2006 was far worst. Only expectations was higher. That's the main difference. And 2014Okubo > 2006Yanagisawa
Australian team "Lampton Jaffas Club" to play Japan NT on January 5 at Badley Park , Cessnock http://www.lambtonjaffasfc.com/
ok, I couldn't help laughing at this. And yes I know that sometimes Japan has played against Japan universities and such (which tbh are still likely better), but it was funny to see that on that oldass website.
Jan 4 vs Auckland City (amateur team in New Zealand) Jan 5 vs Lampton Jaffas (amateur team in Australia) crap preparation.
wtf, Auckland City is the best team in new zealand. Kashiwa played against it in the CWC. The other one is probably a local team and as Saku said it's warm ups. That said, time to run the speculations! Javier Aguirre noticeably absent from TV Asahi's advertising for the Asian Cup.(photo = @tete_room) pic.twitter.com/A9AeX9jnFO— Dan Orlowitz (@aishiterutokyo) December 18, 2014
Auckland City FC is amateur, though. One of the sports tabloids reported it as "Japan to face powerhouse club" and I had to smile a bit.
That's definitely a funny exaggeration, but the whole amateur thing should be contextualized into the fact that a professional league doesn't even exist in NZ, to my knowledge. So, it's the norm, but the team quality is ok, they will actually play for 3rd place at this year's CWC.
Auckland City has already defeated Moroccan chamapions and African Champions respectively to reach this year's club world cup semi final, where they registered a draw against South American champions San Lorenzo, and only lose against them after extra time, and will play the 3rd place play-off against Concacaf champions Cruz Azul. An unprecedented achievement by a team from OFC/New Zealand, so they are not a pushovers or a laughing stock.
I believe qatar has a good chance of meeting japan in the quarters if japan finishes second in the group. This time it would be quite different than 2011 i see qatar beating you guys in the form we are in
Do you meant "monetary form"? Cuz the main threat in 2011 was the money given to the referee to permit redcard awarded violent back tackle by Qatari players for the whole match.
With the plethora of players in Europe, I just don't understand why the JFA insists on still selecting players in the J-League. I mean if Osako or Kakitani were still playing in the J-League, they would be called up because they would be doing good right? They are not doing that well because they are playing against higher level competition. I mean if Muto was playing in Europe right now, there would be a strong possibility he would be in the same situation as Osako and Kakitani.
Yeah but call only "european players" giving 0% chance to JLeague players till they find a team in Europe is not so smart especially in a future perspective.
I disagree with this reasoning. First reason would be because there are players in the JLeague worth of being selected, like Endo or Shibasaki. Second reason would be because form has an impact on performances. Naturally, there here are some cases were you might feel that a player's quality is so good, or so important, that you will call him anyway, even if he isn't playing much. Take Kagawa being selected in the past years. It still was a risk and he infact unfortunately he didn't always perform up to good standards in the NT. Nope, this has no basis. Kakitani was having a bad season in the JLeague already this year. So he could have been omitted anyway. Osako got his first callup at the EAFF and that's because he started getting consistent in 2013, not before. Unfortunately, there's no guarantee about anyone "doing well" just because they have in the past - the opposite, too, is very true. Who would have thought, years ago, about Okubo being the league top scorer? A switch shirt pulled the trigger. Kudo was a monster last year in front of goal and this year he forgot how to score. (also Leandro is more selfish than Tanaka). It happens, normal form fluctuations which have many variables and reasons - though sometimes some player can also get into a long crisis. Which is why you can only look at the status of the things. Or take some risks and call players which are lacking play time. Sometimes I think it might still work. But it's a risk. This doesn't mean anything, otherwise everyone in Europe would "not be doing well", no? I don't see Okazaki doing badly despite the competition, but he wasn't doing this in Stuttgart. Every case has different reasons. Kakitani isn't doing bad, he's not even playing and because that's a coach choice, it has nothing to do with his opponents. Osako has been playing, not too much, mostly because of internal competition. So, to answer your supposition, if Muto was playing in Europe now, there is the same chance that he would be doing like Okazaki like there is a chance that he'd be doing like Kakitani. It depends on the team, the coach, the position, how fast he adapts to the language, etc. Kagawa took zero minutes when he moved to Dortmund back then.
Hello Japanese! www.footballpalestine.blogspot.com are thinking of doing an Asian Cup (Group D) preview on Youtube Hangout, like they did ahead of the Challenge Cup- here's the video: Anyone interested in participating and representing Japan? P.S- The Palestinian in the Japan shirt will be your host, so you'll have fun
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20141228-00000009-nksports-socc Uchida is doubtful for the Asian Cup....