6 others moved from Japan to Europe during 2019, so it’s fair to say that the J.League is doing its part in developing talent.
Squad numbers for those who care: 1 Kawashima 2 Ueda 3 Anzai 4 Hatanaka 5 Nagatomo 6 Endo 7 Shibasaki 8 Haraguchi 9 Minamino 10 Nakajima 11 Nagai 12 Gonda 13 Hashimoto 14 Ito 15 Osako 16 Tomiyasu 17 Kubo 18 Suzuki 19 Sakai 20 Itakura 21 Doan 22 Yoshida 23 Schmidt Surprised to see Kubo taking number 17 instead of Itakura (giving that number 17 has been associated to DM/CM for more than a decade), unless Kubo (or JFA) wants to emphasise that Kubo will be the leader of the next generation?!
With poor finishing and decision making. Really, the two left footers are getting on my nerves. Nakajima too. It seems the only guy who still has senses and fights for the team is Osako.
Nakajima was very good IMO, his dribbling was an assets at tearing-up Paraguayan defensive structure. He will only get better after this. Doan, i think he played a respectable performance at the first 20-25 minutes, but after the howler, he's back to his pathetic self. Shadow of another 3 more-attack-minded players. Kubo, such a joy to watch. The way he utilize the space and beat his marker by creating a sudden pause of his movement is the sign that he's the player we've been waiting for so long. You've got to tolerate why he looks that he want to get his debut goal sooner than later. It's true that the attacking unit looked not as cohesive as the first half. And yes, the team's been set-up to facilitate Kubo to grab the headlines being a big part of this issue, while the lack of chemistry is the other, but, i am sure that after Kubo's get his debut goal, it's gonna be worth it. Minamino doing all the running and pressing, his output could've been better, but a positive performance nonetheless Osako, there's no other way of saying that he's our most important player, Japan's attacking unit won't be working if it's not Osako playing at the top. Shibasaki's been brilliant since CA, hope his career at Europe also get boost after this Nagatomo, worryingly, still our best left fullback up to this moment Tomiyasu, played solidly at the back, but his build-up play was fell-short of my expectation this time, after his encouraging debut at Bologna. Gonda is good
Good win today. So excited to see what this Blue Samurai has to offer after the somewhat disappointing result, imo, in the last Asian Cup. This team, on paper, is capable of demolishing every Asian team on its path but again, it's football and anything can happen.
I couldn’t watch the match live, but I am re-watching it tonight. Based on the first 17 minutes I watched and the highlights, I can see why Moriyasu called-up the first-choice team; it seems he does not want his core players to have long time without playing together as a team and lose their harmony, especially since Osako has been out since the Asian Cup and Nakajima out of form. Kento Hashimoto never fails to impress, and he seems to leapfrog Endo to the starting spot to play alongside Shibasaki. Hashimoto provides the solution for all of Shibasaki’s shortcomings; covering his weak defending, stepping-in to assist the attack when Shibasaki is neutralised by opposing players, and provides physical prowess which Shibasaki is genuinely lacking. Misao and Morita had their ups and downs when they were called-up for the NT recently, and both had disappointing performances with the NT recently; Misao in the friendlies late last year, and Morita in last June’s friendlies. Oshima is injury-prone, and Endo has not playing for his club lately, and he needs time to get to his best form again after the lengthy injury which kept him out for many weeks after the Asian Cup, not to mention Endo’s main weakness which is his slowness compared to Hashimoto and other options in this position. To finish talking about Hashimoto, his effort in starting the attack which resulted in Japan’s first goal was brilliant, and he surely cemented his chances of securing a spot in Japan’s starting line-up in the meantime. More to follow after finish watching the whole match.
They first half was nearly perfect, Moriyasu knows what he can build on. Just needs to trim the bad herbs now.
That's exactly how I was fed up. JNT used to treat Doan like that the last 2 years, look what is the result. Japan doesn't lack talents to the point that they have to give playing times to youngsters all the time. Also, these young players would take it for grants and I'm afraid they would lost their hungers. About Nakajima, it was his little juggling with the ball at the end of 1st half that made me angry. Look, I could understand if he was selfish with all early shootings, since he wanted to be worthy of number 10, but what kind of attitude was that? Even for a friendly, I could see why the Paraguay players were furious after it.
It's completely within the rules to have fun with the ball, being angered by that means that you are a sore loser. The yellow card should have been a red.
Yeah I was confused about that situation as well, Thierry Henry used to do that all the time. I guess nakajima doesn't have the respect to do that, I love it though, show some personality
The point is, professional players tend to treat this action as some kind of provocations. Actually, I'm ok if he had done it in an official competitive match, since it boosts your team's morale and make opponents losing calmness. But this was a friendly match, what's his purpose? Why didn't he focus on bettering his movement and passing with teammates, like the plays they scored the 2 goals? That's what I want to see, not some useless showboatings.
I think it's great having a player like this, Japan has always been known for their passing and workrate, but never for individual flare, I think it's good to see someone Japanese wants to express themselves. I suppose if Ronaldhino or Henry does it then it's different, players respected them so highly, nakajima to those Paraguayans is maybe some random player making fun. But still, I can't remember last time Japan had a player like this.
I just finished watching the match today, after watching it sporadically in the last few days. MVP: Kento Hashimoto. Most Disappointing Player (MDP) : Takefusa Kubo. Kubo’s entrance literally dismantled the whole system and structure of the team. Japan under Moriyasu played exchanging-passes football with players constantly changing their places to unblock the opposing defence threshold. With Kubo’s entrance, and with his continuous attempts to dribble past opposing players in a series of solo-efforts, he alienated the whole Japan system, and Japan played a predictable and static football, Osako (then Nagai) and Minamino were isolated in the front line and rarely dropped back to help in the build-up, while the two central midfielders were also left isolated in the centre of the field as Kubo rarely passed the ball back to them even if his path forward seemed blocked. As a result, Paraguay’s defence had enough time to contain both Osako (then Nagai) and Minamino and outnumber them, as both Shibasaki and Hashimoto rarely surged forward, and the two attacking midfielders (Kubo and Haraguchi) played way too wide, hence, the Paraguayans completely controlled anything in the centre. It came as no surprise that the only chance from an open play Kubo got in this match when he exchanged passes with his teammates and Shibasaki surged forward and fed him with a through pass, from which Kubo hit the crossbar (while he could passed the ball to Nagai who was in a better scoring position, or even Haraguchi at the far post). Kubo has poor harmony with the senior team players, trying to do too much by himself, his passes were terrible against Paraguay, I didn’t count, but in many times he either passed the ball to a Paraguayan player (in one occasion he hit the referee with one of his wrong passes), or he passed the ball to his teammates while they are in an unfavourable situation or overhit his passes. As for back-passes, I can’t remember a simple occasion in which he passed the ball backwards even if going forward by himself or pass it forward to a teammate will most probably end up with Japan losing position. This kid needs to mature and learn how to play for the sake of the team not to showcase his individual skills. As I said in another thread when I compared him to Hiroki Abe, Abe is better than Kubo team-wise, Kubo is still a raw material and he is poor when it comes to play in a collective unit in the top level. I am still against calling him up at this point of his career, I would rather see him mature gradually without rushing him into the top team and putting him under the spotlights.
Good article by Ken Matsushima, in which he agrees with me on Kubo’s mal-contribution: http://jsoccer.com/new/samurai-blue-reports/433-japan-paraguay-190905
Oh please, he's been against Kubo from day 1 because he wants to be contrarian. Yes, he did not score against Paraguay, and the second period as a whole wasn't as good as the first one, but he's barely 18 and the confidence and the skill he shows are impressive enough to think that it's not a waste to give him game time right now.
Good reason. Give him playing time while he makes the team dysfunctional by being too individualistic, losing possession, and makes wrong passes.
I don't think it makes sense to quibble too much over Kubo's performances at the moment. Due to his technique and vision he has a much larger space of possible decisions with the ball to make compared to other players, and he gets plenty of time calibrating to a pragmatic level with Mallorca, where the match results actually matter.
By the way, Kicker Magazine, biggest football magazine in Europe called Kubo to something like Player of the match against Paraguay. They tell he is amazing and he was very good. He is sooo young. Kinks performance has his weaknesses for now but was awesome.
Well, Japan’s system is built on players continuously switching their positions, so if a player confined himself to a side he dismantled the system and made the team dysfunctional. Thank you for -implicitly- proving my point.
Quibble? Let’s end it with this: I think no one can deny Kubo’s potentials and skills, but he is still a work in progress. Hence, why to rush a player into the top level when he is a raw material instead of letting him grow gradually and become more useful and stronger player (especially with his negative impact on the team in general) ?