Pretty dark period = longest ever row of victories for JNT + historical win vs Messi's Argentina and France in France + last won Asian Cup vs stronger ever opponent (Aussies) + best BSJapan period for number of active users and threads.
Many of those matches you named e.g France and Argentina were friendlies. Friendlies is supposed to best for the best available team and tactics for NT imo. I think that Zac might be too conservative and didn't really experiment a lot compared to the other NT's coaches. That was why he didn't perform well in the WC, against Greece, iirc he utilized crosses against them when the results of doing so eas a bit obvious, the Greek defenders easily defended against those long balls and crosses. He also was too reliant on Endo and Hasebe for the CM/DCM roles. As a result, when Hasebe came off for Endo in the Cote D'ivore match, Japan midfield couldn't defend against their assault, especially when Drogba came in. Hopefully Moriyasu can quickly wrap up the first qualifying stages and experiement with more players if possible.
It's not like Doan is always crap! He was OK against Paraguay and Myanmar. At club level, he is doing well for PSV and earning praises from the manager. https://www.foxsports.nl/video/3126694/van-bommel-doan-een-slimme-voetballer/ I like Ito too. At this rate, he will get the big move to a top league. Genk's technical director revealed several clubs tried to buy him for 10M euros last summer. I'm glad that Doan, Ito and Kubo have to fight for one spot.
Well, we might have different standards of rating and evaluating players and their contributions, but I didn’t notice Ito hazing under pressure. I suppose that you mean the match against Mongolia is the 13th match, is that right? If it is right, then I think it is a misplaced conclusion. Junya Ito had a very good EAFF in 2017, he assisted the penalty from which Yu Kobayshi’s scored Japan’s opener against South Korea. Then he was lively during his rare appearances for Japan under Moriyasu (he was mostly started on the bench and had few playing minutes to make a contribution, apart from some rare starts), he scored against both Costa Rica and Panama, with the one against Costa Rica scored in the stoppage time after he was subbed in for Doan at the 85th minute. In the Asian Cup he only started once against Uzbekistan, in which he did well, and subbed in at the 84th minute against Qatar, when he was lively with his pace and sprints and caused chaos in Qatar’s defence as he was unpredictable in comparison to Doan and other players in Japan’s attacking unit. The last two examples apart from Monoglia’s match were: the matches against El Salvador and Myanmar. Against El Salvador he started as right wingback in a 3-5-2 and had many threatening runs and lovely combinations with Doan and Nagai, with many of them might could have ended up in a goal. While against Myanmar he was against brought in as a substitution for Doan (this time in his earliest time, around 66th minute) he had some threatening runs, two shots on goal that the Myanmar goalkeeper heroically saved, and assisted his teammates in many occasions, and was more lively than Doan in this match and every match he played in. This is said, I really don’t know how you said that his only memorable moment came after 13 matches? Under Moriyasu, Ito played 13 games (5 only as a starter), and recorded just 466 minutes (35 minutes per match), and during most matches he was brought in as a substitution in the last few minutes (in 4 of the 8 matches he was subbed in the last 10 minutes, 2 matches in the last 15 minutes, 1 match in the last 20 minutes, and 1 match in the last 25 minutes). While under Moriyasu too, Doan started in 15 out of the 18 matches he played in, and only subbed out in the last few minutes, playing 1288 minutes (almost 3 times more than the minutes played by or given to Ito). Yet, Doan’s contributions in terms of goals scored, assists provided, and overall contribution was not by any chance better than Ito’s contribution if not worse. In terms of goals scored, Ito scored 2 goals in 466 minutes, compared to 3 goals by Doan in 3 times the minutes given to Ito. Doan has great potential, but he is too lazy, arrogant, carried away by the hype he got from his first season in the Netherlands and his first few matches for Japan in 2018. He almost did nothing in 2019 compared to 2018. Doan scored 11 goals for club and country in 2018, compared to 5 goals for club and country in 2019, with one of them came from a deflection, and another from a PK. Ito needs to get more playing time, until Doan steps up and improves himself. I respect you point of view, and as I said we might have different standards of rating players. Let us end this discussion here, as I don’t think we are going to agree on this issue.
Doan's defensive stats in the league tell he is not lazy. His unselfishness was the main reason he had less scoring points than his first season in the Netherlands. Groningen was pretty weak last season and he had to spend most of his time on defense. PSV knew it and that's why they bought him.
What has Japan gained from this series? The answer is simple, absolutely nothing! Our rising Serie A star got injured instead. From the crappy WCQ format and Mickey Mouse Asian Champions League to the winter Asian Cup, AFC's poor management is nothing but an obstacle to progress.
Honestly the WCQ format is less than onerous and as discussed earlier there is built-in room for Japan to experiment with the squad going into next summer. The ACL has been an exciting and challenging competition the past few seasons and arguably pressed J League squads into beefing up their squads. I don't see a whole lot to complain about.
I hope the Tokyo 2020 guys and those who are on the fringes of the senior NT are given a chance instead.
Squads and new uniform announcements: Tuesday 5/Nov/2019: Olympic team squad announcement at 5PM (Japan standard time). Wednesday 6/Nov/2019: Senior team squad announcement at 2PM (Japan standard time). Thursday 7/Nov/2019: New national team uniform announcement at 3PM (Japan standard time).
With Olympic team players excluded (this includes Tomiyasu who is injured), this will mean opening 2 or 3 spots for player not called-up in September and October. One spot in CB, and one in CM, and One in attacking positions. At the moment, I really hope that Moriyasu won’t call-up Yuki Kobayashi as the 4th CM. I hope to see either of Morita, Oshima, or Misao (or more than one of them). They are all better options than Shibasaki, Itakura, and Kobayashi. As for CB position, let’s hope we won’t see Genta Miura. I am OK to see Taniguchi or whoever, but please no more Miura or Makino. lastly, I think the remaining attacking position will be taken by Osako who is back after missing last month’s matches due to injury. While Nagai, Kamada, and Asano will retain their places.
Japan’s squad for WCQ match against Kyrgyzstan and friendly against Venezuela: GK: Kawashima - Gonda - K. Nakamura. DF: Sasaki - Kurumaya - Muroya - Ueda - Miura - Hatanaka - Shindo - H. Araki. MF: Yamaguchi - Haraguchi - Shibasaki - Oshima - Hashimoto - Nakajima - Asano - Furuhashi - Ideguchi. FW: Nagai - Suzuki - Onaiwu.
Disappointed to see Yamaguchi, Miura, and Ideguchi called-up again. Only 7 European-based players: Kawashima - Gonda - Ueda - Shibasaki - Haraguchi - Nakajima - Asano. 4 Uncapped players recieving their maiden NT call-up; Hayato Araki - Ryosuke Shindo - Kyogo Furuhashi - Ado Onaiwu.
This squad is only for the friendly match against Venezuela. Here is the squad for the WCQ match against Kyrgyzstan: GK: Kawashima - Gonda - Scmidt. DF: Nagatomo - Yoshida - Sasaki - H. Sakai - Muroya - Ueda - Anzai - Hatanaka. MF: Yamaguchi - Haraguchi - Shibasaki - Endo - Ito - Hashimoto - Nakajima - Asano - Minamino - Kamada. FW: Nagai - Suzuki. Disappointed to see Yamaguchi again, while including Sasaki rather than a fourth CB is a baffling decision.
WCQ vs. Kyrgyzstan (11/14 @ Bishkek) GK: Kawashima, Gonda, Schmidt DF: Sasaki, Muroya, Ueda, Hatanaka, Anzai, Nagatomo, Yoshida, Sakai MF: Yamaguchi, Haraguchi, Shibasaki, Hashimoto, Nakajima, Asano, Endo, Ito, Minamino, Kamada FW: Nagai, Musashi Suzuki Friendly vs. Venezuela (11/19 @ Osaka) GK: Kawashima, Gonda, Nakamura DF: Sasaki, Muroya, Ueda, Hatanaka, Kurumaya, Miura, Shindo, Araki MF: Yamaguchi, Haraguchi, Shibasaki, Hashimoto, Nakajima, Asano, Oshima, Furuhashi, Ideguchi FW: Nagai, Musashi Suzuki, Onaiwu Great tactic for Moriyasu to get a look at more players and save players from unnecessary travel.
I guess that with J-League in its final stretches, teams fighting for the title or ACL spots are reluctant to release their players for international duty. In addition to the match against Venezuela being played at Gamba Osaka’s stadium, making the call-up of players from Gamba Osaka and players from nearby Kansai-based club, Vissel Kobe a much easier task. I guess that’s why we are seeing Ideguchi for example instead of Morita and Misao, the same could be said about Genta Miura. I would have been say the same about Yamaguchi’s inclusion, but then he was called-up to the main squad to play against Kyrgyzstan. However, who knows, perhaps he was picked over Oshima, Misao, and Morita, because these players’ teams are fighting for the title/ACL spots, while Vissel Kobe almost secured their J1 status after their win against Vegalta Sendai, and can tolerate the risk of releasing some of their players. The same could be said about Gamba Osaka too.
Its not particularly clear which squad would win in a match, the JNT right now or the U22 side (with Tomiyasu full strength). The U22's have so much strength in personnel.
Seems like he wanted Yamaguchi's experience in the ball-winning CM position away against the Kyrgyz, while it certainly doesn't hurt that Kobe has nothing left to play for this season. On the other hand Moriyasu selected 3 FC Tokyo players for the Central Asia trip (hoping for them to play 180 minutes over the break while showing off their work rate and physical duels ;D). As for Morita, in my view he hasn't justified a call-up based on his 2019 performances and skillset, while Oshima was a surprise because he still seems to struggle with his fitness after his long layoff. Taking him to the away match would be out of question.
Well, as always we have thoughts about the squad. While its not surprising Moriyasu picks this team it seems weird. Yamaguchi, why? Its clear some players does not need to perform on club level to be selected , even though they can deliver a good performance for the NT. Why not pick Suzuki, he scores, Asano does not. Kamada deserves the call, he is playing on a higher level than most in the squad and has many assists lately. Why Endo? He is warming the bench in Bundesliga 2, just like Haraguchi. Its a good idea to send some of the underperformers to the Olympic team. But I would have liked to see Furuhashi get a shot. Maybe in the EAFF.