Yeah, coming to Brazil two/three days before the kick-off in the opening game was the main factor... Yeah, I thought it was because of operating the ball around the pitch and domination throught the game against a 'stronger opponent'... but it seems like I was wrong... Even Italian show-off players who participated in the game think otherwise than you. So who's wrong? De Rossi and Buffon or marten48? I'll root for you today. I hope you'll get some newspaper's mentioning about that.
I'm addicted to this community now. Even my relatives make fun of me for Japan defeat while I never cheered when Japan scored to respect to my country. Thanks to the 6 gods there is you guys here! And, I have re-evaluated Balotelli after that tweet. I think he was the only one to congratulate Samurai Blue. Others Azzurri simply didn't care about Japan and the false final result, they were happy for the undeserved victory and stop.
Italy were definitely booed a lot more during play, whereas Japanese players got huge cheers. How much of an effect that realistically has, I don't know though.
Well many people on 2ch take it as an insult, as in why do Japan need to be congratulated for losing. Of course those people are mostly negative to begin with, and take it too literally.
Finally had the chance to catch the game 24hrs later... What a fukcing performance. The only thing I wish for, and I hate to sound negative because we were stunning, is to actually win a match against a top country when we are playing like champions. I have question marks about Endo just like all of you, but surely it is worth risking him for the World Cup. Kagawa and Honda will win us matches but when Endo plays, Japan plays.
LOL De Rossi. He scored but he was one of the worst on the pitch especially when like an unfair and idiot player he tried to charge continuously Kagawa to stop him being physical and failed everytime.
I gotta admit I feel a bit the same way, not about the tweet. But the commentators I was listening to. When Japan was losing 2-3 and when losing 3-4. All I heard was crap about "Brave performance" and stupid shit like that. And "can leave with heads held high" and all that bullsh*t. Japan needs to be recognised at a higher level if they get praised for losing. Nothing wrong with saying 'the better team lost' but to go the extent they are is almost patronising like they're surprised a dumbass got a B+ or something. The headlines should be more about 1. Better team lost (which it is), and 2. Japan's defence is absolute rubbish or mentally frail, not "Brave performance".
Fans feeling p!ssed off for "brave performance" praises is simply a sign of that the team can aim higher.
Ｉ ｔｈｉｎｋ ｔｈａｔ ｔｈｅｒｅ ａｒｅ ｆｅｗ ｔｏｐ ｔｅａｍｓ ａｎｄ ｓｏｍｅ ｗｈｉｃｈ ｃａｎ ｃｏｍｐｅｔｅ ｂｅｔｗｅｅｎ ｔｈｅｍ ｂｕｔ ａ ｔｈｏｓｅ ａｒｅ ｌｅｖｅｌ ｂｅｌｏｗ． Ｊａｐａｎ ｉｓ ｎｏｗ ｉｎ ｔｈｅ ｌａｔｔｅｒ ｇｒｏｕｐ ａｎｄ ｔｈｅ ’ｕｎｄｅｒｄｏｇ’ ｌａｂｅｌ ｓｕｒｅｌｙ ｉｓ ｏｕｔｄａｔｅｄ ｎｏｗ．
To the team that beat France 1-0 and Argentina 1-0 where Messi was on the line up... How on earth those people can say Japan is putting up a brave fight against the Italian? They are simply not performing well in defense. As for the attacking, it is how they should usually play...
Well you know Greece was European champions and immediately after that people still saw them second or third tier team. And for a good reason. To be thought as one of the best, you need to show consistency and start winning and outplaying the best teams regulary, it also helps if you manage to get into top 8 or 4 in the world. For instance Uruguay won the South America Cup and were top 4 in WC... they are considered a really good team but not top. If they will wrack havoc in the next WC then well... people will slowly but surely start to think otherwise It also helps if more then one guy is from a club like Manchester United if you get me... But being considered an underdog is a blessing really because it lifts the burden of a team and makes other teams underestimate Japan so be happy about it for as long as it lasts.
I think the reputation of the domestic league has to play a role. Why else would England be considered good (if that's actually the case these days...)?
Well, England beat Brazil in a friendly at the beginning of the year at home so I'm not sure it's only about the domestic league... it's not like Eredivisie is exactly that good
There were "gentle" boos. I may be too used to European cynism, where the away team get booed after every touch of the ball. I'm not sure they were bothered by that ... The score indicates another story. Simply how things reverse. I was tired of the "they won our hearts narrative" but let's not whip them in the face, that was a great performance Your dreamed team won 10-0 against Tahiti yesterday.
LoL I dont get what u mean... clearly what I mean is Japan is comparable with those European elites, Japan can win against Korean while those Spanish team struggle to win more than 2 goals with the Korean... thats the logic... about my dream team won 10-0 against Tahiti, I dont get the point here
what you want is a team performing well in defense while being amazing on attack. Basically that's Spain. If Japan played such a great match it's because they were willing to sacrifice some of their balance to get another goal.
Uh no, maybe I'm biased as a Roma player but he was good. Not great but good compared to the rest of the team. Scored the goal that got them back into it and made the pass that set up the winning goal. He was on a yellow so maybe he didn't want to go in too hard.
Good does not equal top The thing is English team consists of players playing for the top clubs. But no one considers them top but that second tier. It is also the reason why people will perceive Japan as the "underdog" if they would play England On one hand you have Kawashima playing for Standard on another Hart playing for City. Konno and Yoshida (J2 and Southampton) on the other Cahill (Chelsea) and Jagielka (Everton) Uchida and Nagatomo (Schalke and Inter) can compare... Hasebe and Endo (Wolfsburg and J2) on the other hand Parker (Tottenham) Wilshere (Arsenal) offensive midfield again can compare but the striker is Jubilo Iwata vs the likes of Rooney or Wellbeck and such which is Manchester United... The team with better known names might not be better or might not win but it will be considered favorite unless that other team is consistently showing something more... And here is where Japan still has a lot of the room to grow. Having more of the players playing in top leagues increasing that dangerous factor together with increasing the strength of domestic League. I mean look Japanese football has known professional level for only 20 years. That is like 2 generations of players worth and look where it is right now. Continue working in that direction, improving popularity of football and stuff and perhaps the next generation or two will take it up to the next level. But you can achieve that only with a bit of luck (getting a good generation) and a lot of hard work, increased popularity of football and so on There is a reason why teams like Spain Germany Brazil and so on are at the levels they are and some Canada or USA aint yet. Japan has the population and the funds to go there as well but as we can see with England it is not just about that also lol
Too bad Japan is going in the WRONG direction right now, shipping out all the talent to Europe long before they are ready, and not even making any money from it! A whole generation will be wasted. It's very unwise to assume that "going to a big league" works the same for a kid from the Netherlands, or even Croatia, or even South America, signing with an English/SPanish/Italian club, and a Japanese kid doing so. For 90% of all Japanese players, this is the wrong move to maximize their talent, no matter what their agents and the media think. And the clubs are idiots to facilitate it with their naive bush-league contract dealings. It's a classic Japanese fad, mass behavior detached from logic. The good thing about fads in Japan is that they end because new fads displace them. Hopefully this one gets over with soon... it will take one club or one player bucking the trend and being successful. Or maybe just a realization that the Ryos and Usamis have totally pissed away important developmental years jumping through unnecessary hoops instead of honing their craft. Everyone can see there is absolutely nothing kakkoii about Usami's experience. If going to Europe at a young age becomes uncool within a couple of years, Japanese soccer might survive. Otherwise, it will be swiftly downhill. Japan doesn't have enough talent to feed it into the meatgrinder like that.