Agree. But I still thinks its time to move on. But after this WC I at least changed my view a little.
Croatia was overall a bit better and positive but the game could have gone either way. All and all Japan is still not good enough to do it. If anything I think this team was a bit worse than 4 years ago
Overall better players. Let us be realistic Gonda - A very average keeper considering this is the best an entire nation has. Yoshida a good average defender for such a level the rest of defense nothing special also with an exception of Tomiyasu Midfield Endo is a DMC defensive midfielder an ok one, but you cant expect that to carry your midfield Morita same. Some spark on the wings with Ito, Mitoma but nothing that outstanding. Kamada was average, Asano Maeda are literally one of the worst strikers of the WC if we are being honest. and you cant expect a striker to be below 175cm unless he is excaptionally good. None of those are. Doan was a really good winger though. But that is just not enough to be among the top 8 I mean you can cause football is a game that lets you have those moments of luck and epiphany but realistically they are not that good. A lot better players need to be developed 4 years ago you had - Inui - Kiyotake - Kagawa - Honda - Haraguchi I mean those are individually really technically gifted and good players and I would argue that team was better and Japan as a football nation has taken a step back and needs to continue with a 100 years football vision and 100 professional clubs and so on.
As long as Moriyasu starts making the team to play a more attacking minded football, I'm ok with him staying. That's because in 2026 Japan will have way better forwards than today, such as Keito Nakamura, Mao Hosoya, Shuto Machino, and other players will be in better shape, such as Mitoma, Doan, Kubo, Hatate, Ueda, Maeda, Hara, and many others. It would be smart from JFA to hire an assistant coach that knows Positional Play football, it's the same style used by Guardiola and many teams, so this knowledge would be useful when playing against such teams and also to help us have better attack patterns. There are currently many Japanese coaches who know this style, so any of them could become an assistant coach at JNT and thus help the coaching staff.
Positional play is complex. And requires way more from individuals than other styles of play. Usually very attacking managers don't know how to defend when needing to. Japan could do with a really tall striker- a battering ram/hold-up player, to force matters when someone turtles up. TBH, with my homeland being shakey on crosses, even introducing Machino could've been an OK idea. But Taichi Hara is even taller. Also, long shots should be part of the tactic. Mexico in 2014 liked to do this, and it created chaos. Opponents have to come out and block anything looking like a threat, but that leaves space.
Yes indeed Positional Play is complex, but my idea is not to make Japan play this style, but to have someone in the coaching staff that have deep knowledge about it. This is important because Japan will need to learn playing more offensive, since it will have much better players in 4 years.
I don’t think Moriyasu is the correct manager to reach the next level, but with his victories against Germany and Spain you cannot fire him. This is a results based business and he got results.
Yeah hes gotta have the chance. I dont know I almost feel Moriyasu for his own sake should cash out and enter leave the NT as a hero. that was tge best world cup Japan's ever had.
I wanted Korea to win and cause a huge upset, but Brazil is too much quality. Still cheering for an upset. Also, Yoshida is a great leader, but I am glad this is his last WC. Too bad Itakura got suspended for this game. Oh well, super frustrating, but it was a decent run! (please replace Moriyasu)
Maybe cuz they were so obsessed with the Japanese elimination. Haha But tbh, didn't expect this result and it's just the 1st half
I think one thing worthwhile from this 4 year cycle was basically making the Olympic team and NT essentially one extended squad with the same coach. It showed and they should do it again. I dont think Japan should have a foreign manager.
Well, Moriyasu IMO should go. Speed over everything again. Mitoma as wingback. Even Okada and Ono today on Japanese TV weren't happy with the substitution, keep Nagatomo in, put in Mitoma in Kamada's place they both said is what they expected. Hard criticism, usually everybody on TV is supporting and happy with whatever Japan does (well, Okada is critical, he's good, can we have him back as coach?) Exactly what I thought too. Why have your biggest offensive threat have to start from way back? Even like this he was the biggest danger, imagine what he could do without the extra meters he has to run from his own penalty area? Leaving Ito in... same thing, IF you did that Nagatomo-Mitoma change, the next one has to be Sakai-Ito. With the changes he made Japan ended up with a frontline of Asano, Minamino-Ito behind. None of them will create anything except on counters. And at 1-1 Croatia will not expose itself much. So the creativity comes from Mitoma from way back, possibly Endo-Morita (Morita has good vision and passing IMO, but obviously has to prioritize his defensive work. It should be Minamino up front, behind him Mitoma-x, x can be Doan/Ito/Kamada or even Shibasaki in a more forward role than usual. Have players that can create something, not just pure runners. Of course today Japan played its best game of the tournament, too bad the penalties were so bad, but ok, happens. Too bad they couldn't score after the 1-1 (But we're back at the substitutions with that). Too bad Croatia scored almost out of nothing (like Japan vs Germany basically). If the speed over speed subs of today were an exception, ok, but it has been a constant feature of his tenure. That's why IMO he has to go. Generally agree with Blue's assessment of the players above, see Itakura and Ito more positively in defence, think Mitoma is more than a spark. Think for the short term future (Asian Cup) a 4-2-3-1(Asian Cup) a front line of Maeda/Furuhashi (pressing and scoring, but Ueda/Machino/Hayashi and Minamino as forward can be tried too) Mitoma-Kamada-Doan, then Endo-Morita looks promising. Defense Tomiyasu-Itakura center, Nakayama left until somebody better is found, Sugawara (Muroya-Yamane) on the right seems promising. After missing the win there twice in a row high time to win it again. You still can play defensively with a line up like that, and tweak it for the WC 26 to base it on the defence, but for the near future, give us more than just speed.
Hard luck my friends. Was really rooting for Japan. You can be proud of your teams accomplishment. Japan is the Nr 1 Asian team and I think all Asian teams should seek to reach the discipline and professionalism of teams like Japan and Korea. I think for the foreseeable future you will set the bar and standard for the rest of AFC countries to aspire to reach.
One thing the AFC could do to improve te level of Asian football is to have a single group where each team face each other, just like in Conmebol qualifiers. This would allow Japan, Korea, Iran and Australia to play against each other every cycle. The problem though is that this system would be possible only if each team faced the other once, since there wouldn't have enough time for both home and away games.
Nagatomo and Yoshida to retire now ? Naga was good today. Legend. Will be interesting years to follow, a good striker please. And Kamada should step up if he wants to keep his starting spot, better today but nowhere close.
Of course I'm disappointed, going out so close to advancing always hurts. Should have won it in normal time. Somehow after the whistle blew for the 90 minutes I got the feeling that Croatia would prevail with its experience. Incredibly baffled by the quality of the penalty kicks. Still, in this WC Japan beat 2 former champions and almost beat the runner-up of the last tournament. This might have, if the performances of 2010 and 2018 haven't already, finally put Japan on the map and made people aware of the fact that the JNT can compete with any team. A big thanks to the team and to Moriyasu for giving us incredible moments in this WC that I will remember for a very long time. I will happily continue to follow the Samurai Blue and Nadeshiko Japan and am excited for the future of these teams.
What a shitshow! It looks like Moriyasu didn't train penalties with them at all which is a huge fail because every single penalty taken by Japan except the one that was successfully converted was beyond dreadful. It's like they were a bunch of U-9s taking shots for the first time, it was embarassing to watch and unacceptable at this level. Japan really beat itself today, this Croatia team was more than beatable within 90 minutes.
Great Tournament, great Team. Japan today was overall the slightly better team, defensly and offensly. Was totaly possible to win today and in the penalty shootouts, every team could win and Japan nerves were colabs today. But like Moriyasu said after the game, that you can be proud and show you can compete with almost every team in the world. Junya Ito was outstanding today, Kamada was also very solid with his curle moves. Doan was so active and Maeda played a awesome tournament as a defensive Striker against Spain and Croatia and be happy for him to het his goal. Thanks alot Blue Samurai!!!!
Guys the world has really come to recognise the NT through this tournament. Its really quite remarkable. Im extremely proud of the team. The team without any talisman-like player, the generation post Hasebe/Honda/Kagawa/Okazaki/Inui, without any stupid nickname like platinum generation etc. This was our best FWC of all time. The team and its manager deserve total respect for how its elevated the Samurai Blue name on the world stage.