I hope Muto gets in the next match again a chance to play from the beginning, with a better partner like Osako he could be very useful
Sometimes yes, but I think he is one of the most interesting players. Got alot of beatings today also. Good win.
schmidt: what a save at the end. big presence in the box. imho much safer with him protecting our goal compared to gonda. muroya: absolutely terrible until his assist for muto. so much better in the second half especially in defence. makino: one of the most experienced on paper but played like a j league rookie. very vulnerable defending. miura: okay but only because he was playing with makino. sasaki: this really is his limit. left side was terrible in the first half especially the goal conceded. aoyama: makes difficult passes easy and easy passes very difficult. looked like he was carrying some extra weight. shiotani: belter of a goal. better than i thought he would be. inui: worse as the game went on. cheap turnovers nearly lost the game. looks very unfit and is anyone surprised (did not help moriyasu dislikes early substitutions). ito: mvp. so much pace even at the end. looking to take the defenders on every time. final decison making could be better. muto: well taken goal. give him quality ball and he will score. kitagawa: at least he had two shots, second one was unforgivable. still playing without fire in his belly.
Qatar much better than Saudi Arabia in this game here. Saudi loose in defence. On a side note, watching Andy Harper (Australian commentator) comment on Asian football is hilariously awesome. He's so constantly unimpressed in such a classic Australian way. Favourite quote so far: "Look....if there's one area.....that you should defend in a corner kick....its 2 yards outside the goal....look at the striker here...free as a bird....easiest header he'll ever get"
Round of 16: Top half: Thailand vs China. Iran vs Oman. Jordan vs Vietnam. Japan vs Saudi Arabia. Bottom half: Australia vs Uzbekistan. United Arab Emirates vs Kyrgyzstan. South Korea vs Bahrain. Qatar vs Iraq. The top half has teams with combined 10 Asian Cup titles between them (Japan 4, Iran 3, and Saudi Arabia 3). While the bottom has teams with combined 4 tiitles only (South Korea 2, and both Iraq and Australia have 1 title each). Ironically, the winners from Japan vs Saudi Arabia, and Australia vs Uzbekistan will have easier matches in the quarter-finals than their last 16 matches (at least on paper). Good luck for Japan.
Round of 16 line-up confirmed. Who will go on to be the #AsianCup2019 champions? pic.twitter.com/1fq78YdEMA— #AsianCup2023 (@afcasiancup) January 17, 2019
Bottom half: it seems Zac has a red carpet to the semifinals, but I think SK will stop him this time. Top half: 4 years ago I would say Saudis were a nice pick, not too easy but not even a big threat. They performed very bad in a difficult group in Russia and I remember their players totally lack some european experience. Obviously this time they will play at home in middle east (or there's some attrition with UAE? Dunno...) against a Japanese side full of players at their first tournament with the JNT and with the same good old difficulty to score. Since Inui seems gone and Nakajima is not there I hope one between Muto and Osako will turn into the MVP of this tournament.
Well, I'm not sure how I fell about this since Japan and my national team are in the same branch lol About last game, from what I saw Kitagawa, Miura and Makino are hardly jnt materials. I don't think we will see them around in jnt after 2 years from now Ito, Muto showed their potentials. Inui sometimes still showed his quality, he needed more match fitness. And all the CMs are not impressive since the tournament started.
If Misao was here, maybe the midfield would be better. On the other hand, Miura and Makino should not be tried anymore imo. I hope that Shoji-Tomiyasu can be the main CB pairing for the next few years. I think Yoshida is starting to be less consistent now too. Hopefully, Ueda can improve and get more regular playing time in his club to provide an alternative. As for Kitagawa, I think Suzuki should be ahead of him in the pecking order. I feel that he might be a better choice for the JNT.
miura is 23 and kitagawa 22, plenty of time to develop. yoshida and sakai were unimpressive when they first played for jnt.
I can hardly believe you watched the same game as me. Shiotani was outstanding today. I would start him over out-of-shape Shibasaki in the knockout stage. Fun facts. 1 - Japan has never failed to win the group stage since 1992. Most consecutive progressions from the group stage as group winners 8 Japan (1992-2019) 4 Iran (2007-2019) 3 Iran (1972-1980) 3 Saudi Arabia (1984-1992) 2 - Japan has been unbeaten in the group stage since 1992. Most consecutive unbeaten games in the group stage 24 Japan (1992 vs UAE - 2019 vs Uzbekistan) 20 Iran (1996 vs Thailand - 2019 vs Iraq) 15 Iran (1972 vs Iraq - 1988 vs UAE) 13 Saudi Arabia (1984 vs S. Korea - 1996 vs Iraq) 10 S. Korea (2007 vs Indonesia - 2019 vs China)
I don't think he is considered a long term's CM solution. He is a squad player, I don't think he may even be called up the next big tournaments. Yes, I admit he had his moment last game, but due to his status, it can not outweight the disappointment from Shibasaki, Aoyama...
Iran and South Korea are still the favourite to win it all. I think Qatar are a fluke, but I may be wrong. Round of 16 will be already a good test and I'd have preferred to face them rather than Saudi Arabia.
At least Nakajima would have avoided the injury. First of all, other teams started training much earlier than us. When Yoshida and Muto were still in England, other English-based Asian players had been already training with their national teams. We can't justify the incompetence of the JFA. After the Turkmenistan game, Shiotani said the fitness level of the team was the worst.
Vietnam defeated Jordan 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw. So, if we win against Saudi Arabia we will be up against Vietnam, with them having one more day of rest. The core of this Vietnam is the same team which made throughout the youth ranks to the U-23 last year, which gave Japan's youth teams tough times when facing them (last time they won 0-1 against us in the Asian Games (Japan played with their U-21 team with no over-age player, while Vietnamese played with their U-23 in addition to 3 overaged players). In another note, it is disappoint to see Jordan knocked out after their victory and performance against Australia.
Good win for Vietnam. I do hope this win will inspire the rest of the ASEAN region teams to step up their game. As for Jordan, couldn't be any happier that they got ousted. The bunch I am acquainted with who happen to come from that country, were that confident of lifting the cup and were expecting to steamroll Japan in the next round lol.
if we beat saudi arabia i personally feel more comfortable playing vietnam. never feel easy playing the middle east in their backyard.
I have mixed feelings about this game. On one hand, I expect JNT to comfortably win since most of the default starters got rested at UZB match, but Saudi's loss at their final GS game might have given the Saudis a sort of a wake up call and the incentive to actually play better today just like how they did in the final game of 2018 WC qualifiers. Good luck.
Starting XI vs Saudi Arabia: Gonda Nagatomo, Tomiyasu, Yoshida, Sakai Shibasaki, Endo Haraguchi, Minamino, Doan Muto