... and Wataru Endo is the best player so far for Japan in this tournament. I may call him the discovery of this tournament.
What´s the difference really between a "middle shot" and "long shot"? Where does the line between those 2 go? And why arent tap-ins and shots inside the 18 or 6-yard box called "short shot"?
A short thought of the Japanese team from the other side. Even with the new players Japan field today, I expected Japan to control the ball, dictate pace. That wasn't the case today. Which was surprising. Japan's passing game, still be good enough even with bunch of nobodies(I never heard of other than shibasaki) to majority of the ball. But I felt few times when Japan did had the ball, I thought their passes were little bit more crisp, accurate than our team. Before the game, our media focused a lot shinwook. How shinwook this, shinwook that. But I was very surprised to see makino thwart his effort every time. I thought I played very well and smart against shinwook today. Makino fouled shinwook when he had to and his positioning in Japanese end were excellent today.(we'll gonna see a lot of makino in the future aren't we?) Our media also focused on usami as the Japanese' main threat against us. And I was surprised to see he was a late second half sub. I thought to believe that he was going to start against us. And Japan now has big final match against China who are beating the Norks as well speak. Good luck. I'm neutral.
lol unfortunately these 'nobodies' are supposed to be the best of the JLeague but I'm not downplaying the local players, I just don't agree with a good part of the names chosen.
Niwa, Yonekura, Fujiharu, Kurata, Fujita, Makino, Yonemoto, Taniguchi all names that didn't excite me one single bit, and unfortunately still don't now. Endo and Asano were the only new players I cared about from this selection as I posted in the other thread. Then there are those like Kawamata or Muto or Koroki which probably 'deserved' a callup but I still can't seriously consider for the national team (and hopefully they won't have space anyway).
disagree on Yonemoto, he brings energy. We desperately need guys who bring it at a higher level of intensity like Yonemoto, Minamino, Shibasaki etc. I wanted to butcher Asano when he didn't even attempt anything on that counter at the end of the game. Why are you fast for ? Too many cowards in this team, you can't play football like this.
Agree with your vision and the need for personality. My concern though is that both Minamino and Yonemoto are good-willed players who have lots of energy, but not much substance (yet?).
The number of players in Japan with the kind of substance you expect can be counted on the fingers of a hand. At the end of the day we still have to field a team and go on. Okazaki wasn't much of a player when he was first picked for the national team but he grew with the task. He had this fire in him.
Uhm, what? From what I remember, Okazaki was actually quite decisive for the NT since the get-go. The whole 2009 year with the "record", etc. He had played just few matches before that... And of course I'd rather have energetic players, but on my fingers there are other ones :/. I'm just not sure who of the newcomers could keep being called up after this EAFF. Hope Endo does.
When he was first picked, Okazaki was a marginal J-League striker who was scoring between 10 and 14 a season, certainly not the kind of standout that puts the league on fire. The coach believed in him and he improved as he played in the national team. Give your names.
I agree with @Saku² about Yonemoto. He is one of Japan's best DMs, I still remember his debut season with FC Tokyo and the promise he showed, but his development was delayed by two lengthy injuries, and now he is back on track. I hope Vahid will give him a decent chance against China.
well between 10 and 14 doesn't seem that marginal to me but let's not digress. Aoyama, Kanazaki, Umesaki, Omae, Notsuda, Akasaki are example of players that I was hoping to see. Could even sneak in Saito if we had to call up Kurata. I'm not sure about centre backs, I admit it, can't say I see any standouts. I liked Vegalta's Kakuda but he's getting older and more inconsistent. This doesn't mean I think they should be part of the JNT, btw. Just that I think it was a good chance to see them here and then we could reflect.
10 goals in not a lot, Sho Ito had 8 last year. Kawamata had 24, looks what he does. Okada looked beyond the numbers and the sheer talent and saw in Okazaki a striker who was gonna compete, no matter what. I see your lists, some of the names are intriguing, but I don't think they would have done anything different from what we've seen today. Kurata was my MOM btw.
Jung Woo-Yun was quite good today, I wish we had a player who can hit accurate long passes like he does. I'm surprised he's not more appreciated by their fans. In general, SK has big guys who can move well.
Looks like both sides were generally displeased with some callups... lol for some reason everyone except the Korean fans praise JWY... I didn't think he was that good today
I found the match pretty boring and tame for a Japan-Korea match, despite the players. Japan needed a win but didn't really go for it.