Wow what the ********. Very entertaining game from Japan. We played good football throughout 90 mins. Muto had a good game in first half. Inui excellent after poor first half. Kagawa showed his class, missing sitter then scoring his great goal. He still has ability unlike Honda. Shibasaki was very good on the ball and should play alongside Hasebe. I feel the only choice now is Okazaki or Osako. I think we should start with Oka and when he runs out of steam and bring on Osako second half. In defence Ueda was excellent. I would start with Ueda and Yoshida at back with both Sakais as fullbacks. And why not Nakamura in goal too.
Paraguay defeated Colombia at Colombia in the round before the last in South America's qualifying round. Paraguay was supposed to be directly qualify, but they surprisingly lost against Venezuela, letting Colombia and Peru to qualify instead.
Sure, but this was just a random friendly and testimonial for Villar to Paraguay, which showed in the rather low intensity level. Some good performances which may have played Kagawa and perhaps Shibasaki into the starting lineup for next week.
Apart from Switzerland's friendly + The two friendlies against Brazil and Belgium in the later part of last year all of Japan's friendlies and tune-up matches were against weaker opponents (at least on paper). Yet, they won against New Zealand, drew against both Haiti and Mali in the last minutes of these games, and they lost against Ukraine and Ghana. They really sucked, played unwatchable footbal and never looked close to scoring. In this match they played enjoyable football for the first time in a while, the exchanges which involved Kagawa, Inui and Shibasaki were impressive. Inui and Kagawa's combinations are better than any combination Honda and Usami could ever do. Okazaki's continuous pressing and maneuvering between the opposing defence line created gaps for players coming from behind to create scoring opportunities. Japan scored 4 and could have easily scored more (Inui's over-hit shot, Shibasaki's free-kick which hit the cross-bar, Osako's disallowed goal, Okazaki's QBK, and Kagawa's over-hit shot in the second half). Even against Haiti, UAE, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Iraq and Mali, Japan never had these kind of clear-cut chances and fluid passing game for a while. Let's hope that Nishino will take notes and start with Kagawa and Inui against Colombia. As for Usami, he is a real handicap and useless player, Japan could have utilize his spot with a player who adds something extra and different to the team. There is no way a potent and sane coach could have start Usami unless a gun is pointed at his head.
What did Nishino said about Inui? The Japanese TV interviewer interviewed him directly after the match and mentioned Inui's name in the first question. I don't know what he said because I can't understand Japanese. Anyone who can give us some information here?
Yeah I'd like to hear some reaction from the manager and the press if anyone could add to that, thanks
"We held our shape in defence and contained them, and that was a concern for us, but you need balance as well," Nishino said after his team ended a five-match winless streak, stretching back to December. "You need to break down your opponents and we finally did that in the second half. "Inui has a talent for dribbling in the box and I want more of that from him. We saw that with his second-half goals."
Okada had the guts to bench S.Nakamura and Kawaguchi in 2010 when they were starters for sure till some days before the WC beginning. S.Nakamura was high sponsored by Adidas and didn't play except a few minutes vs Netherlands if I remember correctly. Even Morimoto was sponsored by Adidas and never played. Let's hope Nishino will copycat Okada and change his mind a week before the match against Colombia rethinking the team and shutting the haters mouths.
The looks of Honda while on the bench and while he was warming up were obvious, he barely celebrated Inui's goal and did not celebrate after Kagawa's goal which sealed Japan's win. It will be ironic if Nishino eventually bench him during the WC, as Vahid expressed that he was under pressure from JFA to start Honda, and that he -Honda- was the main among NT players who plotted Vahid's sacking. Let's wait and see what will happen in the forthcoming 6 days building up to the match against Colombia.
I remember even under Zac Japan, when Kagawa was at his best, if he was ever injured or didn't play, the team looked completely different. In fact I remember someone in the team saying they needed to try and work together when he's not there. I think Kagawa has to start, he brings individuality like we saw today with his goal, he can give you time and has great awareness. If Honda does start then it needs to be with Kagawa, seeing those two up top would worry any team. But for me, Honda just isn't the same player no matter how well he's doing in Mexico. It's like Bradley wright Phillips being a top scorer in MLS, but doesn't mean he's getting anywhere near the England team. Honda doesn't have the legs for me. It's unfortunate that Columbia is the first game, hopefully the players will play with freedom and not with fear. Watching the recent friendly results with Japan, it's pretty much a nightmare group, but if they can play at their absolute best, they can at least cause some of those teams a scare or two, which after what we've seen recently, wouldn't be so bad.
Honda and Kagawa played togheter when they were Top Players or a tier behind that kind of level. They had the same position and Kagawa was sacrificed on the side cuz Honda was/is the Alpha Dog. Now they are not good enough to justify the presence of both of them on the pitch while we have plenty options for the sides. Imo Kagawa should be the starter and Honda the super sub but probably it will be the opposite as it happens in a "staffetta". Actually the only madness will be DON'T start Inui or the Sakais (but Nagatomo will probably start instead of Gotoku or his SSJ haircut will be wasted), I hope Nishino will understand this at least.
This kind of just tells me he thought of it as a training match, which is what it looked like on TV. Either way, hopefully Japan didn't use all their goals in one match as tends to happen!
I agree, start Kagawa. True he's not as good as he once was, but as has been said before on this board, we mustn't forget that he played very well this season before getting injured, and that was for BVB, which is, after all, a top club in a top league (compare this with Honda). In other words, he's proven that he's still a very good player. Give him a chance to redeem himself after his massively disappointing WC 2014, when despite being one of the greatest footballing talents to ever come out of Japan, he played like a shadow of himself.
Then he should consider the one against Ghana the same too. If you didn't watch the match then don't make justifications/excuses for Honda. He was literally dismayed during Ghana's match and today's match, his looks wasn't telling at all the he didn't care because these matches were just friendlies. Do I need to post a pic of him so you don't make any excuses/justifications for him?
LOL , I could really care less about making excuses for him. I'm just stating an obvious fact. It was a training match against a non-world cup team. They didn't really need to celebrate like they won the world cup.
Ha that was some petty camerawork by NTV, panning over to players on the bench at key moments (Kawashima when Paraguay scored, Honda when Kagawa scored, etc). I suppose Nishino was pissed off when Japan scored too, judging by the expression on his face.
https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/article?a=20180613-00110717-soccermzw-socc Honda refused to respond to questions asked by the media after the match.
Typical jerk. The JFA should just send him home if he's looking for a bust-up right before the World Cup. Other national teams have done that before.
Honda ignores the media more often than not. I suspect this is part of a game he plays with certain journalists, dangling access in exchange for swooning columns. There were definitely questions around Nishino deciding to use the remaining players of the 23 instead of settling on a starting 11. It appears to have been a worthwhile exercise shedding light on the viable options. I think it'll be very difficult to use Honda as a starter, unless as a false 9 a la WC2010 / WCQ away vs. Australia. He slows down the attack and makes too many technical errors, and Kagawa is far superior in defensive counterpressing. A similar point can be made regarding Usami vs. Inui. None of the CF options are going to strike terror in the opposition, but they all work hard and bring something different to the field. Being able to switch positions and tactics is useful here too. Shibasaki was crisp on the ball and especially creative with his movement, going forward or wide to add depth to the attack. He looks like a favorite to start. Hasebe is a worry and he may have lost his legs. The long suspension for the dirty elbow he threw at Selke may have cost him match fitness, and aside from leadership and the ability to drop between the center backs it's not clear what he offers. Yamaguchi's distribution and positioning are erratic, but he can at least be relied upon to run all game and dish out some damage. Nishino may need him to man-mark a James or a Mané at some point. Oshima should also be back well before next week and showed that he can kick the offense into gear. Gotoku putting in a good shift was a good sign, owing to Hiroki's ongoing fitness issue and the possibility an aging Nagatomo won't be able to click 270 minutes in the opening round. Endo is an emergency option at best. I still think Makino will start alongside Yoshida. His athleticism and ability on the ball are valuable, and scoring prowess off set pieces is sorely needed in this tournament. That said, Shoji showed a willingness to play positive passes out of the back, while Ueda is a good situational sub. Kawashima looks set to start. I doubt Higashiguchi or Nakamura's cameos did much to inspire confidence.
Totally agree on what you said about Kagawa and Inui being superior than Honda and Usami. As I said after Ghana's match, Honda's slowness is really killing our offensive fluidity. Whenever he has the ball he is moving slowly, taking long time to take decision about the next move, until then opposing players can read his intentions, take action and close in on him and other attacking players. With Honda our attack is quite predictable and static (in a negative way), but with Kagawa all of these shortcomings are negated. Kagawa's fast passing, and his combinations with other players always created spaces in the opposing defence as his moves and passes are quite unpredictable for opposing players and they can't contain it. In the meanwhile, Usami's problem is that he doesn't taking shots, backing off challenges, and giving Nagatomo the priority to surge forward from the left-wing instead of himself (which make me wonder if he has any confidence issues and don't have enough courage), while Inui is his opposite. Even Usami's clubmate Haraguchi, who plays in the right, has more courage to take opposing players one-on-one and dribble past them, and he is never afraid of taking shots, despite the fact that Usami is a better shooter and dribbler than Haraguchi.
I'm not so worried about Hasebe. Come on he was great no more than a couple of weeks ago in DFB cup final!
Not been on for quite a while, I don't really go on forums much these days. Just here to send my love to my Japanese friends and good luck from here in Scotland.