First day lineup vs Palestine: Ryosuke Kojima GK 2 So Fujitani SB 3 Itsuki Urata SB 4 Ko Itakura DF 10 Koji Miyoshi MF 13 Yuto Iwasaki FW 15 Honoya Shoji CB 16 Shion Inoue MF 17 Yuta Kamiya MF 19 Ren Komatsu FW 22 Yugo Tatsuta CB full match vs Palestine Itakura's goal 5 Takahiro Yanagi Sub 6 Yoichi Naganuma Sub 7 Teruki Hara Sub 8 Tsukasa Morishima Sub 9 Kyosuke Tagawa Sub 11 Keita Endo Sub 12 Go Hatano Sub 14 Akito Takagi Sub 18 Hatate Reo Sub 20 Taiyo Koga Sub 23 Koto Abe Sub
It was mostly boring but there's progress, there seems to be a well understood system. The players need to do more (or we need better players) and we lack attacking power.
Japan won their second game in a row, 1-0 against Thailand, with Itakura again scoring the winner at the 90th minute. They also became the first team to guarantee their qualification to the second round, and will play against North Korea to decide the winner of the group (Japan only needs a draw).
from the first two games iwasaki has been disappointing, i expected more him. sloppy passing all round by many players. defence looks pretty solid but against limited opposition. itakura may prove to be a brilliant loan for vegalta sendai.
he's been disappointing all season... FT: Vietnam 🇻🇳 1 - 0 Australia 🇦🇺Vietnam clinch a famous victory against Australia in #AFCU23 Group D! #VIEvAUS pic.twitter.com/U1Pg2cscLW— AFC (@theafcdotcom) January 14, 2018
I wish all HS players were so disappointing that they played almost all the games right after signing pro. It's got not nothing to do with being disappointing, it's just who he is as a player. He's still young. Anyway the team looks like a massive improvement from the beginning of the previous cycle in 2014. The stake will be to find individuals like Asano, Minamino, Nakajima or Kubo now.
Ko Itakura and So Fujitani are the best players so far in my opinion. But I really would like to see Takeaki Harigaya playing at this team, He is a central midfielder that reminds me Arthur from Gremio.
iwasaki played 35 games, starting in 27 of them. 8 assists and two goals, not bad for a guy just graduating high school.
HT: Japan 2-0 North Korea. Hiroki Ito is such a great and composed player, he assisted both of Japan's goals (scored by Yanagi and Miyoshi). This generation's defence and defensive midfield seem to be rock-solid (not to mention Nakayama and Tomiyasu who were not called-up to this tournament). Players like Hiroki Ito, Tatsuta, Itakura and Shouji have done good impression so far. As for the attack, it needs to be improved, but this squad is missing: Daizen Maeda, Ritsu Doan, Tatsuya Ito and Koki Ogawa, so if these players are available an improvement is to be qexpected. However, with the available options I can see that Moriyasu is testing different players and combinations, and there is clearly an improvement taking place by every match. Good Luck.
Actually, in the 2nd half, I felt that North Korea was the better team until the penalty. They were setting up opportunities for their forwards well before then.
Lol, Uzbekistan 3-0 Japan now. Uzbekistan is dominating Japan thus far save for the first 10 minutes. Japan can't cope with Uzbekistan's physicality. Japan cannot stop Uzbekistan's forward even with their numerical advantage in defending for the 3rd goal.
The Uzbeks have at least 4 '95 and 4 '96 from what I remember but definitely that's not a good excuse for a 4-0 (so far) Not a fan of the 3 man defense
The system is good, there's really nothing that was announcing was was gonna happen today ... What a spanking. Good thing we're qualified for the Olympics lol.
The only luck there would be Petrovic taking over this bunch in the summer of 2017 and Moriyasu at the helm for the last three months I assume if one wishes for them advancing from the group stage.