was fantastic and a big reason why we penetrated their defence so many times. osako: put his body on the line countless times. great hold up play throughout. bad finishing completely erased by that header. brilliant block on rodriguez at the end. honda: i think our opposition (and overseas media) rate him too highly, i thought they would be all over him in possession. still he found ways to lose the ballcarelessly. credit for delivering the winning corner.
Actually Poland is the top seed, but Colombia is clearly the strongest team in the group. This might be Japan's toughest game in the group stage, now they have to work on their shortcomings for the next match and do not panic. At the end of the day they might need only one point from the remaining two group matches to qualify to the round of 16.
Well, it would be perfect if Japan and Poland win their respective second games. In such case the third game would be for the first and second place in the group as both teams would advance earlier.
You meant give Colombia the chance to counterattack and score? Sorry man but Honda was the worst thing of this match. Since his entry it was a 10 v 10 match really. Plus Nishino mastermind get off Kagawa aka the best of the match who didn't mistake a single pass and was the engine of our team. PLEASE GIVE HIM 5'/match FOR SPONSOR AND STOP AKIRA-SENSEI THANKS. Osako will be our CF for all the match, he took confidence after the goal and he was ready at the 3rd minute to hold the ball, outrun and shoot. If he would be able to shoot properly he would be not a japanesr fw. Kawashima really, he can't save as he did in 2010. Luckly colombians never shoot in target and when they did they scored or find a japanese leg. Inui was good but he was close to QBK the match missing the 2-0 I hope he will find the goal in the next match. What a match guys... I'm destroyed XD
Nishino the master planner sent in Honda only to take the CK, doesn't matter how many times he tried to make Colombia score. I can almost hear Tashima whispering "told you about that 1% chance" to the media soon lmao On a serious note, the red card was a huge boost, but I'm just glad it didn't end like Greece where we bombarded the opposition goal and still came away with empty hands
For those of us who have watched Japan since say 2004-6 or so. Seeing guys like Kagawa, Inui, and Haraguchi/Osako do the business at senior level on the highest stage really brought the feels. The kid who was scouted by Kashima via the All-Japan High-School Championship....
thank god he signed for kashima, many of their young players go onto bigger and better things. every club in japan was after his signature before that tournament.
They won lots of 1v1 duels, cynically passed the ball around to run Colombia into the ground, prepared to defend counters, and broke down the opposition enough times to generate a few chances. That's how you get a result.
I find Japanese players more willing to make tackles more than the past in this match, they also didn't fear physical contact as much as they used to but on another note, I honestly find Kawashima a bit shaky at times, then again there are no one better than him in JNT now. Japan really need to produce more higher-quality goalkeepers, the goalkeepers now don't cut it, no wonder many of the J league teams just use Korean goalkeepers.
Does anyone worry that people might say oh well Japan only won this match because of the red card and wouldn't have won otherwise?
Well could even be some truth into that, but who the heck cares? The 2-1 is what will go down in the history books.
His workrate was impeccable, and he did well to hold off the ball against the tough Colombian defenders. But it was frustrated to look at his shooting skills! Hats off to him in this game though, probably the best Japan performance from him Ive ever seen! Kudos to Nishino as well for sticking with him.
who cares whether it was against eleven, ten, nine players. the red card was red card. not controversial. ball was clearly on target anyway. it was fantastic seeing the prick (falcao) at full time.
That alone is enough for me to stick with Osako. A skill often ignored by Japanese public but critical as "focal" point to offer some balance to the team.