They were soft, just slightly to the side of the keeper and with no power. You couldn't take a worst penalty unless you put it into the 35th row.
They really were terrible. Good penalty kicks are blasted above shoulder high into a corner, or right down the middle because the keeper almost always moves one way or another. But these Japanese attempts were slow grounders, and with zero deception. Keeper just had to guess right, and Japanese players made that pretty easy.
Yeh, I didn't expect Japan to win the shootout, but that was much worse than I expected. You would think they would prepare better given Croatia's history of going to extra time and PKs. I think Doan and Kamada would have been cool in that situation, but unfortunately they were already subbed out.
Kamada really threw away a golden opportunity to end the game in the 2nd half by blindingly trying to pass it rather than shoot on goal.
I think you are talking about Tomiyasu. At least that was the obvious one for me. He had loads of space to shoot. But Kamada did have a chance at 0-0 that I think he should've done better with.
Probably was Tomiyasu then. It was 1-1 and with some standard finishing that was a 2nd for Japan but he kept his head down and tried to pass it to nobody but 3 Croatian defenders. Wasted opportunity.
It was designed that Brazil wins in 2014. Another World Cup title. But you can't arrange all matches. Colombia lost intentionally, no desire in their match against Brazil. Yes, Croatia was pretty much average in that World Cup. Some new players were too young, but they became important in future years. Pletikosa, Jelavic, Vukojevic, Zelenika, Schildenfeld, Badelj, Rebic, Olic, Sammir, Vida are mostly average. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_FIFA_World_Cup_squads#Croatia
Where is the problem, if someone who isn't from Croatia - likes Croatia? Maybe they don't play beautiful like in 2018, but no one else plays in that way. Maybe France. Spain lost today against that "weak" Morocco where Croatia played horrible. I knew that Morocco will go far. I expected the triangle: BEL, CRO, MOR in that group.
They could score higher. Or in the central part. There is a reason why Japanese players shoot like that. Lack of confidence, fear of missing it. Livaja shot also badly. That tiny jump or whatever is this named. They should all shoot higher. It's impossible that GK covers the spot above 1m. David Luiz knew how to score well. Also, Mendieta used that ground shot, but he would always scored.
This World Cup isn't attractive in many aspoects. - many players are old and out of shape - without great free kicks - without great actions - high physical domination, instead of technique Maybe this is the reality, World Cups of 21st century are in decline overall.
Depay, Messi, Neymar, Modric, Ziyech, Cristiano Ronaldo, Mbappe, Bellingham. If we observe the last eight. You can find them in your three choices. But, some of these ones are older. Your names had much greater skills, impact and creativity. Icons of popular culture.
Messi yes, but he is 35. I am looking at current crop of young players The others are not the same as the three I mentioned
Maybe because I was a child during the greatest periods of Zidane, Totti, Ronaldinho, but the period of last 20 years isn't something special. This World Cup has very bad coaches. Few of them have the value: Deschamps, Santos, Van Gaal, Southgate... Scaloni wanders a lot in his choices. People often say: the real Ronaldo. We can say the same: the real Lionel, where Messi is in charge, not Scaloni.