Honda takes himself way too seriously, is less than forthcoming in public aside from cryptic sound bites and curated pieces by a fawning beat reporter, and by his own admission views football as a platform for his brand. He was a much more dynamic player prior to jumping aboard the Milan dumpster fire.
Sounds a bit like Nakata towards the end of his career regarding his brand. Out of interest what is it you want from him in a public aspect?
I miss lots of old players who are retired, doesn't mean I love the current generation less. Miss Tulio, Nakazawa, Nakata, Inamoto I miss, Shunsuke, Seiichiro Maki for some reason...Alex, Matsuda.
Yeah I miss Ono....and Kaji....and KOMANO who was remarkably reliable as all hell for half a decade..
Funny looking? He reminds me of a young Miyagi-sensei. As the things are Shibasaki can really be his successor.
Haha that's great Miyagi San. He just didn't look like a typical athlete, Bucky teeth,chubby face but I loved him. He's the reason Gamba Osaka are my Japanese club.
Exactly. So cool on the ball, the walking up to take penalties, the free kicks, the casual way he moved the ball around the pitch. So classy
After his performance at this WC I hope Shibasaki will really evolve in a better way than Endo. Shibasaki is just 26, Endo was peripheral NT player when he was 26 (as it is the case with Shibasaki before the WC), and just began to evolve, mature and prove his worth after the 2006 WC (after he became 26). Shibasaki already done things Endo did not do when he was in his age; such as; 1- Winning all domestic titles with Kashima Antlers. 2- Finishing runners-up in CWC, scoring twice against Real Madrid. 3- Having 1.5 years playing experience in Spain, currently playing for a mid-table club, scoring a classy goal against Barcelona (even though he was not in a good form after returning from his mid-season injury), and now he is heading towards progressing beyond group stage in the WC with Japan NT. Let's see how he will progress in the next WC cycle.
If it comes down to yellow cards between Japan and Senegal, Japan currently has three, and Senegal, with that flurry at the end of the Japan match, has five. Could end up being the difference between going through, and going home.
Kawashima has a svengali like hold on the team through his mastery of politics. He's been to 3 world cups and still makes rookie mistakes. You just can't have that at the World Cup level if you expect to go anywhere.
The guy sucks. He's good for giving up at least one stupid goal a game. Too bad he has had a stranglehold on the goalie position for the last 3 world cups. Wasted all those years of talented players.
You've made posts talking about his hold on the team.....what are you talking about? He's been in and out of squads over the last few years where other keeper got a chance. The managers have preferred him that's all.