Re: Official Junior Youth (U17) Japanese NT Thread [R] omg okamoto that was horrible. Japan are playing like sh*t
Re: Official Junior Youth (U17) Japanese NT Thread [R] nope, in fact you were right. Japan is awful. The game is over. The way japan is playing right now, a draw would be a hopeful result...
Re: Official Junior Youth (U17) Japanese NT Thread [R] I can see this is going to be a "tail of 2 halves" kind of game...
Re: Official Junior Youth (U17) Japanese NT Thread [R] I always thought that the defenders were too slow. What the team needs is some good defensive mids to help out the frail defense.
Re: Official Junior Youth (U17) Japanese NT Thread [R] It's over. there it is . 3-2. can't say i didn't see it coming.
Re: Official Junior Youth (U17) Japanese NT Thread [R] If Japan scores another goal they need to park the bus infront of goal
Re: Official Junior Youth (U17) Japanese NT Thread [R] 2-3 to the swiss. wtf happened?!?!?! The defensive shape and team structure is in tatters.
Re: Official Junior Youth (U17) Japanese NT Thread [R] LOL I must be really bad luck. 2 goals in the space of a couple of minutes. I'm outta here hopefully the tide of the game will turn now.
Re: Official Junior Youth (U17) Japanese NT Thread [R] The momentum's been in Switzerlands favor since they tasted the smell of fear coming from our goal in the first half. Our midfield started playing really tight and now they're just giving the ball away and very slow on the buildup.
Re: Official Junior Youth (U17) Japanese NT Thread [R] This isn't as bad as Germany who just conceded 2 goals in 2 minutes against Argentina to go 1-2.
Re: Official Junior Youth (U17) Japanese NT Thread [R] I've given up on this tournament. More than half of the kids here will never play professionally. Definitely not the goal keeper. Vissel Kobe will probably release him after his performances so far. It probably would have been better for him to have not played to further his own career. Maybe that's a little too harsh...
Re: Official Junior Youth (U17) Japanese NT Thread [R] Shame it would have been nice to see how far the team could have gone. Ikeuchi should just go gung-ho and try to get a point. Its sucks that players like Haraguchi and Gotoku Sakai barely missed the cut off. The team could have REALLY used Sakai
Re: Official Junior Youth (U17) Japanese NT Thread [R] I cannot believe what I am witnessing here. We play one of the nicest soccer I've ever seen from a u17 level and score 2 goals of the highest order. What do we do then? Start dribbling thinking they are Messi and doing cute back heels thinking they are C.Ron. Japan is known to be diciplined and organized but it was anything but that. I refuse to believe in this mentality thing people are saying because I believe Japanese have one of the strongest mentalities both on adn off the field in the world. I also don't think we choke. We are just not effective in the final third and our own third. Where are the leaders on this team ffs.
Re: Official Junior Youth (U17) Japanese NT Thread [R] Japan has so many chances to come back but they keep missing ...
Re: Official Junior Youth (U17) Japanese NT Thread [R] Yea but I still don't think it's a matter of choking. The defense and keeper are really just that bad. Once the Swiss got enough possession to realize how poor the defense was it boosted their morale incredibly. That said, the finishing could be more clinical... but when couldn't it be? Anyway, it's only U17... these guys are still kids so I don't want to be too harsh on them. It is what it is.
Re: Official Junior Youth (U17) Japanese NT Thread [R] I think that the problem isn't within the system, but the mentality. To put it simply the players aren't mature yet. They don't know how to make the right decisions yet. This is partly to blame on the coaching, but really this kind of stuff comes from experience and many of the boys on the team have not experienced top level football. I wouldn't worry about it. The future looks bright if these boys can learn then the national team in the future will be very good. I think it would have been a good idea if the U-17 team had played the full national side just to give them a taste of defeat and the level they need to perform to be the best. They can truly see what they are lacking.
Re: Official Junior Youth (U17) Japanese NT Thread [R] yay, a consolation goal for Kojima. He's smart enough not to celebrate at least... and there goes the whistle anyway.
Re: Official Junior Youth (U17) Japanese NT Thread [R] It was a strange game! Its the first time I saw a team taking full control of a football match and yet lost it 4-3!!! Here are Japan's problem: 1- When they were 2 goal up, some of the players stopped playing as a team, and began playing to show their skills, and they forgot they were playing a decent European team which defeated Mexico 2-0, and instead of scoring more goals and send the contest to bed, they gave the opposing team a chance to regain their confidence. 2- Usami was the main reason of killing Japan's early momentum and wasting too many chances; in every time he had the ball he either tried to dribble through the whole Swiss defence, or he shot the ball towards goal instead of passing the ball to a team-mate in a better position! and yeah he kept playing like that even when Japan was 2-3 and 2-4 down!! 3- Japan's defence was too weak and shaky!! Everytime the Swiss had the ball they had a big chance to score, and yeah, the Swiss scored in more than 80% of their attacks, while Japanese scored in 10% or less of their attacks. 4- The Swiss may not a have a good midfield, and thats why the Japanese was dictating midfield, but they have strong goalkeeper and defenders, and they have a very dangerous striker called "Saforovic". The Swiss taught the Japanese a lesson in professionalism. Anyway, its only U-17, and form what I saw Japan have a good young talents which are able to outplay a decent European team like Switzerland, and beat a global power-house like Brazil.
Re: Official Junior Youth (U17) Japanese NT Thread [R] ??? They lost to Brazil. Japan has always been very weak at the U-17 level even when there is talent, because of various factors mentioned here: mentality, professionalism, and also physical development at this age level. You basically just have to keep an eye out for the individual talents who might figure into the U-20 setup, where Japan does better, and ultimately the national team. This generation does have some gifted players that we may be seeing much more of. Especially with the attacking players, at this age you don't want them to be too cynical... it's not wrong for a 17 year old prodigy like Usami to test his dribbling ability against world-level competition. He will learn from his experience and grow. Maybe even the keeper will do so.
Re: Official Junior Youth (U17) Japanese NT Thread [R] Nope, keeper's done. There's no hope for him. Sorry, but that's the sad truth.