Qatar played awesome and showed that they are a real thread. I don't like them but the last year's they are getting better and better. Hope Japan can get a motivation boost out of it and beat Chile
Qatar deserved to win. They messed up the final minutes missing the 3rd goal and they were only unlucky with the penalty that give Paraguay the lead. Meanwhile Uruguay is trashing Ecuador in 10 men. This is not good since a draw was the best result for JNT. Since we will lose with Uruguay we need at least 1 point from Chile and win against Ecuador in the last tie. I really hope we will follow Qatar path and keep playing even if Chile will take the lead.
I'm afraid of chili... because we have a young inexperienced team against a team that is experienced with 2 cups in a row. The only positive point is that they're not as good as before
I'll never tolerate artificial teams. Qatar deserves no special credit. Could we replay the final but with Nakajima, Kubo, Kagawa, Kamada, Oshima and Morita ? (we'll arguably be trashed tomorrow)
I have no sympathy for Qatar NT too, but I want the AFC teams to succeed as much as possible for the sake of JNT. Anyway in their last friendlies they lost with Mexico, draw with US and win vs Haiti, not exactly the best performance in a row. The last match vs an Asian side was the 0 - 0 of the last September vs SK.
Hope they can stand up against a strong Chile team. Any ideas of a line up? If Japan gets trashed the decision to take a weaker young team will be even more questioned and rightfully so.
You can be trashed by Chile 4 - 2 with Japan playing beautiful football while giving experience to the youngsters for Tokyo2020 gold mission and I bet JFA will be fine about that. I hope none will finish this match injured cuz for example if Vidal will brutal tackle Kubo in the first 15 min sending him out of the field and out of the competition some people in JFA marketing office will hang himself and I'll be sad too [emoji14]
If anything Nakayama nearly ended Alexis's tournament lol. I'm definitely here for when Qatar knocks out Argentina.
Qatar is doing pretty well, considering that they were beaten by the likes of China, Uzbekistan, and Syria two years ago. They just narrowly missed recording a second consecutive draw, as they lost 0-1 against Colombia few minutes before the full time whistle. While they were the better team against Paraguay and deserved to win (having more shots and ball possession), yet they drew 2-2. Next is Argentina for Qatar. It will be the wildest shock in international football history if Qatar managed to win against Argentina (or even if they managed a draw that will see Argentina knocked out).
Bad result for us if we want to be one of the two best 3rd. Anyway it seems Qatar has really found the magic bullet. I hoped their asian title was only due to an aligning of the stars or a big joke but they advance their recent good progress.
They played with same group of players, same manager, same direction for a long time. Compare with other national teams, they are the most well drilled, like a club team. Since last year there was another tweak: base on passing style football they are well trained, they switched the tactics to full counter attack against top team. With their highest rated players are all young and fast, that's the best suit. I'm not surprised if they counter attack the sh!t out of this mess of the team Argentina.
If Japan get drawn in the same group as them in AFC qualifying, might be a good experience for the team.
Great showing, but Uruguay without Suarez is a crippled team, as their preferred system is a 4-4-2: (One of the only NTs to use it successfully and consistently)
Boys stop arguing about reaching the final8: we will not. We are here for 3 match vs senior south american teams and today's will be the 2nd. I hope A.Ueda will play and score and Nakajima will have a full time game. In the last match Moriyasu can try a full subs lineup to test the untested.
On the contrary marvelous times. For me AFC went to Copa America with a an Olympic JNT that performed not so bad against the former CONMENBOL champions and a senior Qatar NT that can be a giant killer vs Messi's NT.
It's truly an embarrassment that we send a team like this to Copa America. The fact is, that this isn't even close to a best set of J.League players. The way JFA took this invitation was insulting to CONMEBOL in my opinion. I'd be sure salty if AFC Asian Cup had a CONMEBOL invitee and they had done the same. It's also an embarrassment to the image of the AFC and Japan.
I can only hope that maybe in a few years some of these players will use this as a springboard to do something great for the Samurai Blue at World Cup level.
I'm sure all parties are aware that club obligations take precedence for most of Japan's veteran players. In the past Mexico has taken young teams to Copa America as well. If you invited CONMEBOL teams to the Asian Cup, it's not as if Messi, Neymar, and Vidal would actually leave their clubs in January to play in the tournament.
Starting line-up against Uruguay: \STARTING LINE-UP!/GK川島FP冨安、植田、杉岡、岩田、柴崎、板倉、中島、安部、三好、岡崎🏆CONMEBOLコパアメリカブラジル2019🇯🇵#SAMURAIBLUE 🆚 ウルグアイ🇺🇾📅日本時間6/21(金)8:00KO📍Arena do Gremio📺DAZN✅https://t.co/of2MKjPDJD#daihyo #jfa #コパアメリカ #Copaamerica pic.twitter.com/BVOiEw9If1— サッカー日本代表 🇯🇵 (@jfa_samuraiblue) June 20, 2019