A good win over Australia, a confidence booster for Japan here. But still many things needs to be work on here. Defensive woes, the CBs seems to lack concentrate for the full 90 min and seems to lose steam and caught off guard quite easily, but its nothing new. So is Japan's attack, finishing, doesn't seem to have improved any. It would be a big mistake if they rest on their laurels now, not that they will. AC2015, their title defense is fast approaching. GOOD LUCK! QUESTION: How many more matches until the AC2015?
then I'm worried. But Japan usually bad in the first match, then raise their game up for each upcoming matches.
it was aziz behich out of our 3 leftbacks, he's probably the one with the most question marks as he hasn't played as much as the other 2 the other 2 have looked better for the socceroos but aren't getting game time for their clubs at the moment, smith got recalled to liverpool for no apparent reason when he was doing well at his loan club while davidson had a shocker in his last premier league game and has only featured off the bench since. aziz is playing regularly...but in the turkish league
For some reason ESPN3 has carried all the recent Japan friendlies here in the States, with English commentary. So that made for nice viewing of this one. The first half reminded me of the World Cup performances. They lacked the confidence to play their game and therefore resorted to long balls too often, which resulted in Australia dominating possession. Australia lack the offensive creativity to turn that possession into clear-cut chances but a better team would have punished that first half performance. Credit Aguirre though for turning things around at half time. He got the team playing more confidently (hairdryer treatment?) and the sub of Konno for Endo was a smart one. Konno helped them take control of midfield, with a couple key interceptions standing out. I don't like Konno as a CB but he could be useful for us at the AC in midfield. Muto looked raw to me in his first match but he's improving and maturing as a NT player every game. He helped defend impressively on several occasions in this game and he looked lively going forward as always. I like what he brings to the team -- he looks like a pretty skinny kid but he plays strong. Overall I'd say that Aguirre has the team moving in the right direction.
I thought it was a weak performance in general. For the most past of the first half, it was unwatchable, they were getting outpassed by Australia. They woke up a bit towards the end but it was nothing fancy. Aguirre had a good inspiration subbing out Endo for Konno as the latter just has much more energy and was biting in the feet of the Australian players. He's a good defensive midfielder and I still think he should be starting over Morishige who's just really heavy and not very subtle. Still it wasn't exactly sexy football, goals were consecutive to corner kicks. It's a win but I don't see any progression so far. I liked Yoshida, Konno, Inui was good when he came on. Honda was decent, nothing special. Kagawa was invisible during big chunks of the game, it's a concern. Both side backs were ok, unspectacular. Sakai had a couple of good crosses but he was a bit suspect on defense during the first half. Muto shows good potential, finally a winger who doesn't give up position on long balls, he actually tries to control them. He's not skinny unlike what you said Martens. Okazaki has a very difficult game, he scored in the end but it's very scrappy ... Is it the football we want to play ?