Best Young Japanese Talents

I cannot even begin to fathom the wrongness of this.
You want to talk Romario, Morimoto was like Ronaldo. Physique and explosiveness plus skill and killer instinct. His injuries have cost him both his explosiveness and his confidence.

Terrible, terrible defenses. If he scored five goals, you might have an argument, but a brace against a minnow tells me nothing. Even in that clip, there are a couple half-chances that a Romario-level talent would certainly have bagged.

Hey, I hope you are right and I'm wrong, but I've seen better players in the national high school championships many times over the years, based on what I've seen of Minamino so far.

 

You know it. Morimoto had, very young, the ability to compete with adults. But he never had a magic touch or some incredible skills. He was physically dominating.

Wrong but obviously, the few of us who watched this U16 competition know what he is capable of.

 

I have some high hopes for Colin.

I really hope he turns out to be of Tulio or Nakazawa quality

edit: realistically what's the chance that they would opt for Ireland? I assume that they speak some English.

 

Okay ...

Good article. Collin was quality in the last J.League cup. There were some better players than him (Miyamoto from Yokohama especially) but he has the advantage to play in J2, where he'll have more opportunities to gain a spot in the starting eleven.

 

I guess decision time is when they reach 21.

 

I wonder how hard it is for people with dual-nationality to pick which country to represent..

 

For the Killoran brothers, it's obviously going to be Japan.

In my experience watching football, usually players with more than one nationality will pick the nation that has a genuine shot of going to the world cup, and give him the most playing time.

 

Finally a Japanese player with some swagger.

It's a shame that it will probably be beaten out of him by the time he's 18.

 

But it was fun to watch when he's getting past other kids who are like 'WTF? What's he doing there?'. If You're a kid it doesn't matter if You're starting at age of 5 or 9. Those who starts later can easily catch up with those who play (it's still a play at this age) for longer time in a year or two or even fatser than that. About Bando: just But he must have started to really like that after some time

 

Only comment about that video is...... how sh!t it must be to be a teammate of that kid. In an average U9/U10 team there's always a kid who's clearly the best and keeps the ball too much, and that was annoying to everyone..... but this is ridiculous.

 

You have to put that first one in context though. Barcelona is still picking out a few 12 year olds for its program, and rejecting millions. This is the kind of kid that has a shot at that, not just any kid.

 

See, that's what I disagree with. It doesn't mean absolutely nothing. I agree with you that it doesn't mean you'll be a great or even successful professional. Or even a professional at all.

But all the very greatest players were great at 9. This kid still has a chance to be the next Messi, while every other player who doesn't look like this at age 9 has zero chance.

 

Actually, this video is old, his father put it on Youtube months ago and then deleted it. But I guess someone downloaded before it disappeared.

 

Just two words: Miroslav Klose (soon a living legend of German football).
Many people are idolizing those great dribblers (well, I never enjoyed that when I was a child, I didn't have problems with that but I was a lot more satisfied when I got the final touch before someone else scored, just playing nice, offensive and fast football or when I scored from the distance). But there are other factors than dribbling that children at the age of 9 are showing. Some doesn't have problems when it comes to receiving the ball, some are showing that they won't have problems with shooting from distance when they will have more power, some has just common sense of the play as whole and can play for the team even at this young age feeling what can happen if they lose the ball, some have inclinations to play really fast, giving away ball after few touches and doing that precisely. Getting past whole team isn't the most important thing. In real football there are other factors which are important and getting past two or more opponents are just value added when it comes to professional level. And reserved only for offensive players in real games. Evaluating the talent on this basis is... BS.

 

But i'm pretty sure Takashi Usami was like this kid when he was 9 right

For me this kid is more impressive, at least he was playing for Barca youth team, or something like that
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUTRZIfGCPw"]YouTube - FC?????????2009?U-9????MVP????8???????[/ame]
Maybe his name's Takefusa Kubo

 

So now that WC U-17 is over, who are your picks on the top prospects for Japan in the future?

Akino
Ishige
Nakajima (he should grow 10-15cm more, but great control/play making)
Ueda (I didn't see him lose once in headers?)
Kawaguchi (physically strong)

It seems the team is a lot stronger individually than previous U-17 teams, but there doesn't seem to be that one standout (except perhaps Minamino, who underperformed) like in previous WC. This is probably a good sign for Japan's development. This team really deserved better than a QF.

 

Matsumoto is the next Endo.

He just needs to find a team that needs him.

Vortis could use a creative midfielder but ,as usual, I suspect that they have no chance.

 

I do agree with your choices, but I'll like also to add Nakamura. He needs to gain some height, but he was pretty solid, even more if u consider that he is a u-17 japanese keeper. Good reflexes, good hands, not many bad choices. I was not so nervous seeing him as the keeper, just like during 2003 Youth World Cup with Kawashima (saving the distances). That is not very usual in a Japanese Youth NT.