No. Japan is more offensive after they scored and Mexico simply counterattack. Really pissed off by Yoshida and Tomiyasu. They are underperforming. Anyway this is a nice wake-up for JNT. And the better is that it came from a similar team. Oh, and Kamada epic failed.
Japan getting frustrated now, keep giving the ball away, think they have lost hope. Mexico are taking care of the two best teams in Asia, making it look pretty comfortable now to be honest, I thought Japan would have put up more of a fight than SK
How many times has this happened though, japan misses their chances, should be up by two, and the other team wakes up and punishes them
For me, it is absolute nonsense that a footballing program does not focus first and foremost in finding/developping that superstriker. There are different ways to build a team, but it usually either from the back to the front or from the front to the back. Producing midfielders is useless if you don't have strong Ds, a strong goalkeeper, and a clinical finisher up front.
Guys this is a friendly, stop talking like it's a WC final8 match ;D Anyway Mexico is a tough opponent, always been, and they are the best paragon for future development of JNT.
Tbh, Mexico should have won the last game by a bigger margin. They wasted many chances in the game and they have been pretty clinical today.
To be fair, I thought Mexico were really good today. The best Mexico team I’ve seen in a long while. Their coach Martino worked wonders with Atlanta United in the MLS and the signs are that he’s making a similar difference so far with the Mexico NT. Their fight back was impressive and Mexico completely dominated the second half. This used to be a team that was a bit fragile, kind of like Japan.
It's still infuriating to see that for every step forward, there is a step back with Japan. Mexico are tough opponents, but they are not exactly of the type to reach the World Cup quarterfinals every time. There was a time when the United States owned them often locally.
I think the turning point was the substitution of Hashimoto in the 57th minute. He left too much space which Mexico exploited. Time to try Itakura as a DM. He was decent in the Panama game.
The result could have been different if Japan had converted at least one of their chances in the first half. This game is a confirmation why most of the world's expensive transfers are recorded by forwards. When you see Musashi Suzuki standing around the center circle before the kick off, you have to expect a tough game. I wonder why half black Japanese athletes are always crap when it comes to football lmao. When will Japan have the football equivalent of Hachimura (basketball), Osaka (tennis), Matsushima (rugby), Sani Brown (athletics)? Moriyasu was bad too. He was totally outcoached by Mexicos manager who made a double substitutions during the half time. Iran is in danger of not qualifying for the final round and most of their players play in small leagues. That Azmoun guy is class though. Like it or not, South Korea is still the toughest opponent Japan faces in Asia.
In the last 4 friendly matches Moriyasu tried too much in terms of formation, players' allocation, positional switching, and tactics. Something he did not make prevalently during his first 2 years in charge. These tendency to try many things under different situations while facing different international level oppositions is the main positive outcome of the last 4 matches. Moriyasu even made some clever in-game adjustments which changed the situations dramitically in the matches against Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, and Panama. As for tonight's match against Mexico, the continuous positional switches between the players were joyful to watch and caused many problems to the Mexican midfielders and sid-backs, as Japan was taking full control of the midfield in the first-half. Ito was dropping sometimes almost close to the CBs (something unfamiliar of wingers in Japan NT), while openning up spaces for Sakai, Endo, Kamada, and Shibasaki to surge forward. The same was done by Haraguchi on the left side. Kamada was playing in a new and quite unfamiliar role for him, in which he failed to make an impact. He was supposedly playing as an under-the-top, but he was actually playing as a box-to-box player ahead of Endo and Shibasaki, as he kept dropping back to the centre of the field (and in sometimes he played behind Shibasaki and Endo and ahead of the CBs). All of these tactical duties, I argue, was made by Moriyasu to play more decentralised style of football, which usually cause the opponent to be disrupted and help to create spaces. However, this approach needs the players to make alot of running and facing the danger of being gassed out midway through the second-half, which actually happened and costed Japan the match. In the positive side, both Haraguchi and Ito proved their flexibility and ability to adapt to this approach, as they managed to create spaces for their teammates, or use their speed to chase balls down both wings and create dangerous chances for Japan. However, they lacked decent players to meet their crosses in the centre and to put Japan ahead on the scoresheet. Time after time Musashi Suzuki is proving that he cannot fit into Japan NT's style of play as a central forward. He might fit in the second striker or under the top role, like the role he used to play in for both Consadole Sapporo and Beerschot, but as a CF in the NT he is completely useless and out of place. Musashi Suzuki cannot create spaces or chances for his teammates, he cannot combine with them in a sequence of one-touch movements, and his first touch and decision making is very poor and very slow. No wonder his only Japan NT goal came when he played as a second striker. As for Kamada, it is a totally different case than Suzuki's, as he can play as under the top, or in a free-role behind the striker, but assinging him to a box-to-box midfielder really killed whatsoever contribution he could have come up with. He is not this kind of a player. This role fits the likes of Morioka, Ideguchi, Wakisaka, or Oshima for instance, but surely not Kamada. To the credit of Mexico's coach Geraldo Martino, he made some key substitutions which completely turned the tide in his team's favour by bringing the number 4 midfielder who plays for Ajax (I think his name is Alvarez) who obviously bossed the midfield with his runs and pressing, and he changed one of the side-backs who played on the right side (opposite Haraguchi and Nakayma), and Mexico's second goal came from this side. Moriyasu's approach which required the players to do much running exhausted the players, and coupled with Martino's clever changes caused Japan to concede possession easily and shifted the momentum dramitically into Mexico's favour. In any case, these matches were only friendlies, and their purpose is to try and experiment some options and alternatives to discover avenues for improvement and shortcmings and weaknesses to avoid and fix. So happy of what I saw; Endo is bringing his tremendous club form into the NT, Shibasaki playing with consistency, drive and hunger, chasing every ball and playing with huge level of awareness. Ito is giving the team some valuable solutions on the right wing. Nakayama is maturing awesomely, and he can be the top candidate for the left-back position, given Nagatomo's current form. Haraguchi can give the team a strong dimension in left wing-back position in a 3-back formation. Itakura is a master of the 3-back formation. Kamada is always active and creative, but he needs not to being assigned with duties which don't fit his skillset. Finally, I really hope Moriyasu will build on the discoveries of the 4 matches Japan played in October and Novembee and try to fix the shortcomings, but most importantly he shall stop calling up Musashi Suzuki unless he is going to use him as a second striker.
While Mexico has reached the knockout stage for 7 consecutive WCs, Japan has reached the knockout stage only 3 times out of 6 attempts. End of story. The first ever back-to-back knockout stage appearance should be Japan's next step.