Somehow I thought the game started in half an hour . Hope we can watch extended highlights later. Looks like our big three (Mana, Yui, Yuka) showed a great performance.
I'm worried about Miura injury, she took the flying hit into the knee (Candian player should've been carded for it). Hasegawa injury on the other hand wasn't from malicious play but wasn't nice either - flying Labbe knees to the ribs - ouch...
I think that's because the whole team were playing with much more aggresion.Doesn't help the 'green' cause though
Today's result: Nadeshiko League 2 Shizuoka 0-1 Setagaya (Nemoto) Preliminary games for Challenge League promotion Group A Fujizakura 0-0 (PK 1-3) Okinawa Ryukyu 0-1 Machida (Nakayama) Group B Izumo 0-2 Gunma (Kaneshige, Sato) Anclas (Yanagida) 1-1 (PK 5-4) Nankatsu (Yamamoto) Tomorrow's final is Fujizakura vs Anclas
There were some nice passages of play for Nadeshiko today. I am glad Takakura stuck with a similar lineup to the Netherlands game. I really liked the first goal. Great accurate pass by Nakajima and an okay finish form Iwabuchi. But the key was she was in a good scoring position and the ball was moved quickly in the build up play. I am still not sure about Minami in defence. She just seems too prone to mistakes, though today she was fairly good. Nadeshiko looked a little bit shaky in defence, but they kept a clean sheet! Does anybody know the last time Nadeshiko lost a match in Japan? I feel like it has been a long time. Anyway, they look really strong at home, which bodes well for next year. They played well today.
The editing of this video was a little hectic (and, in particular, wasn't properly showing the build-up of the goals' actions), but, since I hadn't the time to rewatch the whole game, it gave me anyway a rough idea of what happened in the portion of the match that I missed this morning. About this foul in particular, that I had missed in 1st half, I totally agree with @Lechus7: how on earth such a reckless, studs-up tackle didn't receive at least a Yellow Card? I share the worries for Miura's health. I still miss the name of the player who slung that drive in the action of third goal; although I managed to watch the replay in another video, the jersey number is not visible and the comment-guy doesn't seem to actually name her. By position, she should probably be Momiki? Food for thought: since it seems to me from the replay that, despite our utter dominance, we didn't have so many "clear cut" chances beyond those of the goals (apart maybe from Hasegawa's shot in the action where she was injured, all of the other shots apart from the goals were hopeful weak or way off-target middle-range shots), could we somehow say that the real difference today was our better-than-usual converting ratio? We had 4 "clear cut" chances (5 at max, if we count Hasegawa's one that I mentioned above) and we converted 4 of them (by the way, two were converted from a rebound, after the first shot had been actually saved). In a "normal" Nadeshiko day, I guess we'd have wasted 3 out of 4 of those chances (maybe in a spectacular way: posts, crossbars, "impossible" saves, you name it!). Of course, it's not much more than a provocation, but what do you think about my observation, guys? Another observation: do you remember when, back in June, Japan had advanced to the knock-out stage as the second-placed team in their group and we were waiting to know the name of their opponents, between Netherlands and Canada? At the time, I was praying it was Canada, and it looks like I wasn't wrong. Of course, you can't compare a World Cup match in France with a friendly match in Japan, but I've got the feeling that, had we met Canada at the World Cup, we'd have squarely beaten them as we did today. Instead we got Netherlands. And maybe we would have beaten them also, if it wasn't for what I keep considering quite a bogus call against Kumagai, but of course Netherlands was anyway an harder opponent than Canada would have been.
You would have to precise what actually is to consider a "clear cut" chance ... but in general I don't exactly agree as with 100% conversion ratio in my eyes the score at the final whistle could be around 7-2. On that I agree. Pierre has written above that Japan had some good passages of play. I'd consider all of which were leading into entering opponent final third. What did make a difference today is those entries were much often finished with a shot on goal - and that is real step up from WWC - where Japan had many entries into opponent final third area but not many actual shot were taken or came from it. I'm under unwavering impression that Japan would've reach WWC final if it wasn't for their poor finishing and really bad luck in match against Netherlands.
It was Momiki indeed. Japan started in their usual 4-4-2 formation: ...but changed to a 4-2-3-1 when Momiki replaced Miura: Nakajima - Sugita Momiki - Hasegawa - Iwabuchi Sugasawa Btw, I like Hasegawa more when she plays like that, behind the striker (トップ下). My ratings: Yamashita: Good Shimizu: Good Kumagai: OK Minami: Very Good (despite some small mistakes) Miyagawa: OK Miura: OK Sugita: OK Nakajima: Good Hasegawa: Good Iwabuchi: Excellent (Woman of the match) Sugasawa: OK Momiki: Good Endo: OK Mina Tanaka, H. Takahashi and R. Kobayashi: not enough time on the pitch Takakura: Very good
Today's result: Preliminary games for Challenge League promotion Fujizakura (Simizu Chiharu) 1-2 Anclas (Ono, Yanagida) Therefore Challenge League promotion games are Anclas vs Tokiwagi and Fujizakura vs Niigata, but only in the condition that Anclas and Fujizakura are eligible for Challenge League.
Thank you! Also, she keeps being our "bag of tricks": the impredictable classy player who constantly keeps opponents (or even team-mates! ) on their heels to guess what's next.
Sfida Setagaya managed to beat last-placed Shizuoka with a PK only. Also, on the same day: Ehime FC Ladies 0-0 Yamato Sylphid Yamato indeed managed to make that single point that keep them level with Bunnys Kyoto SC and fighting to avoid one-to-last place (and consequent relegation play-off). Meanwhile, Ehime probably wasted a chance to definitely kill the league (at least for what concerns first place and direct promotion): by just making one point vs Sylphid, they remain within straking range of at least Orca, who have a game in hand to them (that should be played on 16th of october, about one month after the original schedule), although Orca's performances in the latest weeks don't suggest that it will be an easy task for them.
Yeah, for the first two goals there was good, quick build up play, which got them into good scoring positions. The second goal started out on the left wing and was passed backwards by Endo to Miyagawa who moved it to Hasegawa centrally who passed it to Iwabuchi. They did this kind of thing against the Netherlands as well, but could not finish. I think they are in a much better place compared to a year ago or say six months ago. For me it comes from players having a much better understanding of what needs to be done. Nadeshiko need that because they rely on their skill and teamwork more than other teams. Going forward they look a lot better. At the back I feel they still need work. Thanks for that.
Nadeshiko faithful have no fear.... To watch the full game between Japan and Canada please google Canada Soccer Live Stream. I would have copied a link here but for copyright purposes I refrain. I think there are three parts to the the Canada Soccer Live Stream on Youtube but nonetheless the quality is excellent and the details of the entire match are there from start to finish. It seems as though this is part of Soccer Canada live stream but I could be wrong. Enjoy the entire match my friends.
7th Oct Japan 0 - 0 Canada (behind closed doors) Line-up: GK Ikeda, DF Seike, Doko, Miyake, Takahashi, MF Takarada, Kurishima, Matsubara, Endo, FW Tanaka, Kobayashi. Total dominace in 1st half which Takakura called close to perfect (if I understanded correctly) alas with no score. 59' Tanaka and Endo -> <- Momiki and Miyazawa 72' Matsubara -> <- Miura 2nd half close in look to the 1st one, Japan still pushing for a goal but Canada survived with 5 defenders in line and some good goalkeeping. Takakura generally pleased with the game pointed though to the danger of loosing such game by a single lucky opponent goal. (I guess they still aren't fully over WWC and match with Netherlands). カナダ女子代表とトレーニングマッチ ~なでしこジャパン国際親善試合 カナダ女子代表戦 #jfa #daihyo #nadeshiko https://t.co/pHnlTr8D3u— JFAなでしこサッカー (@jfa_nadeshiko) October 8, 2019
Is any person able to provide an injury update from the perspective of our Nadeshiko Women's players? Thank you and my grateful praise in advance to this person who is the source of this news. .....and now back to observing over the message board in silence.
Fifa made a rule that Japan's opponents needed to call each other "-san" as well, to make the games fair. So, during the World Cup there was "Groenen-san", and "van de Sanden-san". (Nah, not really. But it's no sillier than VAR was.)
Upcoming Japan matches before Olympic Games: 10th Nov (friendly) vs. South Africa EAFF 11th Dec vs. Korea DPR 14th Dec vs. China 17th Dec vs. Korea Republic Tokyo Olympic qualifiers 3rd - 9th Feb (imo JFA should use it and schedule friendly during that time) and 6th - 11th Mar SheBelieves (probably) 2nd - 11th Mar vs. USA vs. Brazil vs. Australia 6th-14th April (friendly max 2 matches) 1st - 10th June (friendly max 3 matches) Olympic Games start 22nd July FIFA Women's International Match Calendar 2020-2023
Looks like JFA it's going to send Beleza for inaugural AFC Womens Club Championship. Notice EDIT: Invitation for the tournament is for 2018 or 2019 league winner - so JFA decided on Beleza (it will affect 3rd round of Empress Cup schedule)