The spectators are booing too in England vs Belgium, as both teams playing a somehow uninspired and dull game (both teams playing with their reserves). With Belgium receiving 2 yellow cards, we are poised to meet England, unless Belgium manages to win.
Agreed I don't think they were dirty other than one player. Japan usually play with a lot of dignity which I love. They don't constantly harass refs, they don't tend to dive all over the pitch and they try to play football without all the traits that people hate about the game. I guess that's why it's so disappointing today despite me being delighted they are through
Both England and Belgium are looking sharp and dangerous, whoever Japan play it's going to be a real tough ask no matter what. I guess it's not worth worrying about 1st or 2nd place until we see the outcome of the next match
sure the neutrals and our fans may be disappointed and angry with the way we approached and played this game but who cares. seriously. this team was given pretty much no chance to progress past the group stage. terrible performances for the past 12-18 months. sack the manager. not much expectations. if someone told me we'd finish second one month ago...
Belgium are worst than England. At least for our kind of gameplan. It's going to be really tough. Who knows.
I understand both sides. I'm so happy they got through against the odds but yea....not the most dignified end to the group stages. That said it's in the past now let's focus on the huge positives of the first two games and the fact nobody expected them to get close to this far. Onwards and upwards. Give it everything against Belgium, I've felt they are hugely overrated for a while now. Lots of very good individuals but not the most cohesive unit. Japan, at their strongest are a team that play for each other despite not having the depth and Individuals flair of some teams.
lets not try to put this under the carpet. Japan played like crap against a crap team, mostly because of a crapy move by their manager who decided it was a good idea replacing 6 starting players who put you in this situation to succeed in the first place. After the first half display and a general crappy play they continue on the path conceed a goal and can only thank Colombia scoring to save their sorry asses and their sorry strategy. Pardon crap strategy. After learning of it he decides to pull of the crappiest of moves by trusting in Colombia and just keeping the ball. Especially in a WC full of late goals. This is beyond morronic I am telling you
You're incredibly negative. Are you proportionately positive when they win? It was a weird strategy but worked outn in the end. Let's focus on the positives and move on, there's nothing to gain from constantly going on about this. Two very positive games and one negative. I'd rather focus on the positive but these forums always bring out the negative in people. Everyone has got their anger off their chest, why keep dragging it up?
I am I ll fully admit it. I have been in loved with this team my entire life, watched J-League made entire papers on it. Advised our own people on it. And even though in 2014 they went crashing out of that WC despite the huge expectations... I loved the attitude the attacking minded positive keep the ball on the floor football. Seeing this players many do not know play well and show flashes of brilliance. And it was the same in first two games this year. But this is just utter shit. Not them passing the ball around when having a winning result. Them passing the ball around hoping the other match goes as they hope, when they can save their asses themselves to help out the odds
]Like I say, we were all (most of us) very annoyed and we all follow the team, a lot of us from different countries (i.e Scotland in my case) but we got it off our chest. It's done now, Japan are through. There was more positive than there were negatives in the group so lets focus on that
Well, the main problem with this squad is the lack of any great substitutes on certain positions. If you have to use a right back like Gotoku Sakai as an right winger then you really have not done a proper job as a coach.
I travelled thousands of miles and spent thousands of dollars to go watch all 3 games in Russia. If you think I wanted to see that last 10 min or so from Japan after all that money and time, you are absolutely CORRECT!!!!! Anything to win/get through. Could have completely backfired but it was a calculated risk. More chance of Poland scoring a second then us scoring, or Senegal scoring. I don't know wtf nishino was thinking with that line up but bring on Belgium!
People are annoyed by the moronic gameplan, not the overall result which is outstanding. I'm extremely happy.
This is what make the difference between a random football geek typing on his keyboard (no reference intended) and a dude that experience the event in first person. And at the end of the day you are fecking right! We are in the Final16 for the 3rd time, we made history and bring pride to AFC! Now I really hope Belgium totally underestimate us and use this last match as a reference for their plans. By the way 2002WC Japan vs Belgium 2-2 is my favorite Samurai Blue match of all time. I remember Suzuki's and especially Inamoto's goal as if it were yesterday, it was an heartbreaking awesome match with a lot of CaptainTsubasesque twists and turns like that Yanagisawa's superfast dribbling, Wilmots' bicycle kick, Inamoto disallowed goal and a questionable not assigned pk on Sonk! I hope to repeat that experience and that this match will enter in JNT history as that one. Sorry for the WoT I have become sentimental! XD
Haha I love it! Don't apologise for being nostalgic, I love that. I'm always talking about old Scotland, Japan, Dundee Utd games with friends and family. There are some games I can remember every single second of.
In fact, Germany needed to win AND Austria needed to not concede too many goals. After an early 1-0 lead by the Germans, the remaining minutes of the match were a snoozefest according to all accounts of the time. However, the biggest question was about why Nishino made 6 changes for this match when qualification to the round of 16 was all but secure. For instance, Makino and Gotoku Sakai were so painful to watch out there. I was expeting Honda to start if we wanted some continuity at the number 10 role, but he didn't play at all. For the record, Senegal and Colombia threw all their forces into the battle, and the match could have gone either way despite my expectations of a crushing victory from Colombia. The moral of the story is that we should never rest players unless we got all 6 points after 2 matches. Now that we are settled to play against Belgium, all we can do is hope that our boys will go out there without any pressure and make sure each man will do his job.
don't underestimate the need for rest. England/Belgium rested all their players, and Japan was playing in very hot conditions. About Colombia, James got substituted due to injury so I think they had problems attacking after that.
Well, screw them! They only had to stay disciplined. If I were to rub salt into anyone who is outraged by Senegal being eliminated, I would remind them that our boys in blue could have wasted them into a bigger margin.
WC knockout stage appearances Japan 3 S. Korea 2 Australia 1 Saudi Arabia 1 N. Korea 1 Asian Cup titles Japan 4 Saudi Arabia 3 Iran 3 S. Korea 2 Kuwait 1 Iraq 1 Australia 1 Bow before the king. Japan has dominated Asia despite having one of the youngest professional leagues in the region.
According to a Scott McIntyre article on foxsportsasia Keisuke Honda asked Nishino and it was purely to rest players for the R16 game as the rationale for 6 changes. Look we need to put it behind us, tbh on the other hand I can at least say it doesn't concern me too much. Belgium made 8 or so changes in their 3rd game too so had Japan played the starters it would've been quite bad in a few days time.