I know, but in whole. No difference. Seems more and more like he wants a 11 like this, dont like it..
I still remember this same match from three years ago, I often go back and watch the highlights. Japan were so good then, against a Belgian team who were one of the best in the world. They were so good that they were keeping the Belgian fans quiet, who themselves seemed shocked at Japans level. That was when Japan had honda, kagawa, and kakitani all playing at their best. Those were the days, let's hope Japan puts in a good performance tonight!
I remember those days. Japan had the most hype ever and they looked like the best Asian team possibly in history. Then Brazil happened.
Sugimoto had a good chacne ? Japan was running with 4 players on the goal of Belgium...only 1 defender and goalkeeper was there and Sugimoto decide the worst decision from all....he ignor all other 3 players and shoot a medicore ball to the keeper out ot a most likely hopeless situation. Good game from Japan with 1 defensive sleep on the goal. Haraguchi-Osako-Asano has nothing to do at the moment in JNT, they are good players but out of form....players who are struggling in their clubs to bring in a stuggling NT is not the best Idea. But Asano was very active today...dont get it why he was subbed out before Haraguchi who was done nohting like every game. A bad form Haraguchi is one of the most skilles players on the pitch....Vahid has no clue what to do. One of the worst coaches in JNT History. But overall good game from Japan. Inui-Muto/Okazaki ( Sugimoto)- Kubo and the scoreline would be likely otherwise today
It looked like an improvement over last game. Everyone looked OK aside from Asano and Osako who were standing out from the group in a negative way. Makino looked especially well in both games. It looks promising. Morioka looked pretty good and his combinations of first touches with Kubo finally took some speed into midfield. Good game overall.
I fixed it for you. Unless you were born blind, Osako did a lot of moves back to the goal in the first half. In this set-up that's all you can expect from a striker.
Inui and Sugimoto was pretty good, Sugimoto was selfish but this is a ********ing friendly who cares about the score, the performance is more important and both Japan and Sugimoto were ok. Despite this they will be subs and nothing more in Russia. Asano/Osako/Haraguchi will be dropped when Honda/Okazaki/Kagawa will be back and since they performed horrible I hope Vahid will try other players in 2018. Totally forgot Muto was in this group. A ghost till now for Vahid. Quite good defence. It hurts but probably Nagatomo actually is the weaker of the defensive line. A nice and quite good match overall.
Well, honestly I don't think the match was that bad. The issue is that this team never really looks like it could over-achieve, you never get the sense that they could beat a team like Belgium. We're heading into the world cup with no basically expectations, I hope that for once this could surprise us positively. I liked Nagasawa with the ball but didn't really understand his defensive work (he kept roaming with little pressure, so could have been instructions). I also liked Inui, he should start. Haraguchi and Asano were pretty bad again... wat Man he should've scored there, that's how it works. (or pass)
He was selfish but that's not bad for a japanese striker, I think he could score and he tried. It's not the worst thing ever if he didn't pass since this was a meaningless friendly then why don't shine trying to equalize by himself? 1 - 0 or 1 - 1 the performance is what matters now. At the WC will be a different story, obviously.
He's got little injury. He even said that he hates when he gets 10 on his shirt as he never plays in those games for NT. For Haraguchi it was more or less expected knowing his situation in Hertha. He can't deliver too much on the attacking side but at least he covered Nagatomo well (especially in the first half). Osako is currently a striker who can't score. And he's not good enough to win it time after time in the post role especialy with top European class CBs like Belgium got. Cavani can do that, Lewandowski can do that but Yuya without form surely can't beat defenders standing with opponents goal behind his back. The best strikers can do THAT and SCORE goals. So maybe that's why Vahid should start with Okazaki in the finals?
Who's gonna do better than Osako in a 4-3-3 ? (the answer is no one) Asano also covered well AND got in good positions even though he didn't execute. On that alone, he was much more in the game than Haraguchi.
It was a good game, some mistakes here and there (the biggest mistake is the goal we conceded, as Chadli dribbled past Morioka, Yoshida and H. Sakai to cross the ball for an unmarked Lukaku at the far post). - Kawashima: Solid. - Yoshida: again was average. - Makino: Solid, getting stronger and saved us many times. - Nagatomo: poor defensively, but involved well offensively. - Hiroki Sakai: good in the first half but average in the second. - Yamaguchi: shaky in the first half and gave away a ball that nearly gifted Belgium a goal, but he was solid in the second half. - Ideguchi: average. Nagasawa: good considering that it was his NT debut, he was gradually picking up the momentum, gaining confidence and developing harmony with his teammates. - Haraguchi: The invisible man, did not do anything offensively, his side was dead except in some occasions in which Nagatomo went forward. During the first half he even did not provided cover for Nagatomo when he surged forward, leaving Belgians with lot of spaces in our left-side to create chances. To his defence he just tracked back almost 3 times to provide defensive cover. - Asano: his first touch is always bad, his teammates passes put him in favourable positions to either score or pass the ball to a teammate in a position to score, but he screwd these chances. This brought to my mind the chances he squandered due to his bad first-touch against UAE, Bosnia, Brazil and now Belgium. It is now a pattern with him. - Osako: Average, but still he has good runs, and it was really not his guilty to be isolated in the attacking zone, with no support from Asano and Haraguchi (who was literally a liability, as if we were playing with 10 men, it was not until he was subbed out that our attack improved significantly). Still I think Sugimoto was supposed to start instead of Osako. The subs: - Kubo: expected him to start giving he is familiar with Belgian football style (the same could be said about Morioka), he had good exchanges with Morioka, with the one in the 85th or 86th minute almost set up Morioka for 1-on-1 against Belgium's GK, but the Belgian defenders were solid and attentive to intercept the chance. - Morioka: good game, he was an improvement compared to Nagasawa, his touches and creativity and the way he pulled up the strings was what we were missing throughout this match (one can wonder what if either Honda or Kagawa was playing in this position instead of Nagasawa what could have been?). - Inui: Solid, he did in few minutes what Haraguchi did not do in the last two matches combined. - Sugimoto: Solid and has good exchanges with his teammates. There is no denial that he is superior physically than Osako and created more problems to the opposition's defenders as shown in the last two matches (his heading and aerial ability alone is miles ahead of Osako's + he is currently in a better form). - G. Sakai: No comment! He played for few minutes but he was not good at all.
You could say that Sugimoto is a better better finisher than Osako but he's a shrimp physically and he's rather slow as highlighted by the chance he had so that's a stretch ... I don't think he's an international player.