why did Honda do that to his eyes? And the company that did the surgery uses him for their advertisements even though it looks like a complete failure.
Hello, I'm Italian. I feel bad for Japanese supporters, you should have won this game. Basically Italy TROLLED Japan.....
Stats http://www.whoscored.com/Matches/679887/Live/International-Confederations-Cup-2013-Italy-Japan Shots: 23-14 Shots on target: 9-5 Corners: 6-2 Posession: 58-42
yes. I couldn't handle the frustration. I just wanted to watch the rest of the match AFTER seeing the damn result. And boy, I'm so disappointed to see we got another goal near the end. And by GIOVINCO. HOW COULD IT HAPPEN. (yes I already know unfortunately). And to those that keep sayin' the CBs were shit: god. damn. It's not like they're robots. They mostly contained Balotelli and not only him. Yes Yoshida is scary, in 2013 he has ********ed up so many times. But nobody ever gives credit for every good defending during the match, that's not fair. I'd give a chance to Kurihara too in a big match, like Mexico, but it just isn't going to happen I think.
Why not? Because he plays for a mediocre Premier League team?(no offence Saints fans) Hopefully not a Zac reasoning.
Well it is one thing to not cover well that is just poor defending. But the mistakes Yoshida is pulling now (2 in a row) are those kind of mistakes a defender perhaps can afford one time a year before he is being called a poor defender. Same as with goalkeepers. In all honesty defenders were put under a lot of pressure in this game, because of the amount of people Japan was pulling forward. However what they had to do they didn't do extremely well. Konno was trying really hard on Balotelli but we knew it right away he wont be able to cope with him. Balotelli was holding up the ball easily laying it off for the rest of the team. The penalty thing resulted from Balotelli easily droping the ball to a teammate who then had a clear shot at goal. Same thing happened in the action when they hit the post and so on... The guy was clearly moving away from Yoshida and Konno was the one covering him all over the field. Should have been reverse. Yoshida tracking and harrasing him and Konno let to deal with the two smaller supporting forwards. Nagatomo got exposed on several occasions and the 4th goal was a through pass to a guy running into "his" channel They were doing good as a team, but had the central defense been better and instead of Maeda there was a guy who could have hit the open header and so on Japan would probably trashed them. That said Maeda did really well overall in the game apart from his threat on goal, that stuff was poor. He linked up with attack well defended well but the chances he made for himself were poorly executed and well that is the thing we are holding against him anyway... We all know he is really good defensively as an attacker, that he links up quite well and works the channels a lot more then the likes of Haveenar, but he is lacking that danger for goal thing every ST needs to have
Don't worry many fans are at least happy to put in a good performance after the Brazil game. Well I'm a fan of both teams, so maybe I can't speak for everyone, but it was good to see Japan play with intensity for the first time in a while. Both teams need to fix their defensive mistakes though.
Considering the hardship of the match, I disagree. Italy was very lucky. You realize that Balotelli is one of the best strikers in the world right? He was holding up the ball? Of course. Few defenders in the world get it out of him, and definitely we don't have one in Japan that could do that. That's why the coach has to set up a defense that is based on space (i.e. Argentina match) , and Balotelli himself still didn't have plenty of space at all, even if you can't always prevent it from getting it at all. It's not surprising that he ended without even scoring, nor making an assist. Despite the loss we dominated the match (not only on ball possession, which is anyway quite much more) as I remarked many times he's the main difference between a good and a bad Italy. Sure, they got the victory but we gave them a hand in that. That always happen in Serie A too. It is a problem, but the only solution is moving him forward as he really can't be dropped. That requires other tactical changes and another players has to get out though... He has to improve. I'd tend to agree but I don't like "virtual speeches" like "if X was there we would..." it's not like there's a super bomber in Japan right now, so who knows, maybe he would've struggled anyway.
well can't really blame Nagatomo on the last goal as Japan were going for the win. Now I hate that Prandelli will think Giovinco is God just because Japan were offensive and left him space.
I disagree Dax. Bigger guy like Kurihara or Yoshida would perhaps not be able to take the ball away from him, but at least make it even harder for him to lay off easy headers and so on. Also Balotelli did score and was very close to having an assist as well. They were using him as a guy to create chances for the two teraquista guys anyway. Yes it is hard against him and yes Konno worked his socks off but I believe some other defender could have done it even better About Maeda - I didnt say that a certain guy would have done it better. But just that a striker in general needs to be way more dangerous more of a goal threat than he really is at the moment. I dont claim someone would have scored that open header, but it is a general football knowledge which tells you that he SHOULD have done better in that occasion. I gave him reps where it is due, I will not give him reps for goal-threat part of his play, cause for the last year or so he is extremely poor in that department for his club and country
Well he actually made that excuse even before the match started, lol. In Euro final against Spain that is a reasonable excuse but second match in the tournament when Japan is coming off qualifying in Doha, not such a good one. Not to mention the obvious fact that Japan was dominating from the beginning of the match...
Yeah that goal was a consequence of JNT going for that 4th, so you cant hold it against Nagatomo the way you can easily point at Yoshida, just saying that it was him getting exposed that caused the goal itself
Damn it, Japan deserved to win. They played much better, and quite bitter to have early exit. However Japan is looking hungry ahead of WC and is no longer afraid of the "big" teams such as Italy. Japan is by far the best Asian team, that have highest chance of causing havoc in the World Cup, next year.
There's always an excuse in Italy. Anyway, guys, can this match be downloaded somewhere? I wanna keep a memory of this
As much as you hope for it, it likely won't happen, he's much better than them... we'll see against Brazil how they cope with him I guess? I'll make a judgement then. ........... come on. -_- Fair enough, but it's not like Konno had to man-mark him the whole match, if he moves on his side what can you do? Again, the defense is based on zonal marking. edit: oh, maybe you meant you would've liked Kurihara to start instead of him? hmmm, I don't know, he is definitely taller, but I guess the coach rates him more in general. He's the one who sees them everyday so... I really don't know. And Italy had 5 shots on goal in the whole match anyway. It's not like they had so many chances, now
The defenders can switch when possible naturally not every time as it would disrupt the zonal marking Search for the Honda all touch video for Brazil match and look at what David L. was doing for 75% of the match to Honda. And Honda isn't even a striker. You will see that Luiz tracked him over the half way line on several occasions. Not saying at all that Yoshida, Kurihara... should have done that. But just pointing out that in a similar fashion as Konno was tracking Balotelli Luiz was tracking Honda. And no surprise that both of the players are used as a main outlet in going forward, so the opposite team tries to prevent that. P.S. You will also see that Luiz did not take away ball from Honda or caused him to waste it much...he did however made it extremely hard for him to play others in and would make those small silly fouls all the time which disrupted the attack itself.
There are many things to take in consideration when doing that though, such as the other defender position, the need to stay in line for the offside rule, keeping a check to the other players, it's not something you usually may want to do on purpose just to chase one player. Not saying it's impossible but I think you're giving Yoshida - or any other DF - too much faith here I didn't feel exactly that way, I don't recall Konno tracking him up high, but I'll rewatch it later so I'll just take take in mind your comment I'd like to see Luiz (and, well, Scolari) again next time against him instead of Honda then
Wow. I got up early to watch the game and had to leave immediately afterwards for class...couldn't concentrate all day. Can't say if it was a blessing or a curse to have watched this match since, yes, our attacking was the best I've ever seen from us but how on earth can you not feel like shit losing like that? Most of the commentators seem to think we're winners because we outplayed Italy (we did). But they're not Japan fans. Maybe I'll feel better tomorrow...who knows. At the very least, this presents an interesting test of mental fortitude. The Mexico match could be very revealing, even though it's worthless on paper. I hope Zac plays a full squad for two reasons: 1) I'm thirsty for blood. I didn't have high hopes coming into the tournament but now I want a tangible victory. 2) We'll be able to gauge the players' commitment and ambition. If they play like they did today, that could be a very positive indicator for the WC and future beyond. Today's been tough but I'm hopeful that this will be a momentous catalyst in the trajectory of Japanese soccer. I hope that the brutality of defeat and brush with glory will forever be remembered and that we can cherish this as a source of inspiration.
Being italian and a supporter of italian national team, I'm happy for the victory, but I'm also a Japan supporter in a minor way and there is no doubt that Italy played a bad game while Japan have made great things. I tell you I wished a draw to be not happy but very happy. Is it correct if I say that Kagawa made his best performance with Japan? I also think that Honda (even if he played better games) has showed to be a good player for Ac Milan. Unfortunately, the work made by midfielders and forwards gone to waste because of a too weak defensive line. In Italy, while Honda and Kagawa can play for most importany clubs like Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus, Yoshida would be a in a club almost sure to be victim of relegation (like Pescara or Siena this season), and Konno would play in italian second division (Serie B). It's time for japanese soccer to find its "Honda and Kagawa" as centre-backs.
Naah. A Serie B player wouldn't be able to cope with Balotelli at all, neither against other international opponents. Not surprisingly, Yoshida already plays in a club that is way superior than Pescara or Siena and Konno could probably play in a similar club. You're right that there's no equivalent of Honda and Kagawa in defense though, of course
well i think we were by far the better team.. i mean they scored after a corner kick.. the second goals was a succesion of mistakes especially that idiot defence from yoshida and then the unnecessary own goal.. the third goal was never a penalty. an the forth came from an counter attack.. ti summarize we should be optimistic and look to get that defence on a good level till the next year..
Still hard to swallow this. Well it was no the WC. Hope they continue on the same track and want 3 points on saturday.