Match #47, 2018 World Cup: Japan vs. Poland - 6/28/18

Japan was already going to be getting 4 days of rest between now and July 2nd. Plus the 5 days between the senegal game and today. Did their key players really need a super-extra long break that badly? I saw no reason not to give it everything and come out with 7 points on the much better half of the bracket. The coach is terrible, or there is something deeper going on that nobody knows about. Maybe some of the guys were on the verge of injury...

 

Probably that they are already a bunch of older guys (ossan Japan) and England and Belgium have young talented teams that will destroy them without rest

 

Hm, that's a good point. The birthrate's kicking in.

 

Man of the Match: Jan Bednarek. #POL pic.twitter.com/Vtuamr0e0R

— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) June 28, 2018

 

I don't see japan vs belgium being pretty for jpn. Really didn't think they were going to lose to poland. They had subs playing, which I of course did not know they were doing prior to today, but it still shouldn't have looked the way it did.

 

Definitely. If England and Belgium are both resting many of their stars and don't have to play in such hot conditions, then this is the least Japan must do to stand any chance, because even with equal rest, it will be an extremely tough task to deal with the speed and power of Lukaku or the guile of Hazard.

After 90 minutes in such conditions, it would take well over one week before one could play at near full strength. Belgium and England will have a massive advantage from this alone, especially as their two group matches were against the two teams that were arguably the weakest in the tournament.

Nishino as former technical director made a very wise decision as he did in the Colombia match where he decided to tire out Colombia's forwards. I am impressed with his awareness of how to efficiently use energy to gain advantage over opponents. It is this confidence in their ability to outlast their opponents that allowed gave them the mental strength to come back twice against Senegal and to score the winner against Colombia.

 

Were the conditions really that bad? I checked and it was 28-29 C in Moscow during the game. Not ideal, but not unplayable at all, especially for professionals. Or were you referring to something else?
And a week? Are you sure it takes a week to recover from 1 game at hot temperatures? Are these players being fed or are they treating them like they're in the army..

 

According to the FIFA site, it was 36 degrees. https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/matches/match/300331507/#match-info

This would mean field temperatures would be above body temperature, which would mean that little or no cooling effect would occur and the sweat would only compound the humidity in the air making the players even hotter.

Have you ever tried doing a 10 K race all out in such conditions? Try doing that again 5 days later. I'm not talking about a 10 km jog. I'm talking about the sort of effort you could only do a few times a year if you were interested in setting a personal best. Nobody would even try to set a personal best in these sorts of conditions, but at a World Cup knockout round it is the sort of performance one needs if they're playing opponents who have played in conditions more than 15 degrees cooler the week before not to mention that more than half their lineups didn't start.

This is what I mean when I say that it takes well over a week to recover to the point that one can give an effort good enough to beat a top 10 side while being a top 40-50 side.

 

It was a little disappointing to see Japan play that way, I thought they played well in their other games and in this game up to that point. It was very surprising Poland didn't put in a high press when the Japanese were having a training session with their defenders. As you say a 1-0 win for a team ranked 8th in the world as the only result for Poland is still a terrible failure of a campaign.

 

I warned on another thread a few months ago. Player-wise Japan is a different Asian animal compared to Iran, Korea, Australia and Saudi. They have 11 players who made at least 100 appearances in the top 5 European leagues including title winners like Kagawa (EPL/Bundesliga), Okazaki (EPL) and Hasebe (Bundesliga). Both MLS and J-League started in the 1990s but sadly the latter has produced better players.