no surprise that Carli Lloyd's made the top ten, but she'a the only women on the list. That might be a good thing and her's coming in a World Cup final might give he another big advantage. Here are the top ten in a nutshell(might have to click one extra time to see the video) Florenzi's goal is quite similar to Lloyd's, but I might have to go with Messi's, as my preference goes for hard work instead of a one time shot
I think the women should have a best goal award for themselves. I can't see anything positive about Lloyd filling in on the men's competition.
I agree. Are we surprised Lloyd didn't make the cut? http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/call-for-reform-in-gender-disparity-within-fifa.2026620/
I'm afraid none of the goals do anything for me! While I do command Japan for it's excellent performance over the last 4 & half years and appreciate the many fans they got, I do not personally understand their appeal? Looking back at my history of watching woso for the last 5-6 years. I watched 2 friendlies in the US, pre WC-2011, and in both games they simply got dominated to a point that they couldn't even get a shot off. When they won the 2011 WC, it was more of feeling sympathy for them because of the devastating tsunami that hit their country that year. After that they always snuck into a championship game, but then proved to be disastrous like the one Algarve final where Germany demolished them in the 2nd half, or just last summer, where the US destroyed them within the first 14 minutes. For my personal taste they've been a little boring too watch, and that's along with their players like Ando, who looked rather mediocre in the recent Essen/Frankfurt game, and Ogimi didn't even make it into the lineup(for Frankfurt) I give credit for Japan being an excellent tourney team(or at least better conditioned), but that might be cause they're coaches their coach(in any sport) can get away with treating female athletes rather horribly(the volleyball training sessions videos where the J coach keeps throwing balls at his players while their lying on the ground in tears). This could get a coach arrested if it happened in other countries, So, sorry to put you on the spot, but since you an outsider(or at least non Japanese) got to ask what's the appeal of the J NT?
I think you've made up your mind based on insufficient knowledge, veering into borderline bigotry. The incident you allude to is from the era of the legendary Witches of the Orient, Japan's 1st wvb Olympic gold medal at Tokyo 1964. (The Russians gave them that name, because Japan upset Russia at WWch '62, and then beat them again for gold.) Briefly: they knew what they were getting into, it worked for them only that one time, they ceased that methodology, and have never repeated it. Times change. They had unexpectedly taken 2nd at WWch '60, then upset Russia at WWch '62. That earned them the triple pressure of Olympic host, sport sponsor*, and favorite-to-win gold ... and only 2 years to basically invent a national team program from scratch. (* Back then, each Olympic host could introduce two sports, Tokyo/Japan sponsored indoor volleyball and judo, and IOC accepted both to the Olympic program, where they've remained ever since.) So it was a two-year boot camp for only that two years, exceptional even by their standards. You're judging ancient history, tantamout to disliking France woso today because of how Gauls fought naked against Julius Caesar. It's admittedly far more brutal than anything the Western mind can contemplate, but we have our own parallels. Army Ranger or Navy SEAL training is just as taxing and demanding, the intent being to shake out ~70% of candidates as unfit. The China women's long-distance running coach had his team run six training full-marathons per week (during their drug-cheat scandal phase, so maybe you need one to even try the other). We suspect North Korea regularly push physical limits in training, hence they outrun Japan but rarely smile. Anyways, that Japan team's methods changed vb forever. Nobody (over)trains like them, but many of their rolling/diving dig techniques are now universal. Even Russia learned them Finally, you're mistaken: he didn't throw balls at them, he threw balls in front of, or away from them (and the drill is to dive or roll to get the ball up). It's not the "in tears" part that was brutal, it was the eight-to-ten hour practice sessions (with 15 minute catered meal breaks, eaten standing up). Nowadays, everybody does the circle dig drill, even 7th graders when we're goofing off, and it's fun and funny if you do it for about 2 minutes each. Maybe in the 3rd hour it ceases to be funny, but we mortals have never pushed ourselves that hard. Marathoners, bikers, and NASA/JPL engineers just roll their eyes at all of us: yes, in the 3rd hour you find what you're made of --
That's nothing. Every team trains their liberos like that. The only thing even mildly surprising is to see a libero choose to continue the drill past the point of exhaustion or body cramping. Note carefully in that clip that the coaches are supportive, not sergeant-like, i.e. nobody's yelling at her to continue. It's just part of the drill. She's physically exhausted, not abused. And you're factually wrong: the coach is not throwing the ball at her while she's on the ground (which would be totally stupid training for volleyball). Instead, he's waiting for her to get up and then throwing a ball not at her (and she must chase it). In fact, he's gently tossing the ball upward, but it'll land 4m+ from her, and the drill is to get there. You're really discrediting the Nadeshiko's goals of 2015 because of something you glimpsed in a totally different sport? I think you lack the proper context to judge anything about wvb, or male coaches in Japan. Do a web search on "volleyball howling bear". But we all agree with you there: Russia's wvb coach Nikolay Karpol was a screaming, in-your-face drill sergeant of a coach. (Watch his own players' body language in timeouts, if you can find video of him in his prime.) That's the world benchmark for a wvb coach with an abrasive style.
it's really up to the eye of the beholder to decide if it's "nothing", I personally see a girl that is withering in pain & agony at the end of the video~~~and I dare you to find anything similar in the US without the coach getting fired! I only brought up volleyball in one sentence, my real question was what makes a fan of the Nadeshiko outside of Japan? Perhaps you answered that by showing their athletes sacrifice themselves more than others? My assumption was that their condition themselves better than any other team come tournament time(so maybe I wasn't that off base). But I got other problems with the miss treatment of their female players like why they only got to ride 2nd class back to Japan? & why their coach keeps embarrassing/humiliating his players by taking them out in the middle of the 1st half which he not only did with Kawasumi & Iwashimizu at the WC final but in several other games as well. The problem I had with the goals video is for example the first; Iwabuchi's goal vs Australia at the WC.; On a neutral, Referee forum, this goal was discussed at length and verdict was, it shouldn't off been counted as the player came back from an off sides position. So why would this cheap goal be shown in the same breath as the Puskas goal of the year?(which this thread should really be about) Coming at #2 was the Sugita howler, but she was in right place at the right time, and their way better quality/talented goals scored by the North Korean ace, Un-Sim Ra, in that game(which I posted to no fan fare somewhere esle) So I do feel that the Nadeshiko(should I dare say chauvinistic?) fans have hijacked this threat once again
I have no idea where this thread is going, but hotjam, you're in the minority if you can't see the appeal of the Japanese WNT. I'm a USWNT fan, but it would be difficult not to appreciate the Nadeshiko and their style of play as well as the class of many of their players. As to the video, have you never played a sport competitively? As someone who played college soccer, I've been a part of practices in which teammates were crying, where some were near collapse on hands and knees, when someone passed out, when people vomited (I've been the one vomiting on the side of the field actually... ). I'd guess it happens everywhere in every sport. Our coach wasn't a sadist; we chose to practice that hard, to push ourselves so you know what you're capable of before game time. Pushing yourself to that point doesn't happen every day. In fact, in one season, we might have had only 5 or so practices at that intensity. As long as the environment is supportive, not belittling, and someone is watching the players' health, then pushing yourself like that in practice can be good, even necessary, in competitive sport. (And btw, in the video, I see coaches and players supporting the player in question and showing concern for her health. I have no idea what is being said in Japanese though, but it seems supportive.) I also wonder if you'd have as much of a problem with it if the volleyball player in the video was male?? I dare say you hijacked it with the volleyball comments. (And now we're all getting sucked in...) Perhaps to get it back on topic, someone can nominate some other goals? Perhaps more from the WWC or from the Bundesliga or NWSL?
I really shouldn't waste my time answering that, and others (Gilmoy, Lil_one) made some clear points, but I just want to add: you obviously haven't seen any Nadeshiko Japan training session under Sasaki! No trace of tears in them: on the contrary, it sometimes seems like they can't stop laughing. If any problems could arise, it could only be a lack of concentration, because of how playful the atmosphere is (but, luckily, Japanese work-ethic always come to rescue and any player that came in Japan from overseas observed how much commitment there is in training there; great dedication, self-sacrifice and even quite long sessions in the evening for players that often have a day-time work: but with no trace of tears or abusive behaviours from the coaches). And about Sasaki himself, by Jove! He is the total opposite of a drill sergeant: he's the kind of guy who takes every reponsability over him to protect his players (he did that in multiple occasions: with Saki Kumagai, when there was a media issue just after WWC 2011; with the whole team, after the much discussed 0-0 draw vs South Africa at Olympics 2012...); and he's the first one to try to relieve the tension and smile: he's the guy who made jokes with his players just a pair of minutes before the start of the penalty shootout in a WWC final, for goodness sake! Is that a drill-sergeant? Yes, during WWC 2011 he also showed to the players pictures of the tsunami before the games, but I don't think at all his intentions were harsh: he was naturally sharing with them a feeling of responsability that everyone in the country already had in the face of that tragedy: it was positive encouragement, not cruelty. And about replacing Iwashimizu in the final of WWC last summer... Well, everyone in a sane state of mind would have made this substitution, but only for the good of the player! It was obviously not meant to humiliate her, but to save her from the hell that the match had become for her, because it was clear that she couldn't stand anymore on the pitch. And we're talking about a player that Sasaki highly esteem, a pillar of defense in the last 4 years and whose value Norio knows very well (by the way she won two trophies for him, by scoring the winner goal in two finals: Asian Games 2010 vs. North Korea and AFC Asian Cup 2014 vs. Australia). To claim that Sasaki purposedly wants to humiliate such a player is pure non-sense. Finally: one of the reasons of Nadeshiko Japan's appeal is indeed the spirit and the atmosphere surrounding a team that always looks graceful and smiling. And their usual good sportsmanship (Fair Play Award winners in multiple world tournaments, at any level).