Official 2019 Samurai Blue thread

Hey mate, are trying to be a contrarian or arguing for the sake of arguing?

I am saying this because your last couple of posts here added nothing to the discussion.

We all knew that Moriyasu is in charge of both the senior and Olympic teams.

We all know he tested many players during his 1-year in charge of both teams, he at least tested 5 or more options per each position (and this for both the senior and Olympic teams).

As for the EAFF, I had already mentioned in an earlier post that the earliest time we are expected to see some new faces is in the EAFF, as it will be an exclusively J-League selection.

As for your point about continuity and familiarity between players. Are you serious that you think there is someone who is against such thing?

This is an axiomatical fact that nobody can deny.

In a post by me in last June when someone criticised the call-up of full-strength squad for the pre-Copa America friendlies instead of testing the Copa America squad ahead of the big event, I already said that this was a part of familiarising player to the team again after some of them were absent for injury or were out of form, and that it is counter-productive to keep players out of the squad for a long period.

So what is your post all about when the points you are stating are known and had been already stated by me and others?

I think you misunderstood your forum mates comments and you think they are asking to exclude the whole European-based players or the whole full-strength team altogether for a long period of time, which nobody has said or suggested here FYI.

First, excluding some first-team players is different than excluding all of them.

Second, full-strength Moriyasu Japan had already played 19 games together, and tomorrow’s game against Mongolia will be the 20th, without counting the 3 Copa America matches, so the core unit of this team played at least 15 games together and this is enough to get familiarised to each other and have harmony between them. Hence some of them can be rested for some easy games, give the chance for alternatives, and not risk them getting injured or endure an awkward physical conditions by flying from Europe to Japan and other parts of Asia once in a month and risk their playing time in their European clubs just for the sake of playing teams like: Mongolia, Afghanistan and Cambodia.

For example, what is the point of calling-up Hiroki Sakai for this month’s matches when he is just returned from injury and might get his injury aggravated by playing against such teams when the likes of Muroya and Anzai can fill his place without any negative consequences?
In a different scenario, why a player who is struggling to gain playing minutes in a new team he just transferred to is being called-up instead of letting him use the international break to gain more time to familiarise with his new surroundings in Europe? While calling him up for a such matches might increase his struggle to get playing minutes with his club and halting the progress of his career temporarily.

In an article I read years ago, one of Japan’s players complained about the hardships he endured flying back and forth from Europe to Japan and other parts of Asia every month, with some Asian countries had/has no direct flights from and to Japan, which increased the travel time for the players, and then this player had to gain his starting spot with his European team who played in both domestic competitions and UEFA CL or EL completions to add more burden to the player in question. All of this just to play against some Asian minnows that Japan can beat with their C-team. I don’t remember if it was Uchida, Okazaki or Kagawa, but this shed lights on how such thing have disruptive and negative consequences on Japanese players in Europe.

The point is that the negatives of calling-up the full-strength team and the whole European-based players for such matches out-weight the perceived positives of such thing.

This thoughts do not mean that we think that the team is bad or we are angry or throwing tantrums or whining or any negative labels you might mention in describing your fellow forum members when they express their thoughts, as if you are depriving them of their freedom of expression by labelling them in such a negative manner.

 

You seem to overlook an important fact: Europe is a small continent, and apart from travelling to Kazakhstan (or Russia, Turkey, Israel, and the Caucasus countries to a lesser extent for countries in Western Europe), most UEFA teams don’t have to endure long and tiresome travels for qualification matches.
While Japanese players in Europe have to travel from Europe to 2 different destinations in Asia and then return to Europe in the period of approximately 10 days, this contains heavy jet-lag and transit in some airports because there is no direct flights from Japan/Europe to and from some Asian destinations such as the Central Asian countries.

If I recall correctly, In 2014 WC qualifications, Japan had to travel all the way to the Middle East (UAE or Qatar, I’m not sure which one) as a transit in their way to Tajikistan.

Does France or any European country face similar situations?

Not to repeat what I said about poor pitch conditions in some underdeveloped Asian countries and their dependence on brutal fouls to obstruct Japan’s players which might end in injuries.

No, there is no way to compare France and other top European teams to Japan.

By the way, some top European teams such as France and Spain are resting some of their starters in some matches against inferior teams, and they are not fielding the same 11 players every match, they change few players even if they are fit for the sake of rotation and testing alternatives.

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

Starting line-up vs. Tajikistan:

GK Gonda.
DF Sakai - Ueda - Yoshida - Nagatomo.
MF Doan - Shibasaki - Hashimoto - Nakajima.
FW Minamino - Kamada.

4 changes from last game:

Naomichi Ueda in for the inured Tomiyasu.
Hashimoto in for Endo.
Doan in for Ito.
Kamada in for Nagai.

One has wonder what Junya Ito shall do to leapfrog Doan to a starting spot?

 

Yes, this Tajik young generation already gave Japan a headache in last year AFC’s U-19 and U-16 championships.

 

Doan is way too predictable and slow,and he cannot beat an opposing defender in 1-on-1 situations, unlike Junya Ito.

 

Doan is a disgrace. Period.

 

10 goals in 19 games under Moriyasu’s supervision.

Moriyasu Japan’s top scorer at the moment, with Osako behind him (7 goals in 12 matches).

Minamino is a straight-forward player, unlike Doan, Kamada, and Nakajima who tried to do too much by themselves and outsmart the opponent’s player, and ended up outsmarting themselves.

Football does not depend solely on finesse and artistic plays, many times a player needs to do it straight-forward and pass or shot the ball directly without further ado, or use his pace to sprint past the opponents and create a breakthrough (like what Ito did many times last match).

Minamino at many times ended up wasting many scoring opportunities with his approach as he is rushing his shots and passes, but his approach paid off in many other occasions, unlike Doan, Kamada, Nakajima, and the overhyped kid “Kubo”.

Speaking about straight-forward players, I think the likes of Teruhito Nakagawa and Koji Miyoshi will surely add something different to the team.

I would rather see Doan and Kubo with the Olympic team than continuously giving them chances at senior level and they screwing up every time. Especially Kubo, he needs to play where he really belongs to at the mean time.

 

I explained it in my last post above.

 

Next week it will be Junya Ito’s turn to play against Liverpool, let’s hope he will score/assist and have a great match. If Moriyasu insists on starting Doan again him next month then he has no excuse.

 

I’m following Ito since his time at Ventforet Kofu, and I’m not judging him by just playing against Mongolia. Everybody knows about this quality in Ito long time ago.

Why do you suppose that others are ignorants or having a pre-mature judgment?

Doan is regressing since the start of 2019 both in international and club level.

As for what you called: “Kubo’s golden assist”, it was a normal play, nothing more.

By the way, players are judged by their overall contribution to the team and its balance and harmony (which Kubo did not provided in all of his NT appearances, on the contrary he is being disruptive so far). Players are not judged by random plays which end up coincidentally as assists or goals.

Look at Gotoku Sakai’s effect at Vissel Kobe, he is not providing many assists and scoring many goals every game, but since his transfer the team improved remarkably thanks to the balance he brought to the whole team structure, even Daigo Nishi (who plays on the opposite flank) is gradually returning to his Kashima Antlers form as a result.

This is a worthwhile contribution, not a player who depends on random or artistic aesthetic plays that entertain the fans while disrupting the balance and structure of the whole team.

 

Virtually yes, but not mathematically.