Brazilian media said something about Kakitani being the japanese Ronaldinho and yet Zac ignores him (I don't know how he's doing and it won't hurt to try fresh new players for once, the brazilian source quotes a japanese article where it's written that he's doing very well in the J-League), Kudo didn't even make the bench and Zac left him in Japan. Let's see in the upcoming friendlies, who knows...
Kakitani? 3-4 years ago he used to play like Ronaldinho. Now his style is more like Marco Reus. It's not a bad point though. (Yeah I'm just a Youtube scout)
His early play style was pretty unique. It looked more fitting for a futsal player. I suppose that's why he might have been compared with Ronaldinho? Since he used to play futsal as a kid and probably had that sort of style.
Mmh no, not really. Maeda also closes in on the defenders, keeps moving, makes spaces for the other players, and his passrate is better. That's why he starts ahead of him As for the FW role, yeah, it ain't easy to find the right one.
Kakitani was compared to Ronaldinho only regarding the fact that both are currently the best players at their respective leagues and were not called to the NT. Their play style or skills were not compared.
Woah I'm so ignorant about the J-League BUT some years ago I found this video about Kakitani with some bad comments about him cuz none know him at all (it was before WC2010 and japanese footballers was rated so low by ignorant people) and I was a bit sad about him thinking he had not the same success of Honda & Co. Then I'm happy to see he is still a distinguished player even compared to Ronaldinho
The more serious the competition the league and as players mature they would often lose that flashy stuff and skills because they become more rational with their time on the ball and also dont risk losing it as much. However the spark is there and Kakitani has that spark
I remember 1-2 years ago people said so about Usami, even among Bayern's fans. The essential thing is Usami and Kakitani haven't managed to bring what they show in under-age teams to the senior national team. At least, not yet. But I have a feeling they will pull it out. They showed some mentality strength, and aren't easy to break. For example, weren't Kakitani punished, went to a J2 team, accept his job and performed, after that managed to come back and thrive in Cerezo? It's a sign of a strong player.
最初に強調しておきたいのは、今のブラジル代表は決して特別なチームではないということ。メンバーは経験不足の若手が多く、監督も昨年１１月に交代したばかり。チームとしての完成度は高くなく、ブラジル国内でも期待より不安の声が多かった。 - Sergio Echigo
That's underplaying the coach's and the teams' amazing run through the whole CC though. And their great spirit, of course not to mention that saying that "it's nothing special" deserves a good laugh in any case
He wrote that after Brazil Japan, and was negative since basically, according to him, (this) Brazil isn't "a special team at all". The players are "young and inexperienced", and the coach was "only put in charge in november" Dat inexperience yesterday (and through the whole CC)
Indeed, according to him we'll witness the rise of the next football superpower unmatched for a decade
In fact, the common sense here was that this Brazil NT was not as great as other teams we have had in the past and this was one of our greatest slumps either, with no one at the level of Ronaldo, Romário or other stars of the past. We saw ourselves as a limited team that put most of our hopes on a 21 year old who was not performing in recent matches (Neymar went on a 10-match streak without scoring nor playing well). The coach change last year was more a political thing than anything and it was just normal that someone had a pessimist view on this NT. However, it is also a fact that Brazil were not meant to be favourites when our main titles were won (1958, 1970, 1994 and 2002 WCs, with 1962 being the only exception). This time, Neymar finally played what everyone expected from him and the support from the people was huge, the environment was very favourable. I think these two factors made the difference.
The problem with that comment was exactly shitting on Brazil when you knew they're even playing at home, your team had travelled 3 continents in 15 days before the match, and calling the brazilians a bunch of young and unexperienced (wtf?) guys to downplay your own team performance . I don't doubt expectations from the brazilians were low but your coach\side proved the fans wrong when it really mattered, which surely isn't friendlies. The fact that you don't have to play the WCQ probably also made those friendlies the only thing to check the squad state. You guys destroyed the world champions, you should be proud =).