Official 2019 Nadeshiko Japan Thread [R] - なでしこジャパン（英語スレッド）

I think it is about time that someone in the Japanese papers starts speaking out on what we all saw for months instead of being always friendly to Nadeshiko. Not only we lost in the round of 16, but Takakura's choice of players and tactics got our butts kicked by all the good sides out there for nearly 2 years.

 

Tactics were good. Finish wasn't there. Chances were created but not taken. Sugasawa's job on top of the spear was to finish action with goals. She missed too many of those. It's either she gets her issues togheter for EAFF tourney later this year and win golden boot there with 4-5 goals to show promise for Tokyo or Takakura should look for another FW.

 

nominee


vote here

 

It is part of the fun of being a Nojima fan. I could be a fan of Beleza and support a team well organised and playing with some sense of cohesion, but I choose to support Nojima for the fun of experiencing such frustrating results like the one on Sunday.

Nojima were actually kind of good in patches on Sunday. Noda started with Mebae Tanaka on the rigth and Kitakata played in the centre (Matsubara has not played for about a month). Noda could have played Mebae Tanaka on the right and moved Yoko into the centre in a 4-4-2 for the whole season, but that would be logical. It is like that idea had never crossed her mind.

Nojima had a lot more of the ball, but they always looked shaky at the back and occasionally Nittadai put together some really nice little one-twos and back heals. Nittaidai play more on the break, but still when they attacked they looked more fluid.

The first goal by Nittaidai was a bit lucky, so I will cut the Nojima defence a bit of slack. But the second was just terrible defending. Nittaidai get their only corner for the game and they score from it! Unbelievable.

 

I agree. We made many chances but couldn't finish well.

 

I think they should line up the contingency plan (i.e. looking for another striker) now. Sugasawa needs to start feeling the fire under her... err, rear end. That is how we see if she can perform when pressure is on.

The last thing we need is to enter the Tokyo tournament without a contingency plan while the main striker is about as toothless as Olivier Giroud was for the French Men's team a year ago.

 

Holy shit are the comments below the clip infuriating to read. Those people don't see that there's more to a goal than the finish. It's how the goal came to be, how we get there to score a goal - the passes, the movement, the feints, the awareness, the flow. Taking all that into account, Hasegawa's goal more than deserved to be among the nominees.

 

Universiade

QF (8th Mon)
(14) 18:00 Russia 1 - 1 Korea Republic (pen. 4-1)
(15) 18:00 Ireland 0 - 0 China (pen. 4-1)
(13) 21:00 Korea DPR 4 - 1 Italy
(16) 21:00 Japan 3 - 0 Canada

SF (10th Wed)
17:00 Korea DPR - Ireland (free livestream)
21:00 Russia - Japan (free livestream)

 

The scorers seem to be Ibaraki (Nittaidai) and Imada (Teikyo Heisei) 2.

 

Be happy for the ladies! They have done well so far but their next two matches will be tougher and will show us the actual level of this team. As Lechus said, you can watch them on FISU TV.

That said, there were definitely some moments of magic tonight
(which is kinda fitting to a place like Benevento..)

 

In (very) long term, Japan needs a law like Title IX in the U.S.A., and should allow more immigrants. The population size is about half of the U.S. population now, besides the young population is rapidly shrinking. The decrease of population and aging society should be the top governmental agenda rather than constitutional amendment of Article IX.

As for Takakura, she became the HC at a most difficult time. She has only limited cards to play. The idea of professional league indicates that JFA knows about it.

 

WWC 2019.....record viewing figures.
As ever the media are doing what the media do oh so well....talking it up...and up...and up
"Dawn of a new era for womens football"....etc etc
Whilst it is a great step in the right direction the fact that England v USA was the most watched program on the BBC this year does not mean it is 'the dawn of a new era...' it actually means 12 million people were prepared to sit down, tune in and watch womens top international 'showpiece' footie for free in the comfort of their own homes on their TV's....nothing more, nothing less...
When a substantial amount of these 'new' viewers are prepared to go out on a wet October evening to watch their local womens team then perhaps talk of a 'new era' is appropriate.
The problem with media 'hype' is it raises expectations based on nothing more than wishful thinking and when peoples expectations are not met they can just as well turn away in droves as they can tune in..in droves
I believe the true effect of the unprecedented coverage and the record viewing numbers can only be measured by the numbers of girls inspired by their heroines to take up the beautiful game and not by what might prove to be a transient television audience.
Sorry to sound so gloomy but I am getting slightly pissed off listening to 'converted' media types who probably hadn't got the time of day for womens football only a few years ago and who now lecture us about the womens game.(maybe the opportunity to get their snouts in the media money trough has something to do with their new found enthusiasm for the womens game)
If you are wondering what this has to do with Nadeshiko Japan.....yesterday I walked past a group of eight individuals, all female aged between five and about eleven or twelve being supervised by two moms playing an impromptu 'world cup' game on a local green space ...and one of them wanted to be Mana Iwabuchi ...(the rest all wanted to be Ellen White I was told).....the Iwabuchi 'impersonation' consisted of the 'player' continuously running around and around two of the other 'players'.....It put a smile on my face.
I want the game to evolve into the 'womens game' proper but I believe the media are going to take us in the direction of the mens game....a PRODUCT based on the sole need to generate money....We will see

 

Whether you like it or not, the results and performances did not matter. As I have said before I am not against squad rotation and experimentation, but I do believe she needs to do it more in moderation, especially leading up to major tournaments. Nadeshiko does not play direct football and because of this they need to be tactically aware and working as a cohesive unit. That only comes from having players that trust and understand each other.

I am not sure who else you can play there. Sugasawa is tall, gives them a target and is pretty good at bringing a ball down and holding onto it. She dropped deep quite a few times to receive passes. Nadeshiko have played better when she has been on the pitch. I know she does not score under pressure and I think she is one footed, but maybe she will improve her scoring under pressure? I quite like her as a player, but she really did not take her chances this world cup and it was quite frustrating.

If they could find another Iwabuchi that might be interesting. Somebody fast, unpredictable and creative. I like Fuka Kono for Nittaidai, but I have not seen enough of her to see how good she is. She has been injured recently which is annoying.

 

WWC 2019 Had to get this off my chest....IMO one of the worst refereeing decisions in the whole of the tournament

Like a lot of you I have been seething about the ref in our game against the Netherlands but perhaps not for the same reason.I am angry because of her totally 'gutless' decision to award the Dutch a free kick at 90 mins+ 1.35 when the shot from Hina Sugita wasn't properly cleared and the Dutch defender knelt on the ground with the ball between her legs with two fellow defenders standing directly in front of her.
I have watched it and watched it and no foul was commited.Even JP and Sue Smith in BBC commentary straight away said there was no foul.The free kick should have been awarded to Japan for obstruction (as per when Sugasawa was on the ground obstructing the ball with her body and the free kick was awarded against her)
There was no way this referee was going to give Japan a free kick three yards from goal at that stage of the game.Absolutely no way.Minutes after a VAR penalty....no way
She took the easy option and gave the free kick to the Dutch.She was thinking more about her FIFA career than Japan v Netherlands WWC 2019 so she 'bottled' it....As soon as the Dutch players arms went up to appeal for a foul she blew up.It's a shame that because Nadeshiko players are not as demonstrative as most others this resulted in us not getting the decision and gave this referee an even easier ride.
This is not a 'sour grapes'... 'what if'... post merely a rant about a spineless refereeing decision.

 

@Manchester Nadeshiko. Unfortunatelly this wasn't the only 'gutless" ref decision in this WWC. In general refereeing level again was incredibly poor - not much has changed here from 2015.
During tournament first ten days or so, refs were quite often corrected by VAR. My guess is that many referees were genuinely relieved by the possibilty of counsel and also spreading responsibility for the call on to VAR refs as well. However, growing public outcry aimed wrongly at VAR tool,
(instead of:
introdution of new IFAB rules
poor quality women referees
male refs totally unexperienced in WoSo but ruling in VAR rooms
the mix of all above)
may have resulted in FIFA encouraging main referees to limit their reliance on VAR in order to keep the gameflow. It was a mistake in my opinion. This and the later conference, changing the rules (no YC's for GK) in the middle of the tournament, it all did make already stessfull situation around refs even more so. Also it signaled for the refs that they are under an extra eye from FIFA (which is important on a personal level)
In turn consistency went out the window. Some calls that previously were under VAR microscope and in each case set somewhat a standard of ruling, a precedent if you like, now were left back again onto main ref interpretation alone. In case of Japan game it all boiled down to amount of experience ref Borjas had from day by day officiating in Honduran league (plus once in two years coupe games at FIFA tourney). In my opinion some refs chose not to watch VAR replay out of fear for not to contradict themselves, affraid it simply wouldn't do wonders for their career.
Human errors were to understand although the scope of it was big and FIFA had 4 years to adress the problem and raise the quality (and pool) of women refs.
What they did? Gathered veterans from last years, added some new faces, then finally throwed them all into professional three year training program (run along with male refs) and then at the very end.... they f.... this up introducing new rules - never tried before in match conditions - just before tournament start. Go figure.

Incompetence aside what really disappointed though was favoritism. It's beside the point if it was "systemic" or plainly "gutless" as Manchester said. Either way I will not believe anyone who will tell me that the thought of throwing out from the country, in the round of 16, over 80k fans (spending big bucks in hotels, bars, etc ) didn't play a huge part in refs judgement. Unpopular call (with organizers) again wouldn't do wonders for said referee career. USA and UEFA teams were in favor with refs in this World Cup, AFC and CAF not so much.

Well that's it...sorry for my rant but simply had to vent some steam..

I still need properly...absorb this WWC (mean watch the games again). After that I'll shere my thoughts on Nadeshiko play, Takukara choices, and players performance.

 

Bad luck and unfair call happen to the many, or almost all, teams, and it would be very unrealistic to presume that Nadeshiko is an exemption. The best counter measure against such a bad luck is scoring a point. The girls knew it, specially after the several VAR controversies and games like Scotland vs. Argentina, and they did not score points.

Plus, I suppose Nadeshiko has previously won several games due to the bad luck of the opponents. If I remember correctly, is the 2015 game with England the case?

Overall, it was a fair game. I would give credit to the Dutch GK and other players. The better team won, so sue me.

 

If you do get hold of some uploads of some of Nadeshiko's matches please let us know, because I would like to watch the England game and the Dutch game again.

Although I think the refereeing was at times quite poor I do think it is dangerous to focus too much on it. I think you can only focus on what you can control which is how you control your opponent and how you play.

This is my my long take on the women's world cup and seriously I tried to keep it brief.

I got it wrong I really thought either the Netherlands or France would win it, but the Americans once again proved to be too good. They are being quite smug over in that part of the forum and they have every right to be. Again they made their own luck, got some incredibly advantageous decisions, yet were in the end the best team in the tournament! But not by much.

However, I think this will be the last world cup they win for a while. I believe their decline has started. I could go into more detail why I believe this, but I would be here all day. I might do it another time, or go trolling on the American forum.

As for some of the Nadeshiko players most of them got better as the tournament progressed. Probably because they actually got used to playing with each other.

I was wrong about Sameshima. I thought she was one of Nadeshiko's most consistent and best players for the tournament. It turns out all the times she was putting in bad performances was due to what was happening further up the pitch; I kind of new this, but I was still worried. They still need to find a replacement for her. Also Shimizu I thought was very good and made very few mistakes, granted she probably plays the easiest position on the pitch, but she does pretty well there.

Kumagai had a poor tournament! She was responsible for the first goal against England and was poor for the second goal as well. But she played well against the Dutch despite the hand ball. Ichise I am still not sure about. I think they can try a few different players at centre half yet. I am not sure Minami is the answer. Maybe Oga should be given a chance or even Shimizu.

The midfield was solid and actually started to play some nice football the further they went in the tournament. Again, against Argentina they were terrible, but it got better and when Miura pushed forward against England she did some nice things on the ball.

Sugasawa was useful, but can't shoot. Yokoyama I think may find it hard to get back in the starting eleven. I could be wrong, but I think she is too selfish. I noticed while watching her play for Nagano. Lots of time on the ball with some great dribbles, but she very seldom passes. She is a good finisher, but she is not a creator and often makes the wrong decision. At least Sugasawa passes the ball well and brings her team mates into the game.

Iwabuchi was very good. A fit Iwabuchi is an incredibly useful player. Endo I thought acquitted herself well. That is about it.

I think Spain are going to become quite prominent in the women's game. They are still figuring things out, but you can see that tactically they know what they want to do, they now just need the players to do it.

Finally we should probably not take practice matches too seriously.

 

Then, a mix of the 2 players would be perfect. Where is Akira Toriyama when is needed?

 

True. It did had happen to the many teams at this tourney. I do not claim that Nadeshiko were sole exemption. They themselves even got one lucky call vs. Scotland (Shimizu suppoused handball). (The luck run out though with no foul called on Ichise before her wayward pass resulted with lost goal.)

Bop, I hear you and do agree on the best counter measure topic. Scoring is the best way to create own luck. No argument there. As Pierre said above:

I was venting a little in my above in my post (well more than little)

My good sir, I'll most certainly not. Neither sue.... nor agree.
It's a poor consolation... but NED coach Sarina Wiegman and head of Women Woso in Dutch FA - Kirstin van de Ven both agreed that Japan was better team and Oranje just had luck.

About my above post. The amount of money which is invested in WoSo is rising by the minute and with it come different agendas - same as in men's football. In my observation patterns which are common to men's football, which weren't as much present in earlier WWC's - are emerging now in WoSo too. Some are good, some not so much.

Consdering referees I for one, really would like to be sure that some examples below (from the big pool to chose from in this WWC) were the result only of incompetence or bad judgement and nothing else.

Austarlia had very bad luck three times in one match....while Norway had twice as much "good luck" from unfair calls and in 2 games. Well, Norway is lately UEFA poster country for equal pay in soccer, though they need succes to rebuild fan base which became rather smallish in last years. Australia is investing a lot into WoSo, already has huge fan base that is still growing (all on the other side of the world)...and oh yes has world renowned player Sam Kerr - who lately pointed at UEFA in social media saying somethin about boring football in Europe. (Womens Champions Legue final)

US also had plenty of "good luck" in this tournamet. They did score goal vs. Chile from CK that shouldn't been awarded in first place. Whole stadium saw it. VAR obviuosly saw it, but didn't deem it an obvious ref error. It's only CK. Wrongly awarded against 2nd smallest team in the tourney...but isn't a clear error. "Bad luck" for Chile. In the end this call cost them qualification to round of 16.
US luck had a good run. In next game vs. Sweden they scored another controversial goal. Refs didn't saw an offside while during all the tourney they were calling it to the centimeters. Sweden were playing reserves so... who cares?
US "good luck" continued to round of 16 where in game aginst Spain they won thru another controversial call. Slightest of touches in PK box was enough for penalty. Such "luck" clearly avoided China in their match vs. Italy when Wang took the boot to the head in Italy PK box. It was one of the most bizzare no-calls in this WWC. VAR didn't see it that way. China equaliser would change the game - forcing Italy to attack in heat of 28 degrees (as China was doing for the next 60 min chasing the score, till they finally went out of steam). Luck was clearly with UEFA side .

I could go on.There was a plenty in this WWC. Mind you all, I'm not aiming here onto some conspiracy theory. Just pointing on, that in poor level of officiating small things tend to have huge consequences especially when accompanied with even the slightest form of favoritism. (ie. ref personal bias, rule of confed neutrality broken when chosing the officials, quality refs chosen for matches important to organizers while average for others, etc.)

 

Will do, I had them all already (all WWC matches as well). Just need to upload Japan ones to google drive. I'll give you a shout when done.

 

Sounds great. I am looking forward to checking out the video. Thanks a lot for supporting my (our) girls. The team is getting better since 2016.

P.s. Currently reading Quo Vadis by Sienkiewicz. Excellent and dynamic.

 

Likewise. It's also my impression that they certainly do getting better.

Ps. I hope You enjoy it. Fun fact 39 random pages of the first manuscript of Quo Vadis is stored in my home city - Wrocław in Ossolineum.

 

Anyone knowing how we can watch the livestream for the Universiade semifinal for free in less than an hour? Is it on YouTube?

 

It's here for free (you need to subscribe though)

It may be shown on Eurosport UK as well