As I recall Moriyasu stated that he will not call any of the players born in or after 1999 at this stage, as they are considered to be part of th U-19 NT which will take place in the Asian championship from 18/Oct - 4/Nov (which also will serve as qualification for next year's U-20 WC). Players like: Hiroki Abe, Takefusa Kubo, Hiroki Ito, Keito Nakamura, Daiki Hashioka, Takuya Ogiwara, and Yuki Kobayashi are among players considered for the U-19 team.
Hopefully players Rei Hirakawa and Ayumu Seko can be considered as well, I quite like them and they have some potential as well.
We are currently being schooled by Vietnam at how to manipulate space is a king in modern football. Embarassing.... Very embarassing. This is worse than Korea throwing away a win to Malaysia Shots (On Goal): Japan 1 (1) - Vietnam 10 (4) We were very lucky it was only 0-1 in the first half.
Agreed. Vietnam way better than Japan so far, and deservedly so. The goalscorer is a great player btw and he had shown it at the U19 already. Have to strongly disagree with the Malaysia comparison though. Vietnam is a good team. Malaysia not so much.
yeah yeah i know this team is pretty much b-grade players... but remind me why moriyasu was deemed the best man to lead the country? embarrassing.
That's why i say this is worse than Korea defeat to Malaysia. They lose because they were throwing away a win, not by being worse side than Malaysia.
I still don't undestand what "throwing away a win, not by being worse side than Malaysia" meant exactly in a 2-1 Vietnam with the deserved win, Japan happy to meet Malaysia in the next round btw who made that superpass to Ueda at the 88' ? Also can we get rid of Kamiya forever? Thanks.
You can't really base it off one match, this was a experimental squad by Moriyasu with a few clubs unwilling to release their players for this tournament iirc. Other than Moriyasu, there aren't really much better choices in Japan atm, I can only think of Hasegawa now. Either way, Vietnam is one of the favourite other than Korea to win this tournament as they have decent results at this level.
one match? this team has been pathetic in all their games, no goals in nearly 150 minutes of football (not only has the scoreline been horrible). the lack of penetration, urgency etc is inexcusable. 8 of the starting players are first team regulars at their clubs. moriyasu got the job as he's a "yes" man to tajima
How did South Korea throw away a win if they were losing 2-0 to begin with? You mean the squad selection? Overall they brought a much stronger side than Japan though right?
This tournament is full of awkward results! Saudi Arabia are 4-0 up against China right now, after being beaten by North Korea 0-3. So, our QF opponent will be the Saudis. Other awkward results saw Bahrain defeated 0-6 by South Korea, the Koreans lost to Malaysia, and then Bahrain defeating Malaysia. Bahraini played yesterday against Vietnam with 10 men since the first half, yet they were in control most of the match and limited Vietnam to counter-attacks (note: Bahrain are playing with their U-21 like Japan, while Vietnam playing with their U-23 + 3 overaged players). Vietnam managed to win the match after they capitalised on one of their counter-attacks just few minutes before the full-time whistle. My guess is that teams are rotating and experimenting to give their players some rest as most teams are playing 1 match every 2 or 3 days with high levels of heat and humidity in South East Asia.
Starting line-up against Malaysia: Kojima Itakura - Tatsuta - Hara Naganuma - Watanabe - Matsumoto - Sugioka. Hatate - Maeda - Iwasaki. Good to see Matsumoto back to the starting line-up, as Kamiya can't play in the No.6 role as it was obvious in the last match against Vietnam (causing Japan's whole midfield to lose its shape).
Daizen Maeda is disappointing so far in this tournament. I don't know why Moriyasu insists on starting him match after match instead of Ueda.
Indeed. Ueda came in as a sub for Maeda to Japan's rescue, earned a penalty and coverted it to give Japan a narrow 1-0 win over Malaysia.
QF: Q1: Syria vs Vietnam Q2: Uzbekistan vs South Korea. Q3: Saudi Arabia vs Japan. Q4: UAE vs North Korea. Semifinals: Winner of Q1 vs Winner of Q2. Winner of Q3 vs Winner of Q4. So if Japan managed to win their match against the Saudis they will avoid facing either Uzbekistan and S. Korea in the semifinal, and will instead face either UAE or North Korea.
Iwasaki = Japan's saviour in this tournament. Good that we qualified to the semis. Next is either N. Korea or UAE. In the meanwhile, S. Korea and Uzbekistan having a thriller, as they are proceeding into extra time with a 3-3 draw. Gamba Osaka's Hwang Ui-jo scoring a hattrick raising his tally to 8 goals in this tournament. Iwasaki, and Uzbek duo Urniboev and Alibaev are behind him in the topscorer race with 4 goals each.
I'll be honest, Uzbekistan - South Korea is the final. Whoever wins it will get the gold medal. That's my feeling, but I certainly wouldn't dislike an upset...