It was quite awkward watching the match in an office full of Chinese people. Japan played well going forward, though the defense needs to tighten up a bit. Par for the course, I know.
I wouldn't mind them showing the game at midnight if it wasn't on every single news program already... or did I miss an earlier broadcast?
There's no overaged players. Most of the squad is University and U-21 players who don't get much playing time for their respective clubs.
Yes. Talking of that, I'm surprise to see the sucess Yamazaki recently had since, during the Toulon Tournament, he was stomped by every opponent. Just painful to watch.
Meh He didn't do much when he played with Vissel, but I only saw him once or twice so I'll reserve judgment until later.
Let's say he has the tools. He's the fastest japanese player so it may help him finding a spot in the national team. That's is destiny, he was the best scorer during the Universiades last year, he was taken to SA by Okada, I think the JFA is slowly building him.
JFA doesn't really care about this tournament. And it's near the end of the season for J-League teams so they don't want to release their players. Hell even the U-19 team that played in the AFC U-19 championship is probably better than the team they sent to the Asian Games.
Very few of this squad will start in London. But it gives experience to other players and gives an opportunity to look at players without media attention from playing j.league. I thought they looked good against China U23 at a very hostile atmosphere. Yamamura was good and ofcourse Nagai looked great. Couldve been 5 or 6-0.
I was impressed by what could be seen of him in those highlights. Explosive acceleration, can't teach that, and his touch and vision seems good too.
If you guys wanna read a good match summary check this out http://snufkin8go.blog97.fc2.com/ This is probably one of the best blogs about Japanese soccer because it includes some in depth look at the youth sides and some really good analysis of the games. His player ratings for the China match.
Kyrgyzstan 0-3 Japan (Kyohei Noborizato 2, Takamitsu Tomiyama) Round of 16 Japan vs. India Turkmenistan vs. Thailand Iran vs. Malaysia Oman vs. Hong Kong ---------- North Korea vs. Vietnam UAE vs. Kuwait Qatar vs. Uzbekistan China vs. South Korea Looks like as long as Japan should be OK provided it can get past Iran in the semifinals.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax5jYKyc_8k&feature=sub"]YouTube - 101113 Asian Games [3] U-21 Japan vs Kyrgyzstan[/ame]
The most impressive part has probably been keeping a clean sheet in every game so far. I wonder how many will make the Olympic squad considering many of them are fringe players except a couple.
Form holding so far -- Iran beat Malaysia 3-1 while Oman beat Hong Kong 3-0. South Korea is bossing it against China but took 20 minutes to put one past "Big Thunder." I wonder how much attendance will drop off once both home teams are out.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCb1Ei40_Nw&feature=sub"]YouTube - 101116 Asian Games [4] U-21 Japan vs India[/ame] I've been fully suprized and impressed by Yamazaki, seems like his goal in the final of the Nabisco Cup completely transformed him. He's not the player who got beat up during the Toulon Tournament. Higashi is really good, he should be playing in J1 next year. Future NT member. And Nagai is a scoring machine.
Yamazaki will probably have a bigger role at Jubilo next season. Higashi might move to a J1 club next season. I can see Nagai at Reds next season.