Nishikawa - Nagatomo, Makino, Yoshida, Fujiharu - Endo, Yamaguchi, Kagawa - Usami, Okazaki, Haraguchi
travelling Minamino all the way from Austria not to give him a start against the two weakest opponents ...
Okazaki and Kagawa should be banned from the NT. .. and Yamaguchi is the invisible man. Our players are playing bad to the extent that Cambodia is attacking us.
After a step forward in Singapore's game by benching both Okazaki and Kagawa and abandoning the fielding of 2 defensive-oriented central midfielders (Hasebe and Yamaguchi). Vahid Halilihodzic moved a huge step backward in this game. Why did he start with 2 DMF (Yamaguchi/sleepy and Endo) against the weakest opponent in the group? He could easily start with one of them and give the other spot to Kashiwagi as was the case against Singapore. ... and for god sake, why he started with tried and trusted in the attacking positions? This game was a perfect chance for Minamino to stake his claims and give him his first NT start, and he'll be surely fired-up, instead of Mr.Dive Okazaki who is clearly playing without any motivation. Vahid was looking genius against Singapore, but he is looking the foolest coach in the world with such bad decisions. If he deserves credits he deserve it for being patient on both Okazaki and Kagawa for a full 45 minutes. Any coach will sub at least one of them by the 25 minutes mark. I'm watching Japan NT for two decades now, and without exaggeration it was the most unwatchable match for JNT.
Kashiwagi came in for Endo and he just made an assist for Okazaki's goal. It is a bad news, as it will probably means that Okazaki will stay longer in the pitch.
Poor Minamini had only 8 minutes of playing time, hopefully Vahid will have enough balls to start him against Afghanistan.
Makino, Yamaguchi, Kagawa and Okazaki performances in this match were disgraceful, they were playing as if they are sleepwalking. Haraguchi, Wataru Endo Fujiharu and Honda were trying their best, but had an average performances. Nishikawa not really tested. Usami still out of form in both club and NT. Nagatomo and Yoshida were so and so. Kashiwagi was excellent, deserve to be MOM. Minamino did very well considering the time he was given.
FYI, it was an own goal. Commentators kept saying they weren't sure but Okazaki didn't celebrate and said he wish he had scored in the post-match interview. So Japan managed only 1 goal in injury time via super-sub Honda. Pathetic..
The only good thing is that when JNT seems so bad, they will play a good real competition but the next one is too much far...
Man, just watched the highlights. That was disappointing. Sloppy passing, no zip to their play, aimless long balls, no direction. What annoys me most is seeing nagatomo continously try running down the wing to fire in useless crosses to okazaki and kagawa who are probably smaller than the cambodian defence. What kind of strategy is this? In zacs team nagatomo would have cut inside instead, created some space and movement and looked for a good opportunity. This is all I see from this team, running down the wings and lumping in terrible crosses. Long passes that go nowhere, chipped through balls that go nowhere, giving possession away too easily. I think they were slightly better when Kashiwagi came on but there is something lacking and I don't know what's going to happen when they play a really good team. Also I agree, where is the Usami that was lighting up the J league. I see Kiyotake Muto and Minamino as the future at the moment.