Mitsuki Saito is very good at stealing the ball from the enemy, but he needs to improve his passing abilities.
The whole Italy-Mexico highlight 2-3min was just Italy using their physicality over the Mexican side. I think Japan can beat them.
Starting line-up against Mexico: GK 1 Wakahara. DF 3 Kobayashi 4 Seko 5 Sugawara 15 Toichi Suzuki MF 8 Fujimoto 9 Mitsuki Saito 10 Koki Saito 16 Yamada FW 11 Tagawa 13 Miyashiro ——————————— 3 changes from last match: Suzuki in for Higashi. Fujimoto in for Ito. Miyashiro in for Goke. Strange to see Higashi not starting and Tagawa still starting.
Wakahara performed pretty decently this match. If he can keep up this performance on a consistent basis, then he and Osako could potentially make the JNT not worried about the GK spot. Hopefully, guys like Kosei Tani can live up to his potential as well since Japan really lack in this area after Kawashima's departure.
3-0 (Miyashiro 2, Tagawa). This is a great step into next round, specially if Italia defeats Ecuador later
The team played an absolutely different gameplan compared to the first match. Love at how the team played positionally. decision making leave something to be desired, but their composure with the ball and willingness to take-on 1 on 1 duels really made my day. Fujimoto Kanya, Miyashiro Taisei, and Seko Ayumu were the standout performers. Suzuki Toichi while defending solidly, is pretty wasteful while on possession.
Interesting article from fifa.com about Japan’S pressing tactic: https://www.fifa.com/u20worldcup/news/japan-and-art-of-pressure-five-lessons-3029508 "Closing players down is not something that is in the Japanese footballing DNA, and at times it has caused issues for our various different teams. Our culture is vastly different from what you find in Europe or South America, and we often struggle on the international stage because of this. For the past two years that I have been in charge of this team, I’ve been stressing this aspect day in, day out. And today they really stepped up in this respect." -Masanaga Kageyama.
Is that a common assumption in Japan? Because one major reason Kagawa skyrocketed at BVB back in 2010 was due to his impeccable pressing movements that back then were a rarity, but something Klopp was eager to build upon (and did, as did much of Buli).
It is not assumption, it is a reality. Japanese players are not good pressers, they are mostly losing 50-50 challenges against Non-Asian teams, and they are inferior to Non-Asian team in physical challenges (except against Arab teams from North Africa). Yes, they played good pressing games rarely such as the game against Paraguay prior to the 2018 WC, the games against Colombia and Senegal at the 2018 WC, few games under Okada during his second tenure -especially at the 2010 WC-, and few other games once in a year or two. To see a Japan U-20 play with this tactic and attitude is something exceptional to witness for me as a JNT fan.
Group C 3rd place team cannot collect more than 3 points, which increases Japan’s chances of qualification regardless of what will happen in the group-stage final matches.
And if Kosuke Nakamura can regain back his 2017/18 levels, then Japan can really rest assured about the GK position. Kawashima was damn good back in 2010, unfortunately age caught up to him and he is a GK which always relied on his atheleticism. It is good to have good GKs who are tall enough like Buffon kind so that they can last longer at the highest level.
Okada’s 2010 team parked the bus rather than engaging in pressing. And IMO pressing is not really about the 1v1 challenges per se (although you have to be able to win them), but rather the timing, intensity, positioning, and coordination involved in collectively cutting off the opponent’s buildup options.
Like naopon said pressing is not primarily about 1vs1 challenges, it's about intelligent positioning relative to opponents and own players, directing the opponent into areas that are of disadvantage to them and as such allow easier and more constant access to the ball holder for the own players. I'm not all too familiar with Japanese players in general, but (to make some examples I know from Buli) excellent individual pressers in that mold are Kagawa and Inui, Hasebe and Hosogai use it to good effect for defensive coverage, Gotoku Sakai would be a bad player were he not above average in that area etc. My general impression is that many Japanese players have above average positional intelligence. What you are writing about is the failure of Japanese NT coaches to make good use of that, if at all.
Thanks to your responses you and @naopon , but did I say that pressing is excluded to physical challenges and 1vs1? Obviously I did not, and I agree with both of you on the description of pressing, in addition to cutting the lines between the opponent’s and isolate the player who has the ball from his team-mates. @naopon as far as I remember about 2010 WC -it had been 9 years since then, so my memory might not serve me well- Japan was using pressing but not “high-pressing” which require the players to move forward and press opponents in their own half. Okada stressed that each player has to posses enough quality to draw out the ball from opposing players and press them to help defend the whole team, even the attacking players, this is why he included players with low-scoring efficiency but had enough pressing qualities and excluded players with high-scoring efficiency and low-pressing qualities. Okubo, Tamada, and Matsui all did great job in pressing the opponents, while Okada -above all- included Kisho Yano and described him as a defensive-forward (DFW), and excluded the likes of Ryoichi Maeda and Hisato because they lack the tenacity of pressing possessed by Okubo, Tamada, and Yano.
I think we are talking about different things. Pressing the way it's used in modern game ideally with team coordination is like the orthogonal opposite of physical challenges. A good pressing move by a player consist of an intelligent positional movement that starves the opposite player of space, where he is psychically pressurized and needs good close ball control (often called pressing resistance) to not lose the ball. Good ball control and intelligent positioning are qualities I see in many Japanese players which is why I'd personally say the basic ingredients of pressing are very much part of the Japanese footballing DNA. Which is why I was confused by Kageyama being quoted that closing players down is not. Now closing players down for me equals a successfully executed pressing move (which doesn't require physicality), but maybe the Japanese original quote is specifically about a physical challenge as part of it? Anyway Okada appears to do a good job. Looking forward to the match against Italy tomorrow.
Just to add my 2 cents, I also watched the game against Mexico. There was no high pressing aside from some random situations, most of the time the japanese players were happy enough to apply pressure up to the centre midfield only. Thing did change however, when the Mexicans came past it. It's been a good while since Japan U20 played so well anyway, they completely, utterly, dominated that game. I was really surprised, especially since against Ecuador they quite struggled. Personally I thought leaving out Ito worked quite well honestly and Tagawa and Miyashiro were good
Japan’s starting line-up against Italy in the U-20 WC: GK 1 Wakahara DF 2 Higashi 3 Kobayashi 5 Sugawara 17 Mikuni MF 7 Ito 9 Koki Saito 10 Mitsuki Saito 14 Nishikawa 16 Yamada FW 11 Tagawa —————————— 4 changes from the last match: Higashi is back in the starting line-up for Suzuki. Mikuni in for Seko. Ito in for Fujimoto. Nishikawa in for Miyashiro. —————————— Don’t know how to feel about it as Seko, Fujimoto, and Miyashiro were key players in the win against Mexico. Italy is resting 6 regulars as they are already guaranteed of qualification to the next round.
Well, good first time of Japan. A shame that PK missed by Ito. A big mistake from Kobayashi that saved Wakahara, but that was the only clear chance for Italy. But at the moment 0-0.
Below-average first half from Japan. Kobayashi’S miss-pass almost resulted in an own goal, but Wakahara cleared the goal-line brilliantly, while Hiroki Ito wasted a Japan’s PK, both occasions took place insider the first 10 minutes. Then, Tagawa wasted a 1vs1 against the Italy goalkeeper, and it seemed he pulled a muscle during his run, and asked to be subbed out immediately, this was around the 20th minute. Keito Nakamura came in as a sub for Tagawa, and again he was himself by keeping the ball and trying to pass through the whole Italian defence and score all by himself rather than passing it to a team-mate in a better scoring position. Japan had at least 6 chances to go ahead in the first half, but bad finishing and desperate defending/goalkeeping from Italy prevented Japan from finishing the first half with the lead. On a side note, Hiroki Ito, despite his size, is dispossessed of the ball easily by the opposing players, unlike the small and diminutive Mitsuki Saito who can keep the ball very well, dispossessing opponents of the ball, and not get dispossessed of the ball easily.
After everything we saw in the first half, I just can't believe that Japan didn't take Italy to the cleaners by now. It should have been 2-0 or 3-0 if the finishing was more clinical.