Sorry, but the most exciting thing of the game right now are the seagulls that are in the middle of the field.
Kamiya in, Yamamoto out at 66'. We keep gifting balls in the midfield, and this also led to a dangerous situation in our box. I've got the feeling that some players aren't as technical as we've use to: not enough accuracy in passes or not being able to properly trap some fast balls.
Sara Ito in, Takizawa out at 78'. So no Tanaka today. Ito scored twice vs South Africa, let's hope it's a good omen...
3 CK in a row after a quite dangerous action from us, but we don't manage to get any clear chance from them. We're pushing a little more, but it's not enough to break the stale-mate, apparently.
An almost decent shot at 90' from us prompts a save from NZ's GK. But PKs are fastly approaching. Just 2 minutes of injury-time.
...and penalty shootout it is. I have a bad feeling about that. 11th cigarette for @Manchester Nadeshiko?
Ferns look relaxed: they basically have nothing to lose, they weren't even suppose to get to PKs, on paper.
Their GK quite always dive to the correct side and it's very mobile. Ours looks static like one of the posts.
They win with their GK taking the last penalty. New Zealand is now officially our new Ghana (although this U-17 gave a way worse general impression than the one from 2012, that had much more talent spread around: Hasegawa, Shimizu, Momiki, Masuya, Narumiya, H. Sugita... no-one of the current ones, frankly, seem up to those standards)
Well, we are out without losing a game, but only winning one against one of the worst teams of the tournament. Congratulations NZ, they didn't deserve to win but not to lose either. PS: Where are the 3 goals Japan was going to score today? We score one and it was an own goal.
This tournament didn't go very well since the beginning. I guess losing the coach at a week from the start was part of the equation, both tactically and mentally. Well, it was anyway an amazing year for Japan: AFC Asian Cup, U-20 WWC, Asian Games. This last tournament went the wrong way, you can't win them all. The general quality of this U-17 team, anyway, looked a little sub-par compared to our standards.
A little bit consolation for you: The result of U 14 training matchs vs South Korea: Japan 4-0 South Korea Japan 4-0 South Korea This generation seems to have super talents like Hamano, Hijikata...
Heh, I said I would be surprised...so I'm I guess Ikeda was more intrested in rotations than scoring as JPN played their 4th match with 4th different line-up. I wonder though how this team would perform under Tomomi Miyamoto (assitant coach, former player) - she is with the team since 2017.
Today's result: Nojima 3-0 Fujieda Junshin Harima 4-0 Sfida Heisei Teikyo Uni 2-1 Iga Nagano 4-0 Mukogawa Women Uni Nippatsu 2-1 Kanagawa Uni Jef 2-0 Ange Violet Beleza 6-1 JFA Inac 4-0 Nagoya
I would also add Oyama and Fujino to the list of super talents. https://mycujoo.tv/video/nadeshiko-league?id=27405 This is a game between Cerezo U15 and Menina U15 a few weeks ago. Here you can see Hamano (striker / number 40 for Cerezo) and Fujino (striker / number 9 for Menina) in action. By the way, Fujino has a very similar style of play to Ueki in my opinion
Some notable scorers (especially NT members) from yesterday's matches: - in Beleza-JFA, 3 goals by Yuka Momiki, 2 by Mina Tanaka and 1 by Rin Sumida; lonely Fukushima's goal was scored by World Champion Jun Endo. - Nagano had quite the U-20 WWC 2012 revival, with a brace by Asuka Nishikawa and a goal by Shiori Kinoshita. Kumi Yokoyama was part of that U-20 NT too, but for some reason she wasn't on the pitch nor on the bench yesterday. - Brace for Yoko Tanaka vs Fujieda! (another U-20 from 2012 ). - INAC-Nagoya: hat-trick by Mai Kyokawa (was it U-20 2012 day? Although Kyokawa was actually injured in that tournament) and lonely goal by Emi Nakajima. About the upset of the day: Teykyo University scored the goals that gave them the win vs Iga at 86' and 90'+1'!