They fielded the A team or the subs? Now it's time to come back on earth and be ready for the real tournament as UAE is a tough opponent (or not?).
The media's coverage of Kubo (naturally) has been borderline obsessive but great to see the bench players stepping up. Defenders look pretty composed (against some terrible strikers), Seko especially looks comfortable on the ball. I think he might've been registered as a J player before Kubo this year as a holding MF.
GK Tani DF Seko, Sugawara, Kikuchi MF Hirakawa, Kida, Fukuoka FW Miyashiro, Kubo, Nakamura, Tanahashi
Frustrating match, had many attempts, but only few decent half-chance, Hirakawa Rei was the better of the bunch. I like him very much.
Kubo showing some great touch and some nice dribbles, but too often his first touch was overcooked and his form tend to fluctuate too much. U-16 since Watanabe era seems to have better understanding in the importance of spacing and positional play compared to A team of current generation as well as Teguramori's U-23. Encouraging sign. Are U-16 teams before Watanabe era also played like this, but decline when they enter U-19?
If they'd converted even half their chances we would've won by 4-5 goals. They looked very composed, UAE only looked semi threatening from set pieces. Hirakawa and Fukuoka were absolute beasts in MF.
780079363844743168 is not a valid tweet id not a good match anyway, deserved to advance mostly because UAE was never a threat, but it's a concern considering who we are going to face next. The goal was all about their GK. That said, World Cup achieved \o/ Couple of quick comments on some of the players while things are still fresh in my mind 5 Seko: good display even though he had a couple of moments. Uses his body decently, managed to be a threat on CKs. 6 Kida: Great for '60, then had a couple of brainfarts. Often propositive in attack. 19 Kikuchi: did he play? I couldn't tell if he ever made it past the MF. Clumsy header near the end which could've been constly 4 Hirakawa : calm and composed but I expected more. Rarely involved in attack, mostly short distribution 10 Fukuoka: fairly disappointing 13 Nakamura: very disappointing today, at least he was one of the few who managed one shot on goal I guess. 9 Kubo : thanks 11: Miyashiro : one of the best for me, this guy technically is amazing. Super slick pass for Akito in the first half. However he needs to score dem goals. 2 Katsura: you're a dwarf but you can use your body son.
Well maybe not clear enough for my liking, easy match, i agree, we made it looks difficult ourself. Will watch BS1 coverage after this to re-analyze. But we certainly struggle a bit at the start of 2nd half until about 70 minutes.
At the start of the second half you could tell this was going to be one of those matches protecting a one goal lead despite having half dozen chances including a penalty. One more goal and the flood gates would've opened.
It was probably the best match until half time when they completely let it go. This team has played like that from the get go, don't get fooled by the scorelines. They suffocate their opponent so and capitalize on their mistakes. Today was a blend of less mistakes by the UAE and less accuracy in front of the goal. But it was perfectly in line with the rest of the tournament.
The goal was all about their GK, but their GK also made some decent saves to save them from embarassing result. What about Tanahashi? Hirakawa made some nice vertical pass initiating our attack, made plenty interception, and showing a great understanding of the game. He's not contributing directly to the attack i think, because he's been told to not to. Julian Weigl anybody?
I actually thought that in the second half the team was way more dangerous, esp. between 60'-80'... I was falling asleep in the first one. I'd like to see the shots on target per half but sadly the AFC website sucks. I recall terrible shots in the GK's face from #8 and #18 even in the final minutes. I don't think I can bring myself to rewatch this though, on to the semis Agree, but today I found the accuracy even worse than usual, even the shots on target sucked.
Hirakawa and Fukuoka were always there to clean up in defence. Whenever UAE or we cleared our lines those two were always first to the ball.
http://mokodojo.net/MKTW.swf?src=http://113.53.228.67:5021/live/301|c03 re-run in BS1, commentator was Yamamoto Masakuni.
They were eventually as teams started to tired but I preferred the content in the first half, the passes were straight and penetrating, players linked well together and i didn't feel like we were in that limbo we got caught at the beginning of the second half, when neither team could keep hold of the ball and anything could happen.
Looks like it'll be Iraq... Iraq, North Korea, Japan, Iran are the teams qualified for the next world cup.