Not to be a troll but after reading some of the posts in this tread about who the better team is, it did make me want to post my 2 cents. Japan did outplay Colombia for many stretches of the match but being down 2-0 they had to show some fight or else they would have been eliminated. Japan was desperate to get points and needed to win to be in good position. Colombia had the lead in every game they played in and only trailed once. So there are many Colombians today saying "if we had only played more disciplined defensively, tactically and mentally we could have had 9 points in this group". Hypotheticals are all fine and dandy but the only thing that counts is what happens in reality. Colombia did what they had to do to advance and Japan are going home.
you're missing the part where their last match was a freeby and they drew with Sweden while Japan won, but all right
wtf Colombia is not better than Japan. If you saw the matches Japan is clearly the better team. Nigeria just bent over and let Colombia go to town on them. end of story
Colombia was fortunate to meet an already-qualified Nigeria, but Japan did give up **5** goals to the same team. And haven't we been all complaining about the shortage of talent on this Japan Olympic squad...until now?
Simply cuz they did a pretty good job in attack and deserved to qualify for the KO stage. And about KO stage: Brazil vs Colombia ;D
Honestly, giving up two goals to this Swedish team is way worse than giving up five to Nigeria, Dax pointed out something true. Sweden had nothing, 0, nada.
It seems Nigeria remembered how to score just in time to win vs Danemark 2 - 0. Now it's time for the other "stronger team of the group" aka Colombia: they easily won against the same Nigeria then they will win against Brazil in the same manner nope?
It looks like Sonny bailed the Honduran out. At least, they still have some bright spark in HHC. He seems improving a lot since Minamino outshone him in U-19 Championship couple years ago. He currently more rounded footballers already. Okugawa, who's in same generation currently struggling in improving his game, which is bad for us.
I wonder if we could beat them with our player holding a tennis ball like how Tuchel did in some BVB training sessions.
HHC is a good player but has struggled so far when he played for the main team, Salzburg. We'll see. I liked CHW from this team but not sure how he played
The almighty Colombia was not stronger enough for Brazil. Maybe it would better to leave the competition with a victory than a crushing defeat against Brazil.
Olympics' over! Brazil won their home gold medal at the end while mighty Colombia got nothing and weaker side (lol) Nigeria finish 3rd/bronze. Japan won 41 medals (12 golds, a lot missed), but there's some happy ending: Maybe the next time we'll do better than London 2012 and win some medal, maybe gold medal! Takefusa will be there ;D SEE YOU IN TOKYO 2020!!!
Japan shouldn't use overaged players unless top NT players get called up. Koroki (striker) - 16 caps/0 goals Shiotani (centre back) - 3 caps Fujiharu (left back) - 2 caps
In London 2012 overaged players did pretty good and only Yoshida was a nearly experienced JNT player (not top for sure).
In 2012 Yoshida was the best Japan-eligible center back (and still is by some margin), and had been to the Olympics previously. How is that not a "top player"? Still, if you are serious about getting results you should be calling up the absolute best U23s.
Shinzo Koroki scored a goal in the first game against Nigeria !!! But yes =), the overaged players this time, were some kind of unusefull ^^
He scored a pk lol Personally i d rather have players that would get exposure for Europe, like it happened for Yoshida. So no Koroki yes a younger striker