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

Please don't remind me that moment when she could pass to completely open Sugasawa standing 3yds away from the goal!

Such a brilliant player (like the others) playing crap today.

 

Was the desire to score in a World Cup match greater than playing as a team...?

 

It was the Naomoto sickness. Actually i think Naomoto might have made a better difference where she in this squad. Naomoto might have been pressured/overwhelmed to deliver before and made a lot of careless mistakes in the process, but now (is she healthy?) i'm sure her thought process/game mentality may have matured a bit with the limelight subsiding.

 

I have a long-standing (2012-) Naomoto sickness myself, if you know what I mean...

 

Well I am not so sure, but either way when Hasegawa moves into the centre it means that Nadeshiko actually start playing more through the middle and it involves the holding midfielders who can actually make more incisive passes. It leaves them a bit more open at the back on the counter, but I think they should risk it, because the holding midfielders kind of do stuff other than just defend.

If they are going to play 4-4-2 that is fine I suppose, but they have to move the ball more quickly and occasionally be more direct. Early in the second half Nadeshiko picked up the tempo and were a bit more direct through the middle. Because they did this it started to suck some of the defenders into the centre which left a bit of space on the wings.

But normally the holding midfielders take the ball pass it sideways or backwards to the central defenders, the central defenders make a long pass, or some slow short passes to the wide midfielders who are caught with little space to do anything really creative. About three times today they passed the ball along the wing into their attacking corner, but it was just so slow, so the defenders know what is happening.

 

It works both ways though. Sasaki towards the end of his tenure and ultimate demise stuck with some players too long. There are a group of players in Japan right now aged between 23 and 27 who missed out on opportunities to play for Nadeshiko because of the success of the World Cup in 2011.

It is a difficult balance between keeping the experienced players and trying out younger players, but in my opinion Takakura has played too many players in different positions.

Ariyoshi who is not in the squad now, last year started matches for Nadeshiko at right back, left back and midfield. I do not know what that was about when there were far superior midfielders in the Nadeshiko league who could have been given a chance.

 

No offense intended to any Japanese player, coach or person but I do not think I have ever seen a Japanese women's team play this stupidly since, well ever. I rewatched a bit of that fiasco, as much as I could stand, and saw quite clearly that Japan was playing like they wanted to be anywhere else and wanted to get there as soon as possible.

They missed chance to force the play and flubbed many many opportunities to attack with speed and power and made the choice that would almost certainly result in turning the ball over.

The defense was OK but Argentina did not really test that at all.

My hope is that this was just an aberration and Japan will put things right soon. It will have to be soon if the want to have any chance at winning the group.

As an aside I coached girls and young women mostly throughout much of my adult life and I have seen many many teams struggle in opening games in tournaments and even come off the field looking as depressed as if a car had run over their kitten. Nothing I or my assistants (which were mostly usually women) or any parents could do seemed to be able to break the team out of their funk.

Then after a nights sleep it would seem that a completely different team was suddenly there. It was often like the team that played badly and the team that showed for the next game were completely different teams. Once we tied the team that everyone was saying was the worst in the tournament 0-0 in the first match and the rest of the games went 6-0, 9-1, 3-0, 4-0, 3-1 and the final 5-1.

I am not saying that Japan will respond that way but women are very resilient and often the performance in one game does not seem to ever have a big impact on subsequent games.

 

We can only hope so. I would have killed to see Nadeshiko Japan have the kind of start the French and the Norwegians had.

 

Well France and Norway are really good teams, it's unfair to compare them to Japan.

 

I know what you mean. Sasaki had a penchant for the old veterans too much, while Takakura here seems to be too obsessed with young players. I don't know if she'll realize soon enough that a compromise between the two is needed instead. For me honestly the best mix was that Women's Asian Cup in 2014, the one that got Japan to win their first ever title.

 

While France, the US, etc. are no doubt very good teams, they have never convinced me completely with their style of football. When I watch those teams play, I can't but think of how much better and aesthetically pleasing Japan's football can be, in my opinion. That's why it makes me sad to probably see the Nadeshiko limping out of this tournament so early, being the shadows of their former glorious selves. We can only hope that they'll pick themselves up starting from the second game, as expressed in the beautifully written post by FanOfFutbol.

 

For once, I cant blame Takakura with the selection of players.

Is a shame that Utsugi and Sakaguchi are not in their best shape.

But apart from that is coach responsability to prepare the team to open tight defenses, and having a plan for that.

But this game gave the impresion that Japan just needed to lose for a goal to advance. Too slow passing, too slow thinking, too few alternatives to their game. Remembered this team at the worst from East Asia Cup in 2017, but then at least you could say there were important players missing.

 

Well, this sets up an interesting match with Scotland, at any rate.

 

Actually from what I saw the problem was, in a lot of ways, the opposite of that. That is players were to unselfish in a number of cases and they chose to try to pass to the players they had been told to pass to instead of simply taking on someone on the dribble or getting the ball out of the congested area.

This was one of those cases where Japan needed a rebel or three that would rebel and make the moves and passes that run against their normal instincts.

In this case thinking was the enemy and the players just needed to react and try weird stuff.

Or to put it in another vein: At the half the coach should have told the players what I have said a few times to teams I coached: "Go out there and make some spectacular mistakes. Try stuff and almost the weirder the better. All the standard stuff is not working so make it up as you go. Oh, have fun!" Of course the defense needs to stay organised but the offense is where the problem was.

When what normally works is not working you need to change what you are doing. Even in the short term the saying: "Repeating the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is one definition of insanity" is true. Today Japan was insane.

 

I am going to do something I rarely do, I am going to make a prediction based more on belief than fact. I believe that Japan gets at least four points out of the next two games. I believe this because of the basic character of the Japanese players and the fact that I think they will play angry. An angry Japanese women's soccer team is almost scary.

I think, after reflection, that this is kind of like what was said about the US before WWII and that is that Japan should have not awakened the sleeping tiger. In this case it is more like young tigers and I believe they have been awakened and the rest of the group and the rest of the tournament should be worried, very worried. Anger is the second strongest emotion there is. The Japanese women are now, I believe, angry.

 

No, you're definitely spot on. She was far and away Japan's best player today, the complete opposite of Shimizu. I never understood why some people said she could no longer play fullback for the NT.

I think the major factor for the next game will be Scotland's approach. Hypothetically, if they were to draw with Japan and win against Argentina they'd be pretty much assured of 2nd place. However, I think Scotland will try to win. My guess is that Scotland will score one in the first half and then just sit back and counter in the second, and the end result will be either 0-1 or 0-2. Then Japan will have to go all out against England and they'll concede like four or five.

If Japan do manage to hold Scotland to a draw they'll have 2 points and that will most likely not be enough to advance. So really they need a win here (because they're definitely not going to defeat England) and that just seems highly unlikely.

 

JPN players are very skillful...

 

Takakura said that she chosen players who are clever with certain skills.
I doubt it.
They may be skillful, but didn't look clever at all.

But it might be too early to make a conclusion.

 

Yeah she was probably the best for Nadeshiko last night, but the bar was fairly low. But why was she the best? Because she played without any pressure. Argentina were never going to score and when they did counter it was done mostly down the left. Shimizu did not get forward enough, but why?

Sameshima is experienced and she knew pretty quickly that there was very little danger of getting stung on the counter, so she pushed higher up the pitch, because Argentina had nothing going forward. My problem is why on earth they all did not respond more quickly? There was no sense of urgency in the first half at all. I think regarding Argentina Nadeshiko may have underestimated their opponents which is a very unNadeshiko thing to do.

Sameshima is still a good player, but as I have stated before right wingers have gotten a lot better over the last five years and she has difficulty coping with good right wingers when she has no help. You should watch the match against England in the She Believes Cup as a guide. Not entirely her fault because that lineup was bonkers. Also she has played a lot of games this season for INAC in central defence.

I believe we will see a much better showing against Scotland and I would not be surprised if Nadeshiko win. Scotland will attack way more than Argentina which will leave more space for Nadeshiko to play with. The first twenty minutes will be key. If Nadeshiko can absorb the pressure from Scotland and prevent Scotland from scoring early I can see them wearing them down and scoring.

Of course now I have said that they will get bloody slaughtered.

 

Anyone else suddenly really glad that the USA aren't in group D?

 

I am disgusted by the Americans' late goal celebrations. Scoring the 8th, 9th goal against a country that takes part in the World Cup for the first second time and celebrate like you've won the tournament. Classless.

EDIT: Thanks to Lechus7 for the correction.

 

It's Thailand 2nd WWC in a row (even if they are one of the weakest teams)
Agree it doesn't look well on the eye but why no cebrate? Is not USWNT players fold that Thai's are weak as a team. Those celebrations beside the genuine (or not) happiness may be a part of some sponsors agreements that allow players to get some extra buck (I would presume). It's not like Rapinoe is paid monthly salary of Ronaldo so I can understand all the theatrics.

Foor me example of classless were US players in shirts - Greatness has been found - worn after OG London final whistlle. Referee errors on which USWNT first reached final match and then won it, had nothing to do with greatness.