Official 2021 Nadeshiko Japan Thread [R] - なでしこジャパン（英語スレッド）

29' Iceland hit the bar during PK box scramble after set piece
32' Kobayashi shot goes over the bar

 

Thanks, Opera's built-in VPN set to Europe somehow works with this.

Edit: HT 0-1. From what I saw I'm liking Nadeshiko's newly gained focus on pressing already.

Edit 2: Seeing the highlights Sveindis' goal was so unnecessary. She gets to run over half the field without any player getting near her until in front of the goal, and even there the pressure was far too little.

 

JPN 0-1 ISL at HT

Takarada dosen't look good. She has not played in NWSL and it shows.
Narumiya and Naomoto had a decent half, likewise Nagano and MInami.
Kobayashi finds herself in right spots but can't pull the trigger.
Ueki looks bit lost and so does Miyake.
Shimizu is a beast.
It's time to bench Ikeda for awhile.

 

Sumida in for Naomoto, and Miyazawa for Narumiya.

 

58' Ueki was 1v1 with goalie in no mans land but ref signaled offside (wrong call)

 

Nice heading chance set up by Yui to Ueki, but that header went nowhere.

Edit: I have to say Nadeshikos do a good job pressuring the opponents, but Iceland so far also does well staying close to them near their goal. While individual players break free now and then it's hard for them to do so in unison, but good on them for keeping trying. Feel like Nagano is the only one having a half decent distance shot.

 

Outside of set pieces Iceland has not much to offer. They are trying to counter from time to time but often are not able to string 4 passes before losing the ball.
They have stamina but lack quality....

 

Ueki with a free run on the right after an excellent through pass, but tries to shoot under pressure instead passing to a free player in the middle.

Edit: And 0-2. High ball to Sveindis (again no player sticking close to her) who low crosses to Torvaldsdottir who is likewise under too little pressure right in front of the goal.

 

JPN 0-2 ISL

3 passes action goal. Simple and effective. Very nicely done.

Hayashi in, Hasegawa out
Tanaka in, Kobayashi out

 

Takahashi in, Takarad out (injuried)

 

I'm recording it (without first 15 mins), I'll upload it later on google drive and leave a link here.

 

FT 0-2. Really liked how Nadeshiko was playing today. Crucial for the final score: Iceland knew how to stay close und put pressure on the opponent in front of their own goal, and how to run free and stay clear in front of the opponent's goal. Nadeshiko didn't. I feel they play the right way, and if they keep working on their movements while under pressure this can and will improve.

 

Same old story. No quality in the final third. They don't know what to do other than having speculative shots from long range. They didn't create any chances apart from Ueki being sent through once which she could have just squared to Hasegawa but decided to take a shot from an acute angle.

Defensively, it's the same. Just long balls behind our defense, that's all the opponents need to do. I still don't know why Ikeda is still in the squad let alone playing.

Finally, I'm so disappointed that JFA appointed Ikeda as Nadeshiko's coach. I thought they learned lessons from Takakura. I really wanted her to succeed but it was evident that she was clearly out of her depth. Ikeda is the same. He never managed or coached at the elite level - the only notable thing is at the youth level.

The only player above an average score was Hasegawa. I thought Kobayashi was really poor. Ueki wasn't great either but at least she was working hard.

Hopefully, this performance was due to jet lag, but we've seen similar patterns so many times before...

 

Japan vs. Iceland (first 16 min missing, Iceland 1st goal in half time replays)

 

Takarada's partially responsible for both lost goals in my book. Especially for 2nd one - she was stayin up front after a set piece changing position with Hasegawa but didn't join the pressing.

 

Thank you!

I just watched the goals, what happened Japan played without left fullback?

 

Yes, Ikeda seems to be following after his youth level success. I was disappointed with his selection too.
While technical players are more than enough, ones with speed and strength are too short. Or, why doesn't he call players who achieved good results in WE LEAGUE so far, for example Inoue, Shiraki or so? And of course the absence of Sugita and Yamashita is really incredible.

 

Tomorrow's games:

Empress's Cup first round:
Yamato vs Tokuyama University 11:00
Ottemon high school vs JSCL 13:30
NORD vs Fujieda Junshin 11:00
Ehime vs JFA 10:30
Shizuoka vs FC Fujizakura 14:00
Orca vs Osaka Sports University 10:30
Waseda vs Kagawa Nishi high school 14:00
Harima vs Sendai University 13:30

 

Completely slept through the game despite setting multiple alarms. 3:40am is a disgusting time to wake up. I would never watch the WE league if I were @Manchester Nadeshiko after being betrayed so many times with the non-existent streams.

Anyway I watched the game just now...and from the start it felt like watching a new team. Like the players have a vague idea of what to do but are unsure how to execute. Then again Takakura's reign started like that and ended like that so I honestly don't know how to judge what I'm seeing. The last 4 years with this team has resulted in me not really knowing how much potential Japanese woso has to grow to be honest.

Poor goalkeeping from Ikeda. She's been especially poor at Urawa this season so I wasn't expecting much. Takarada played as a full back for the first time after a season without any game time at all. From what I've seen so far she should've been subbed of at HT and her injury was from her being unfit. That's got to raise a few questions about the new coach.

I thought we would run into a few issues with our high press but I mean...these small players can't get the ball, high press or not in a one on one situation so with a disorganized high press like today's and a keeper like Ikeda we were never keeping goals out of our net. I expect this to improve as time passes though, this team has been together for 7 days total including the last camp so of course everything is disorganized.

My main concern is that we didn't see the speed in vertical movement that Ikeda kept talking about in attack. I didn't need to see Iceland completely broken down but still there just wasn't enough movement up front and for a team that says possession is their strength the passing is just way too slow.

I am in no way defending Ikeda's coaching or player selection(which I disagree with) for this set of games but I think being "disappointed in the JFA's appointment" at this stage is a bit of an emotional reaction than a logical one. I mean look at the last two examples of coaches being promoted from the youth level. Sure one is Takakura who didn't achieve any notable success at the senior level but the other is Norio Sasaki who was promoted from U-20 coach to Senior Level coach in 2008 and won a world cup 3 years later. Give him time, see where Australia were before the Olympics and where they are now. It may not go as well but he deserves a chance at least. He should be judged at the Asian cup not in his first game.

That being said I probably won't stay up for the Netherlands game after watching this. The rare occasion when staying up may lead to having a nightmare. I predict it to be 0-5.

 

Call me ignorant but why was Takarada called? As far as I know she didn't have any significant play time in the US. As Unepommekun indicates in a later post, there are good players in WE League that actually have results to show.