They haven't been hyped, the build up was non existent in Japan after the WC disappointment. The Asian Cup really comes too early after, I wish they'd fix that. Teams don't have time to renew themselves, fans don't have time to get warmed up as much as they could.
It`s true that we need to be a fair looser,we lose and dont mater how UAE played,they gave they maximum and I gave them the best wishes for the upcomming tournamentn BUT evereyone one that Japan is one of the best teams ins asia. Brazil Lost the Sout American Cup Cup last timte with 100% penaltiys and the WC 2014 with 7:1
I already feel sorry for all those poor teams who won't qualify for the next world cup despite being higher in poponponpon's asian ranking
How come? Japan didn't lost their quarterfinal game unlike China and Uzbekistan, and their group results were better than others' as well. Japan is listed fifth in Wiki, seems about right to me.
Well, this was pathetic. If you can't even beat UAE then you have to wonder about the quality of this team. The team has failed at the last World Cup and now they have failed again. The time has finally come to rebuild the team and to leave out most of the players of the current squad. The National team doesn't need players who choke when it really matters like in the last World Cup and this Asian Cup. Something has happened after the last World Cup. Its time for a fresh start with new players and a new coach
I think it's delusional to believe we are so above the pack teams like UAE will be easy work. They have some good talent and if their players don't move overseas, it's because there is no financial incentive in general. When we won the Asian Games in 2010, they largely dominated the game.
On paper Japan has the best squad in Asia. But despite of the individual talent the team isn't even able to a beat a team like UAE which mostly consists of players who play in the Arab leagues. Overall this is embarrassing. This is not the World Cup. This is only the Asian Cup. In 2004 we won the Asian Cup with a B-team and in 2007 we reached the Semifinals with an inexperienced team This was the worst Asian Cup since more than a decade with one of the most talented teams that we ever had.
Most of the time, the paper is analyzed by people completely out of touch with Asia. UAE is a small state, seriously, they can't have a good football team right ? Most of the countries in Asia will never be taken seriously but their players have two arms and two legs and football isn't such an intricate thing that it's out of reach for the likes of UAE. Look back, 4 years ago we drew with Jordan, we nearly lost with Syria, we beat Qatar on the razor's edge, we needed the PK shootout to beat Korea and the match against Australia was won in over-time against the run of play. Each one of these games could have went the other way. The border between failure and triumph is really thin.
to be fair, the biggest difference is that it was a completely new team so not the best of the examples, with Qatar playing in Doha too. I agree that you still need to set certain expectations and drawing with UAE in 120' isn't exactly meeting them. At the same time, yeah, sometimes shit happens and some games feel like cursed, there will always be that one time where things just won't work. edit: and these PKs were 2011's karma =p
It doesn't matter how close these matches were. At the end we still won and were able to claim the title in 2011. Good teams always find a way to score and to win games. But today it was different. I know that UAE was rated by a lot of experts but honestly they didn't offer anything today. They were bunkering like all Arab teams do and were at the end lucky not to lose. This UAE team looked average and definitely did not deserve the credit.
With some luck UAE can win the tournament and I'm totally with them now. However this entire match was simply a show where JNT make seppuku in a very long way cutting its stomach slowly till death. From this kind of catastrophe usually come something good, at least I hope so.
That's BS please. So Japan had a PK for a foul outside the boxagainst Korea in 2011 because they were a good team, but Shibasaki's free kick sailed 5cm off the post in 2014 because they're not good ? Those formulas are just good for rhetoric.
I was hoping for a Japan - Korea final since I like that type of rivalry stuff. To be frank, I saw three things happen last night. 1) Iran got jobbed by Ben Williams. Credit to them for fighting back, but it's hard to win when the game is 10 vs 12 2) Javier Aguirre is honestly the most retarded coach I have seen in my life. I'm beginning to feel that Japan was winning in spite of him rather than because of him. Especially with this whole match fixing thing, I can confidently say that his job is done. 3) Kagawa should never be allowed near a soccer field today. He was practically invisible and seemed so uninspired today. I don't know whether or not it was bad confidence or that he has really regressed that much, but I feel bad for the kid in that almost all of Japan will be blaming him and Aguirre.
But they're playing like shit in all their games... And they had their UAE-Japan miracle in the group game against Australia already.
I personally dont even care even if we dont win the tournament. Many of us already expected reaching the semifinals would be our best result due to many predicaments we had to face from the beginning (All of our main strikers got injured, LCY + KJC injured). We didnt even have a solid "best 11" squad either. Stielike had to rotate + use all of our players except for JSR, due to sickness. Japan has been developing their own "color" (sushi taka) for years now under foreign managers with similar strategies while Korea stupidly changed their manager like 4-5 times in the past 4 years. People who expect Korea to show better "performance" than Japan are stupid. But speaking of result, I dont know. The team who wins the match is the stronger side, not the side who performs better. Let's see how it goes in a few days.
Players like Endo should make way already. Kagawa and those that performed below par should not be an automatic starter in the JNT unless they buck up first. Its time the JNT revamped themselves and stop being satisfied just able to be the best team in Asia like Korea and Australia.
I just checked this and saw quarterfinals has been played already Japan barely got to penalties and lost Haha what No comment really no freaking comment lol