Javier Aguirre : It was a match that both teams kept battling, but Uruguay's experience and our own two mistakes made the difference. When you try to learn something by playing against a big team, you've got to learn from your own mistakes. Japan has only practiced for three times and is a team with four players who just made their debuts on the national team. Uruguay was the same Uruguay team no matter what situations they were in. Despite of the result, I'm satisfied with the facts that the team kept fighting, there were no moments that they got mentally behind in competing with the opponents, and they did not feel down even after they allowed the two goals. I saw some positive points as far as the players' individual performances. We had more corner kicks and free kicks than our opponents while we had a Minagawa header, so I'm not necessarily disappointed with our attacks, yet we need to keep working a lot more. We have our next match against Venezuela on Tuesday, so we want to keep our head up. Yusuke Minagawa : I was so excited (as I was a starter). As for the heading shot, I wanted to make it. That I couldn't make it hurt the team and I feel responsible for it. As I became a starter and kept coming up with some outcomes in the J. League, I felt that I had people that watch me behind me. It made me feel like I wanted to be on this stage more. Keisuke Honda : The fact that Uruguay took this game 2-0 was the difference between us. Coach told me before the game that it couldn't hep that we didn't have time to prepare, we wanted to win, but at the end of the day we would be happy to show some of what we've done as a team even though out chances to take the game would not be very big. As far as me went, I tried to stay up front holding my instinct to want to touch the ball. By doing so, I thought it would give every player in every spot responsibility and it would help grow the midfield and defenders. Until we made a mistake, I don't think that we gave our opponents play in a way they wanted to play. When each player exhibits his own trait and put them all together, you have a game, but it was one of our issues that we didn't do that. Yoshinori Muto : I went into the pitch as substitute as I was saying to myself “I am going to get it”. I was also careful about playing carelessly. Nagatomo suggested me to just try to do something. I found some play is applicable or I could do. Tatsuya Sakai : It was first international appearance for me and I realized there were something I could do and something couldn’t. I made some mistakes and today’s result was not favorable but I think this will be the game which leads to the next game. I was trying to move the ball fast and taking right position as I calling each other for defending Uruguay’s fast counter-attack. Talking about when they scored goal, that was my mistake for lack of skills. After that goal, I managed to switch back soon as my team mates kept saying “next, next”. I was very excited to play in the full crowd and found it good atmosphere, definitely want to play longer. Celso Otero Quintas : It was a tough game and seemed to be rather like official much not like international friendly match. I suppose both teams demonstrated good performance on the pitch. Spectators should have left stadium satisfied. Knowing head coach Aguirre’s style, I wasn’t surprised at the system but it was first time to see lot of Japanese players. What I was surprised at was Japan squad’s four-back defense was stable and Honda was playing in the different position he used to be. Even in that situation, Uruguay players were flexible enough to adjust to the changes. They are capable of playing that way. Maya Yoshida : We just trained for two days and Uruguay has been together for a long time. That’s a huge experience difference. We just started a new page of the team so we need a little bit more time. To be fair, Uruguay is one of the best teams in the world, but we didn’t let them create too many opportunities, we (he should say T. Sakai ) just made mistakes Keisuke Honda (again) : We have to understand each other more, we didn’t show our ability yet. We are not mature yet. That’s obvious because we are a new team. But we have to show our individual ability more. Javier Aguirre (again) : It’s not easy to play a team like Uruguay after just a few training sessions. Our team is young and four players made their debuts today. It wasn’t the result I wanted, but there were some aspects I was satisfied with.
And a cool matome from Sakai's dedicated 2ch thread with Tosu supporters commentins on his debut from the start to the end of the game. Fun read! [Japanese required of course] http://footballnet.2chblog.jp/archives/40033916.html
You're choosing to leave out the part how within 3 games of Okada 'continuing on Osim's footsteps' he decided to abandon it and do it his own way. Osim for better or for worse had hardly any impact in terms of tactics and personnel on Okada's eventual final 2010 team.
Osim philosophy was: 1- to stop replicating other nations, and play football in Japanese way. 2- and to implement a continuous awareness of what the team/players need to improve and apply changes according to it. So in that sense the changes done by Okada is part of Osim's philosophy
Honestly, that's too high level as to represent a "coaching philosophy" - they don't really represent things that actually happen on the training ground or in an actual match. Osim's motto was always "quality, quantity and variety of movement," so much that a large swath of casual soccer fans learned of concepts like "work rate" and "utility player" for the first time. He also espoused attacking soccer by way of players freely interchanging positions without excessive attachment to their original assignments. Actually Kazama's reign at Frontale (or at least the initial growing pains) reminds me of Osim's short NT position, in that both selected their "pet players" who, despite inferior technical ability and talent level, were able to demonstrate their respective philosophical ideals. In Osim's case it was the so-called "Osim Children" - guys like Maki and Hanyu come to mind, while Kazama signed his actual children and college players. Once the foundation was in place and their ideas had gained credence, they started integrating the "stars" while demanding they adapt to the existing framework.
do you even read what you write sometimes? The tactics, formation, style and personnel were DRAMATICALLY different during Okada Japan & Osim Japan.
Well following the same philosophy doesn't mean using the same formation or players. I wonder if you or @Dax are making any effort to understand what I'm saying, instead of arguing for the sake of argument!!
I finished re-watching Japan vs Uruguay last night, and I was really impressed by Aguirre's approach and some of our players performances. The left side of our team was the strongest, and most of our chances came from it, with Nagatomo, Junya Tanaka and Okazaki forming a hot line, while the other side was average at best as Honda was slow, Hosogai good defensively but rarely involved in our attack, while Hiroki Sakai had a disastrous match both defensively and offensively, and in my point of view he was the worst player for us in this match. Hiroki might be good against European oppositions because of his physical presence as was the case in the game against France, but he is likely to be a liability with less athletic and more technical sides like teams from Americas. About Hosogai I really wonder if he is going to start again if both Yamaguchi and Hasebe are fit, as he is inferior to them skill-wise, but he provides something they don't, which is his work rate and willing to sacrifice to benefit the team. In the game against Uruguay, I was hoping Aguirre will sub him out as soon as possible, but in the late stages of the second half I really noticed Hosogai's importance, as when the players begin to lose some of their stamina he was there to provide balance and aid to his teammates, He also did a good job of covering free spaces left by his teammates when they surge forward throughout the game, and this aspect neither Yamaguchi or Hasebe can do as proper as Hosogai did. All in all it was an impressive debut for Aguirre as I said above, hopefully we will see Shibasaki starts in CM position instead of Hosogai, to see how he will perform there, but as reports said Hosogai will start alongside Shibasaki and Morishige or Ogihara in CM. Good luck Japan.
Man of the match was: Morishige, as he did a good job both defensively and offensively in the role assigned to him by Aguirre, and seemed to be the best player to adapt to Aguirre's system so far. Junya Tanaka deserves credit too for his good adaptation to the CM role, and his conversion to CM might be the breakthrough of his NT career.
I am, I already responded on the things that I think doesn't make sense. To be simplicistic, I think you're reading into things too much and losing yourself into things you have decided have some kind of special value. As I said, we're not going to necessarily have a good performance at the World Cup because of what Aguirre is doing now, as the team could be completely different. He doesn't even have a 4 year contract. His first objective is the Asian Cup and he knows it perfectly, he'll go all-in. I welcome competition in the team, that's good. But it won't be just that. I wasn't impressed with the match against Uruguay :/. Not that I was expecting something like against Argentina considering the lineup of course, but we didn't look as dangerous as I hoped. Hopefully today it'll be different.
Do you see how vague you sound?? Did Okada also copy Osim's philosophy of playing soccer with the round ball? Did he also copy the tactic of sometimes using your feet to kick the ball? http://uk.reuters.com/article/2008/04/01/soccer-japan-okada-idUKT5437320080401 Not even Okada said he was trying to do Osim's way. This was from mid-2008.
Did I say: "Japan is going to have a good performance at the World Cup because of what Aguirre is doing now"? No, I didn't say anything like that, and this is a clear evidence that you totally misunderstood me. A WC cycle is like the 4 years students spend usually in University to get their bachelor degrees, what a student is doing in the first semester/year only give you a hint about things to come, but it doesn't necessarily mean he'll end up his 4 years of study the same way he began it. He might change mentally, emotionally and culturally in this 4 years and become a total different person when he graduate than the one he was when he started his bachelor programme, but the first semester/year represent a good start that might give him a push into the right direction and represent the foundation of his either success or failure, but things can change dramatically either positively or negatively in any phase of this process. Understood? You can say the same thing about a team going through a WC cycle. So kindly stop treating me like an idiot by misunderstanding me and giving some superficial replies, I started following JNT since some of the members here were still in KG or elementary school, and I know about managers/players and etc better than lot of the members here. So when you discuss something with me treat me as an expert not a beginner, and give me benefit of the doubt. ... and yeah I know that Aguirre's contract is just two years contract but his ultimate goal is the WC, and will work hard to make a big impact at the WC. And I didn't say that Asian Cup isn't important, All I've said is if our quest to win the 2015 AC will contradict with building a strong team to compete in the WC, then priority is WC, but it is only an "If" = assumption. But in reality there is no whatsoever contradiction between winning the AC and building a strong team to compete in the WC, as the process to build a strong team for the WC can begin after the AC, since we have 3years and few months to do so. I really appreciate it to have a healthy and useful discussions with BS Japan members, but I wish it doesn't come with some wrong prejudices. Regards.
You've made several correlations about Aguirre doing the right things already which would help towards the world cup. I apologize if my posts made it look as if you affirmated that Japan will surely have a good result because of this, it wasn't my intention. What I argued from the beginning was that you're trying to interpret some very minor things as if they're realistically going to have an impact 4 years later. I don't think the reasons for Troussier and Okada's successes are about what you wrote, to put it simple. Besides, as already pointed out Osim barely had any impact whatsoever on the WC 2010, and never achieved anything special. A few examples: If we look back at the two times Japan had managed to reach the knock out stages at the WC, we will notice that Japan was managed by managers which put their players in unfavourable situations and play them out of their positions and that helped players to grow stronger and to have the ability to overcome challenges at the top level. In both 2002 and 2010 WC cycles, both Troussier and Osim started their eras by imposing their own philosophy even if it was against players and JFA's will, but at the end of these cycles, it turned into success! What I'm trying to say is that Aguirre seems to head into the same direction and that was clear from his press conference and some of his comments in the media. Aguirre also said he is going to impose his own philosophy, and build his own team, and it was apparent from this match that he is serious about that, as he insist on using his 4-3-3 formation and select his own players, ^ here I made you notice with evidence that Zac didn't do anything different at all here but I guess we'll just have to disagree about this. Well we shouldn't be so shortsighted, we have to aim for the things that will give us long term success, regardless of its results in the short term! Well if we can go for both of them then it is great, but if we are to choose, the logic says: you have to go for what will bring you long term success. People who aim for short term happiness and ignore long term happiness is like a lazy schoolboy who wastes his time playing video games instead of studying, he might be happy in the short term but he will be too sad in the long term. This was the part about the Asian Cup, etc. Well I'd appreciate if wouldn't treat me like an idiot either, thinking I'm giving you some superficial replies because they were not superficial at all. I even backed everything with evidence showing you the selections (back in the CC posts), naming the 5 players you wanted to hear and stuff. I take seriously all the posts and users so I never waste my time giving superficial answers, or I try not to. (and btw I kinda share some of the things AKITOD made you notice, how some of the things you wrote were generic and actually apply to most coaches, but it was a minor thing for me anyway). I don't care when you started watching the NT, there is no particular reason why I should assume you know these players better than me (and by the way I'd never boast in such a way "I know more than you"). There is nothing here on the board that suggests me anyone here has any direct high level football experience and as such could possibly be considered a little wiser. I'm treating you as a bigsoccer user like everyone else. You're not Aguirre's assistant and everyone here - me included maybe - seems to like to think what they'd say would actually be taken seriously by any coach, but okay. I give you all the benefits, otherwise I wouldn't answer. Before answering, I'm thinking if what you wrote sounds reasonable to me. In this case, it doesn't. Plenty of other times I'd surely agree with you! Yes, which is the main point here I'm arguing about. Building a strong AC team won't contradict anything, just like Spain won the Euros and then the World Cup, for example. Even if you put it as an if, I am instead giving a definitive personal opinion on this matter. It's just this. Well that's what I meant exactly haha. So it's good if you see it this way, while before you made that long post about short sights and stuff. I'm OKAY with giving time, I don't even care about friendlies' result (for example I was still kind of satisfied from today) but an official competition like the Asian Cup is important, I'm sure we all agree.
@AKITOD When Osim took over as Japan manager he stated that JNT mustn't try to replicate other teams style (especially Brazil) but they have to play it Japanese way. ... and when Okada took over he maintained the same approach, he even stated that he wouldn't be able to make such statement and apply such a thing without Osim's approach preceded him. So I think you get by now what I'm talking about, I'm not talking about formations, tactics or players selection, but about the main philosophy and approach. About Troussier he emphasuzed from Day1 the importance of the flexibility among players and formations, and that's what distinguished his 4 years tenure, he even went to the extent to try Yanagisawa as RWB. I think this will clarify my point of view.
Again, your statements are SO vague and they apply to almost every single coach of Japan (and J.League). Trying to negate legitimate quotes from Okada regarding 'style' or 'philosophy' and negate actual facts doesn't change that the facts and quotes are present. If I go ahead here and say "my philosophy in football is to try score goals and not concede too many", if other teams from here on out play with that goal in mind that doesn't mean they're following my philosophy. Zaccheroni also in his tenure repeatedly talking about embracing the Japanese style of football, yet the outcome was different. Again, you're not arguing even with me here. You're arguing with Okada who said himself he isn't following Osim's philosophy, so I suggest you go tell our former coach that you know what his philosophy was more than he does.
Well, Okada himself said when he was re-appointed that he will follow Osim's philosophy and footsteps, and vowed to do so, so I didn't invent this story from my mind. I don't have any link at the moment but it was published in newspapers and media widely back then, and he already said that during his appointment press conference If memory serves me.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2008/04/01/soccer-japan-okada-idUKT5437320080401 Stop negating facts. Yes he did say that he would continue Osim's footsteps, and then 7 games into his 50 games in charge of the Japan NT he changed his mind and said what I have quoted here. Please stop ignoring facts.