Starting Line-up: Higashiguchi. Makino - Niwa - Morishige - Yonekura. Yamaguchi - Wataru Endo - Yuki Muto. Nagai - Kawamata - Usami.
Nice goal by Muto after a good through pass from Makino that freed Yonekura on the wing to set up Muto's goal.
It's realy painful to watch this team because all of the teams they play against, well... they can't play to put it nice words. All of them lack technical ability and tactical touch. This makes Japanese team pitiful I must say. Aside from Muto and Endo (not counting GK) there aren't too many real players in JNT this time.
I don't like to be harsh on new players, but Niwa was horrible! His dive in China's first goal was amateurish, his display so for is below par. maybe that is because he is used in unfamiliar position (RWB)? Yonekura was shaky also in the first few minutes, but he gradually gained confidence and looked decent. The biggest winner in this squad is Wataru Endo, Muto did well so far too. Other than this duo no one of the newcomers did anything to justify his selection.
Nagai should play where Kawamata was playing, instead he's asking to do stuff he's not comfortable doing. Yet he contributes defensively and makes those runs only Usami has been able to pick out so far.
I was just about to post that I wish there was more pressure and second ball game, since China's technique is terrible. I'm not asking them to be Guardiola's Bayern but still...
lol'd at Vahid telling Koroki who to pass the ball to in the throw in, and him looking around hopeless before passing it back. At least it's not a loss. With 2 goals... lol.
well it was a very good second half all things considered, had Muto taken his chance better, we would have gotten a deserved win. Koroki brought a lot of quality of the game and Shibasaki had an excellent cameo.
I liked more the first half of the 2nd half actually, not really the latest part. Didn't feel like Koroki did much personally. Appreciated Yonekura, but overall didn't see anyone in this tournament who's going to help improving the national team right now =(
I wonder why guys like Nakatani, Ueda, Ogihara and Iwanami didn't play instead guys like Koroki which will be too old by the next WC are playing.
Which options you are talking about? Most of our attacking players are playing in Europe, and Vahid selected some of the top scorers from the J-League. Yes, there are names like Akasaki, Omae, Ibusuki, Kanazano, Kanazaki, Kudo, Sugimoto and etc. but they almost show nothing this year to be selected over the chosen players. but we know some of them has the potential, and are obviously better than Kawamata, but maybe Vahid didn't notice yet? and maybe he selected Kawamata based on his height? but even if this was the case, after Kawamata's bad performance in this tournament he'll surely try another options that fill this criteria like Ibusuki, Sugimoto and Kanazono. Other than that we have some aging players like Okubo, Sato, Maeda and Toyoda, but calling them up won't serve the team in the long run. We have also Yu Kobayashi but unfortunately he is injured! I really hope Vahid will work hard to find good and suitable options for the attacking positions from the J-League and don't call-up any of our European based players for next month's WC qualifiers against Afghanistan and Cambodia.