Umm look up. There are no alternatives to Kurihara. I bash him, but realistically we don't have anyone much better. Tamada and Okubo are doing well because they aren't in the NT. NT affects performance and those two aren't as young as they used to be.
The main difference between world's best national sides and North Koreans would be that they wouldn't care how Japan is playing and they would concentrate on their own play.
This is an extremely misleading point in my opinion. Japan definitely looked better, but you have to look at the circumstances. 1. North Korea was content to sit on their lead so Japan really didn't experience pressure at the back. 2. North Korea was a man down so there was more space for Japan to use. 3. The addition of Mike helped Japan win possession more and created space for the fullbacks to exploit. 4. There was a heightened sense of urgency and the players knew that they really needed a goal so they took more risks. Not saying that its impossible that the 3-4-3 shifted the balance, but I'll reserve judgement for later.
I don't think there's any aerial problem. Honestly I wouldn't make any judgement based on this game. That's personal but to me, NK players were abnormaly strong, fast and endurant. They weren't winning the aerial battle in Japan, in fact they weren't nearly as physical.
dont think there is a aerial problem? forreal?? if it was only about this game... maybe we´re talking since asian cup fellas... how hard is that to see?
Agreed. Someone asked earlier why Ryong wasn't playing in this game. The answer is that he's too poor physically to play such a rough football. They aimed for physical contact and they did that for the whole 90 minutes. There's no place on earth where you could see such a ferocity in play as shown by Koreans today.
That's because Japan had control of the game when they played at home. In today's game Japan was drawn into the long-ball game and couldn't effectively control the ball or possession. I blame that partly on the starting eleven it was the first time that they have played together. You could tell in the home match that Japan was in complete control of the match and that North Korea was defending the goal like their life depended on it. I didn't see anything remotely close to that today. Many of the players were afraid to play short passes and they completely failed under pressure which resulted in them punting the ball instead of playing the simple and short pass. Yes that's partly due to North Korea's physical presence as they were able to beautifully reduce space and cause mistakes, but almost all of their offense came off aerial flicks that Japan could not deal with.
But it happens for a reason. They could do that because they were hacking our players so fast that they immediately got the ball back everytime they lost it. Sure the guys were very intimidated and that was one of the reasons why we played poorly today. But even Netherlands weren't as physical as the North Korean were today. It was surnatural.
Hasebe definitely deserves his respect today. He worked so hard and to keep his team's composure must be a tough job! Ever since I started following JNT, CB'ss stability didn't cross my mind as Tulio x Nakazawa pairing was decent. Unlike FW where we have several options incl. Havenaar now, we need stable CBs. Konno is really good on the ground but as discussed, his aerial is his weakness which is quite a pity. Yoshida scores (lol) crucial goals but are clumsy at times. I don't follow J-league so I'm not sure who is up for that position. If JNT can build up a hard-rock CBs again, they'll do very well I'm sure.
It's disappointing that against Uzbekistan and DPRK away Japan couldn't really dominate their matches. It's been a while since I remember Japan dominating a team away (that wasn't Tajikistan) in an important game. Maybe the Uzbekistan game in 2009, but that was quite close if I recall. ------------ Though about dominating, if we consider the starting XI for this game. Nishikawa, Inoha, Kurihara, Konno, Komano, Hosogai, Hasebe, Okazaki, Kiyotake, Nakamura, Maeda We only actually had 3 regulars in the starting XI (not sayin' that all the subs did bad, but it was legitimately the B-side).
Japan forgot that they needed to play their own way and I think that Zac could have done more to encourage that. Once you saw players like Hasebe punting the ball down field it was obvious that they had lost the plot and were completely drawn into North Korea's style of play. It is pretty frustrating to play against, but that's the point. Once you start playing their game then you lose. Patience is key. It wasn't until the end of the 2nd half when Japan was able to connect passes and play their normal game, that chances were created.
They were decent during the World Cup. Before that, Nakazawa was getting abused against all kind of opponents (remember Ghana) and Tulio was so reckless at time that he helped opponents scoring. Let the current guys time to settle themselves into the team. They will be fine. Even Konno will be fine in the air, his weakness is greatly being exagerated. Until now, he wasn't really having any problem.
Against Australia he also had a horrid time in the air, and when he was pulled for Iwamasa that was when the defence sured up. I'm not convinced Konno will cut it aerially (I've felt this since the beginning not just this game.), which is why I'd like it if Zac had an alternative for teams that do have lots of tall players (not as a sub, but as a different starting CB pair). Usually I like Konno, but he does get done a bit running backwards with a high ball.
Nishikawa's time reaction on the goal is absolutely atrocious. In the end there was no goal scored because aerial game is not as precise as the ground game. Cahill is a difficult opponent against anybody, honestly I don't think it's too much of a problem. You won't find anybody better than him anyway, I'd rather us see us threatened in the air than actually conceding goals on the ground.
OMG, I completely forgot about Iwamasa, he's a better option than Kurihara IMO. Also, does anybody have a clue about Mike's brother? I heard he's a good CB for his age and he's 197cm. But I think he will be ready for 2018 WC.
Okay......I'm tempted to say a 197cm CB is TOO tall to cut it with more agile players..... I think we're jumping the gun with brother Havenaar. Thing is, you can't really learn 'height'. For example I expect Maya Yoshida to become a BEAST of a CB when I consider how old he is atm, even as a defender of play along the ground. But I can't see Konno improving against aerial deliveries, there have been a few times he struggled in the air. Tulio I don't think is the right answer however. I think we're going to have to wait and hope guys like Mizuki Hamada can come through (i'm a fan of that kid, very impressive that he's won a starting place at Urawa over Australia's starting CB Spiranovic).
Cannavaro won a Ballon d'Or, he's the same height. No need to be obsessed by that. Skill >>>> Height. They were exposed today because the whole team took a beating and they were constantly under pressure against violent opponents. I bet the next game won't be the same.
There is a big difference in that Cannavaro in Italy is (while an outstanding player) surrounded by others who can carry the burden of winning the defensive aerial balls. (in 2006, Grosso & Materazzi were more than enough to cover the aerial balls). But Japan don't have those others at LB or RB or DM to carry that burden so it falls much more on our CB's. Other outstanding examples is Puyol but he also had others in his team who could carry that burden. The next game probably won't be a problem cause Japan will dominate the game at home probably. And I'm not concerned that we didn't dominate this one TOO much because we only had 3 usual starters in the starting XI.
Okay fair enough. But if we consider the regular players around him in the defensive half of the pitch (not including the CB's) we get Uchida, Naga, Hasebe, Endo. Those 4 guys aren't going to bring the game in the air much either. The only weak link there would be maybe switching Uchida with Hiroki Sakai who's good and 183cm as well (could work). But if we replace any of the other 3 (Hasebe, Endo, Naga) you end up with a big drop in ability if you restrict your replacement to guys 183-185+. Maybe if we keep Konno, put in Sakai on the right, and when Honda gets back we can have Yoshida, Konno, Sakai & Honda all competing in the air at a defensive corner for example. But if we look for alternatives to Konno who are 184+ then we have better options than searching for a tall CM to cover (Hamada, Iwamasa, Kurihara, Tulio, even Sota Nakazawa of Gamba).
I don't see it as a big problem either. It's almost never the problem that we can't win the first ball in the air. It becomes a problem when we can't win the second ball and most of the time, it has nothing to do with how strong you are in the air. Even today's goal, it wasn't the fact both Kurihara and Komano lost in the air that was the main problem, it was Komano watching the ball and waiting for the ball to come to him that was the problem (and the fact Nishikawa is somehow still our #2). I struggle to think of a time when we were scored on directly from a cross or set piece.
I disagree, Japan won't need to worry about the 2nd ball if we win the first one. How can you say that the goal was not the fault of Kurihara and Konno missing the header? If Kurihara had won the header then Japan would have been in no danger at all. Why put the extra pressure on the defense when you can get rid of the problem by clearing it out the first time? I implore you to watch all of North Korea's chances. Every single chance came off of a flick in the air which caused havoc in the defense. The aerial game has never been a problem before because Japan has never really played a match against a team who can effectively execute such a game plan. We don't need physically imposing CB if we are able to control the match like we normally are able to, but we just didn't play our normal game against North Korea. We were forced to play a style that we suck at and it showed. Can't expect every team to allow us loads of possession and have to expect that some teams will play the punt and rush. Kurihara and Konno probably would work against a team that we can dominate in possession and control the game, but not a team like North Korea.
We can win the first ball but if we don't win the second one, they are coming right back at us... We lose the first ball but win the second one, we have the ball... Agree that most of the problems came because they won the first ball, but more so because they were first to the second one.
Wait a minute, Winning the first ball doesn't automatically mean that they are getting the ball back. Just like winning the second ball doesn't mean that we are safe. The first ball is dangerous because it draws the defense out of position and sets up a better chance for the opposition. I don't think that we really need a physically imposing CB we just need a back-up plan in order to deal with teams like North Korea. I'm cautious to say that a 3-4-3 would be a solution, but it could possibly work. If we have 3 at the back then 1 player could challenge in the air while the other two cover.