What result do you guys hope for in Australia vs Saudi Arabia match? For Australia vs Saudi Arabia match, what result do you think is the best for Japan?
Now that the defense looks pretty solid, time to solve another problem: https://www.facebook.com/shinjikagawa/posts/1354933281229235:0
The squad announced. Who the hell is the Kato guy in Bulgaria???? Nice to see Inui get called up, though. He is really doing well in La Liga.
Anyone knows how Takayuki Seto is playing in Romania at the moment? Can he be an option to replace Hasebe if Hasebe is not in form next year?
The Squad for Syria's friendly and Iraq WCQ: GK Eiji Kawashima Masaaki Higashiguchi Kosuke Nakamura DF Yuto Nagatomo Tomoya Ugajin Tomoaki Makino Maya Yoshida Hiroki Sakai Gotoku Sakai Gen Shoji Genta Miura MF Yasuyuki Konno Shu Kurata Shinji Kagawa Kohei Kato Hotaru Yamaguchi Wataru Endo Yusuke Ideguchi FW Shinji Okazaki Keisuke Honda Takashi Inui Yuya Osako Genki Haraguchi Yuya Kubo Takuma Asano
He is a defensive midfielder, he played in Montenegro, Poland and Bulgaria regularly the last seasons (they are all tough leagues, which require a lot of physical prowess in his position, and it seems that Vahid saw something in him and called him up).
Here's Vahid's comment about Kato: Probably most of you don't know too much about him but we were tracking him for the last year. We watched him playing in Bulgaria 4 times. His part is taking the ball off from opponents and he can contribute to the build up. I don't think he'll play [in NT] soon, some time is needed to get an understanding of each other [with the team]. Also no FC Tokyo players this time.
Thanks. But I still think J-League is better than the Bulgarian league as a whole. I don't know why Muto was left out again. His goal ratio (0.45) in Bundesliga is good and he can score at least 10 goals easily if he is free from injuries.
I'm speaking without knowing too much about Kato, but I don't think Beroe was stronger than Astra. Kato seems to be the same type of player, but younger than Seto.
Yuki Kobayashi should given a chance imo. Don't really understand players like Ugajin, Endo and Miura getting picked ahead of players that are in form like Muto, don't think they are that impressive. Nice to see Kosuke Nakamura tho.
He recently came to conclusion that staring in a mid-table Eredivisie won't get him NT playing time. A good conclusion but I don't know what he can do about it. He fits it perfectly and I doubt there will be many clubs waiting in line from stronger leagues wanting to hire him this summer.
That's not what happened. Vahid talked to him, and concluded he wouldn't take him this time because the quality of the pitch favors players like Kato and Konno. He wants Kobayashi to be more agressive and more defensively astute.
Vahid told that today during press conference? That pitch isn't right for him? Which one - Ajinomoto or that small venue in Iran?
There is no space for Kobayashi. Japan needs a destroyer like Konno in the defensive midfield to survive at the WC level. Kobayashi's ball-winning ability is below average.