KOMANO!!!!!! Congratulations to him for a well deserved and long overdue first goal for the Japan NT!!!
Kagawa's foot has been a bit heavy when passing. He's had a couple of decent shots but he's obviously not close to his best yet. KAGAWA!! Oh, and Komano! ;D
Kengo has been the standout that half by far. 2 assists and his general movement and touches have been great. Though I'd like it if he went through the centre more rather than go to the overlapping fullbacks most times.
Oh man I can actually ENJOY this game for once lol seems a bit pointless but they look like they're sharing the same vision so that's good ta see.
Fantastic first half! Tajikistan is at very poor level but the determination,the physical condition and the approach to the game was perfect for Japan. I must say that the presence of Havenaar has been the key factor. with his presence he allows Okazaki,Kagawa and Kengo to play their best football,running and cutting forward.
the wife won't let me watch because she feels bad for Tajikistan need to get myself another TV or tuner.
Pretty much both teams seem to not give a crap anymore...... fair enough really. Only guy who looks like he cares really is Lee who wants a goal. I think it's great credit that Tajikistan at least played in a sporting manner, they didn't try to injure our players or try any dirty stuff to get a result which is more than you could say for many Asian teams.
Very happy for Havenaar. Some questions, how established is he now? Is he considered your 2nd striker behind Lee or is he further up the picking order and how would you rate his chances of making the squad for upcoming tournaments?
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KgwYYy9Oio"][ALL GOALS] Japan 8-0 Tajikistan 2014 Fifa World Cup qualifier 10/11/2011 - YouTube[/ame]
I don't think *anyone* expected an 8-0 victory (except maybe for Hosogai who I think called 5-0?) so it's hard to say how this changes things. But I think Havenaar just punched his ticket to a November call-up and maybe even another start if Honda isn't ready.
I think it was Hasebe who said that Japan winning 5-0 would boost Japan's morale. Havenaar 2 goals is the splitting image of each other. Komano's cross from the right into the Center for Havenaar, 2 great headers! But the best goal for me is Kagawa's 2nd goal, the awesome curling shot from the edge of the box. That's was SUPERB! JAPAN 8-0 Tajikistan! GREAT JOB, JAPAN!
Woah, guys! Of course, it`s the match I knew I was going to miss ... So Kagawa`s crisis is officially over? In the highlights Sergio was really annoying, it sounded like he wanted him rather to be out of form so he was proved right...
http://www.soccer-king.jp/daihyo/article/201110112250_japan_8_0.html Some warm words from Tajikistan coach Rafikov. If more nations would consider football this way and respect fair play it would be awesome. http://www.nikkansports.com/soccer/japan/score/2011/2011101101.html 39 shots
He said that the result is natural consequence of level difference between Tajikistan and Japanese football. He also said that there's no use to compare Uzbekistan or North Korean teams to Japanese as there's no match in strenght of both countries. He admits also that the plan of complete defensive play was good in assumptions, as the scoreline says it all, but still his team wasn't able to stop Japanese. He also thanks for fielding best players on the pitch and playing all out from the point where it was obvious how it will end as the Tajik's coach wants to make best use of this game in the future. About clean game he said that Japanese players have higher objectives than this game so they didn't want to get players injured even though there were some fouls but Japanese players were too fast for that. More or less (why am I doing this???)
Both Kagawa's goals were classy. Love to see his perfect touch is still in place, and hope he'll get a morale boost from it as well.
Can't believe I missed the festival on a few miles away from my home.... I should have got off at Nagai sta. yesterday. Never expected such a goal rush so only went straight back to home and watched it on TV.. Silly me...
Hahaha, kind of a controversial goal huh? Kagawa himself in the post-match interview said he was going for the goal instead of the cross. Unless that was a cheeky quote from Endo...
One thing I didn't like was Japan kept playing and scored while a Tajikistan player was down in his own box.