Road to Tokyo Olympics 2020->21

I hope history repeats itself just like in Asian Games 2010.

 

The match is heading into extra time.

Great job for a not-full-strength Japan U21 vs full-strength South Korea's U-23 + Son Heung-Min, Hwang Ui-Jo and their senior team first choice GK (who had an MVP performance against Germany in the WC and prevented them from scoring a single goal).

Miyoshi and Hara are spectacular so far.

 

The Koreans scored a second.

Hwang Hee-Chan outjumbed Hatsuse to score from Son Heung-Min's FK.

Am I the only one who thinks that Hatsuse is useless in both ends, and he he is literally Japan's most disappointing player in this tournament?

 

2-0 Korea at the moment
Still, I feel that Japan did not play badly tonight, managing a draw against Korea's near full strength squad less a few regular first team players in normal time is not too bad in all.
Credit to Moriyasu for making the team into a cohesive units in such short time.
Itakura, Hara, Sugioka were all very hardworking tonight, their workrate is pretty good, they put in a good shift in the match.

 

Goal by Ueda! He almost equalised moments later.

 

Good match. Looked like in extra time the pitch started taking a toll on Japan's tired legs. First a miss-kick and giveaway right from the whistle where Son should have scored. Then it looked like Iwasaki got stuck and gave it up which eventually led to the first goal. Was a shame because Japan had guys wide open in space.
Before that there was a play in regular time where if Iwasaki let it through there were two guys wide open in front of goal. That would probably have changed the outcome of the match but oh well.
Here is the play I'm talking about posted in the Korean section by someone who read my mind:
https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/20...an-2018-09-01-r.2086550/page-21#post-37066966

 

Hara's defensive instincts are pretty decent and his 1 on 1 and interceptions aren't really bad. He can be considered as one of the DM options for JNT imo, maybe he can be one of the choices to replace Hasebe alongside the likes of Kobayashi and Misao, etc.

 

Hara and Itakura played surprisingly good. However, I still see them as midfielders, not defenders.
And as soon as Hatsuse was subbed in, I know the chance is over.

 

Hatsuse should have tried harder on the 2nd goal by Korea.
By the way, I have watched several Kawasaki matches and I think Itakura has mainly played CB in those matches. I think he can alternate between both positions.
Hara on the other hand can actually be tried as a CM imo, his distribution skills from what I have seen so far from him is not really that bad.

 

well that’s three spots already locked in for the olympics. kojima, matsumoto, naganuma. even if they play zero minutes for the next 24 months.

considering ogawa and nakayama have just returned from serious injuries it seems unnecessary to call them up against average teams.

and tagawa was an embarrassment at the u19 championships.

moriyasu seems to not care about j2 (unless of course you’re name is naganuma). kaneko at shonan also unlucky.

 

I am not sure if Ogawa is that much better, in the U-20 tournament last year. He may have scored a goal but overall I still feel that he have much to improve on. His first touch and passing still some work to be done imo. And in the league this year, I feel that he is not among the best in his position imo with his performance thus far.

 

Still, he has great potential. Plus if Sagan will join J2 next year, they'll probably get rid of many big wages and he'll finally space to play a full season.

 

Ayase Ueda scored 3 goals against Kuwait.

IMO, the best strikers in the world often have the ability of scoring these 3 types of goals:

1 - Taking control of the ball, and kicking it right at the target, away from the goalkeeper

2 - One touch goals

3 - Header

From what I've been watching, Ueda is good at scoring all these 3 types of goals. The kid has huge potential.

 

Any decent hightlights?

 

https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20190314-38241384-gekisaka-socc

U-22 Squad

Amazing defense for this level.

Sugioka-Machida-Tatsuta-Hashioka back line has to be one of the strongest Olympic defenses of all time.

Not to mention there's still Itakura, Hara, Nakayama, and Ominami who can player center back.

Only thing missing is Hiroshima's Osako in goal.

Team is looking good for Tokyo 2020.

 

Nagoya's Yuki Soma should be in this team.

 

Sure.

 

Read on the news that Japan beats England 2-1 at Toulon tournament

 

U-22 team without our major players.
I very much like the idea to give some playing time to other players, they need it.

(It's so rare to see Japan winning at Toulon lol)

 

Alot of tournaments for Japan this summer. Is this a University team mostly or any regular J leaguers?

Anyway beating England is good. Their teams has some Premier League and Championship regulars so its no joke.

 

Japan U-22 is 5-1 up against Chile U-22 at HT in Toulon tournament.

2 goals each by Hatate and Iwasaki, and a goal by Mitoma.

I never saw an underage Japan NT playing with such tenacity.

 

6-1 , very strong result. Again.

 

Iwasaki despite his 2 goals was so frustrating to watch. If it was Ueda, he will easily scored 4 or 5 goals for the chances Iwasaki's had.