After today's results, KSA might not play to their fullest against Japan in their upcoming match; even if they lose, they would still remain on top. Good news for JNT, I guess.
Of course, Nagatomo is one of the greats of Japanese football. Playing so many years at the elite European level and captaining Inter Milan etc. But this obviously doesn’t save him from scrutiny when he plays badly and doesn’t guarantee he can start for the JNT forever. He represents everything wrong with Moriyasu. Just making a team based on their “name”, being afraid or too stupid to experiment on fresh faces.
Problem is, assuming they'll get the result against China, they won't need to play their fullest against Australia too, even at home.
True. The only thing that puts them on the edge is China beating them which I really don't see it happening. But, something tells me we won't know the qualified teams up until the last round and KSA would drop points eventually.
The starting lineup: Shuichi Gonda Hiroki Sakai Yuto Nagatomo Shogo Taniguchi Ko Itakura Wataru Endo Hidemasa Morita Ao Tanaka Junya Ito Takumi Minamino Yuya Osako As expected, Moriyasu does not disappoint. He's as stubborn as always. Undecided if I still want to watch the game
HT: 1-0 for Japan. I hope they would go for more goals to secure the victory. The match is tight and it can go both ways.
Haha.. I guess the more you vent on forums, the better the outcome will be. Overall, a good performance against the group's top team at the moment. Now, on to Australia! And yeah! Junya Ito is a beast.
My wildest scenario that I imagine it might happen is: KSA loses or draws against China and Japan draws against Australia which makes the final round more interesting
China losing against Vietnam now. Never have I seen a team with so much resources and money not develop a single cm year after year. Tragic.
It is a weird thing to practice defensive World Cup tactics against Saudi Arabia. But in itself, being a defensive manager at the WC is not a bad thing. However, Japan must never try a deep block. Rather, a mid-line block at least, to avoid being bombarded by crosses. Pressing forwards like Maeda or Furuhashi should play, at the expense of a midfielder (I know Osako is going to play) to help disrupt the build-up. This should frustrate posession-oriented teams.
ONly saw the second half, looked good, fast start, score the 2-0, then always in control. Again IMO looked better than vs the weaker teams. Will see the first half later on youtube. Still no reason to keep Moriyasu...Big change vs Australia, then he started using substitutes earlier, both looked good, but now he's basically in some sort of pre-programmed mode to do the same formation and substitutions at roughly the same time each match. Are we sure he's actually human and not some badly programmed robot? Today Minamino should have come out at least 10 minutes earlier, was obvious he didn't have much energy left, but clearly that wasn't in the Moriyasu program, so he stayed in while clearly tired. Moriyasu's lack of flexibility is incredible. And doubt his game plan will work as well in the WC, if Japan qualifies, which they should now. It works best vs team at the SA-Australia level I fear. Vs weaker teams harder to get chances based on speed, vs stronger teams remains to be seen, but I fear the defence won't hold well enough, and once Japan is behind... hard to come back with a game based on speed alone. Hopefully I'll be proven wrong. Anyway, thanks to the bot we already know who start vs Australia, and who will be called up basically too. Central defence in, Mitoma and Furuhashi in most likely, ah.. not sure who will be out. Logic would be Doan+Asano, but Moriyasu isn't going to drop Asano... And while Ito had a good 1,5 games (didn't see the first half, so might be 2) he's still an utter mediocrity, but now starter until 2040 probably. What made him good vs China was that he hardly attempted any dribblings, no Ito-dance followed by him losing control of the ball, and he was passing instead of crossing. Since his crosses tend to go directly into opponents legs or anywhere, but nowhere near another Japanese way too regularly.. Today outstanding goal and excellent pass to Minamino after his high speed run. Low pass. Finally figured out what he's good at, low passes. Now if he manages to be off the embarrassing dribbling attempts (when it's not on speed) and high crosses, I have no problem with starting him. But I'm convinced at the WC his weaknesses will be exposed again, if Japan is behind vs some second/third tier team with a good defence. As for everybody's darling, Nagatomo, what made him horrible today? Second half he looked good to me until the program asked for his substitution. And can't refrain from mentioning that Nakayama was pretty bad today... after he came on some sort of highway opened up on the left side. And offensively... cute little frustration jump after losing the ball, instead of running back immediately. WEll, not so good games happen... but imagine it happened to Nagatomo... Biggest + of the day: Uchida commentating. Less cheerleading time for Matsuki and he's a joy too listen too, he knows what he's talking about. Which isn't always true for ex players either...But 4 guys IMO too many...
Haha Fun fact, The Japanese National team are known in the Middle East as "The Computer Team/A.I. Team"
Junya Ito is not medicore he is very very good almost every game. He has round about 30 scorerpoints this season for Genk and JNT and the season is only on half time. He delivers every year. A real joy to watch.
Junya Ito is one of the most solid players in the Belgian league. If people took time to watch him or the league, I think some bigger clubs would have gone for him by now, especially when right wingers are in demand for whatever reason. In any case, it's a really huge win today. Hopefully that will sets us up in the right mindset ahead of the final stretch towards qualification. It matters little as to how and more as to how many at this stage.
There goes my wishes for a dramatic, last gasp, three-way race final round. Australia now need to win at home against Japan and away against Saudi Arabia and hope goal difference be in their favor. Not impossible but I have my doubts they can do it.
Oman - Australia 2-2. Recap of the situation: Saudi 19, Japan 18, Aussie 15 Let's assume the Saudi beat China next round, they go to 22. Then there's Japan - Australia: if Japan wins, they are qualified and Australia is 3rd. If Japan draws, they go to 19 and Australia to 16. But since the last round is Japan - Vietnam, it's very likely still enough to qualify. If Japan loses, it's Saudi 22, Japan 18, Aussie 18. With Aussie having a goal difference that will be at very least +4 over Japan. And, the last round it will be Saudi - Australia, but with the Saudi already qualified and playing for nothing. So if both Japan and Australia win, Japan will be 3rd. tl;dr Japan needs at least one point from the next game
@Dax yep you are correct. just a point in the next game vs australia will probably be enough to secure the second place.
Nagatomo played a great game. I hope he plays like this every game after being criticised by the media and fans so much last week. Whatever happens against Australia, I’m not convinced they’ll beat an already-qualified Saudi Arabia. No one likes to lose a WCQ at home especially against an AFC rival (their last game against Australia was quite heated), they have a proud home record to defend.