Hasebe is so slow on and off the ball, he doesn't need to dropping-off in line with 2 centre halves as much as this when Iraq's most advanced player doesn't have intention to press our first line of play. That disrupt spacing and creates redundancy at the back as the ball difficult to progress to the more advanced position as we were overloaded in central area.
Both Sakai's are looking impressive, Hiroki especially has improved so much. Kashiwagi's lost possession a few times cheaply but not too bad overall. Ball movement is a bit slow in the final third.
Really? our play in final third is decent, i think. Our problem is more at our third of the pitch. When we managed to pass Iraq's first block, it was far more easy for us to make incisive play, as their shape is often not compact enough to contain Kiyotake between the lines.
Are we watching the same game ? Impressive is a strong word, hardly fit for this. Extremely poor performance. And the goal is offside by an Olympic Pool.
offside by an olympic pool is also a strong word, mate But i agree with you, this is poor performance from us, not a good in box defending, and we struggling to control the match due to our bad spacing which is leading to we being overloaded in the central area. But credit to our 3 AM, this is the better showing than our 2 last match.
yeah i agree with Saku, this performance is poor, just like the previous two matches, very uninspiring. Vahid Japan started off really strongly, but recently they have been so sloppy and so dull to watch.
no sorry, thanks, I can't watch it because I'm at work =) edit: oh I didn't notice it was offside at first
I may be drunk a little like always at Japan games =) but I think Japan is playing "okay", first 20 minutes were horrible and then the get better and better, especially Kiyotake and Haraguchi are cool. Genki is getting very good the last 2 years, i htink we will have fun with him ! Vahid Japan is horrible so far. Long balls,Long Balls,Long Balls, thats all and for second very slooooow play. Japan need short passing game and tricky fast moves like the past I really missed the Aguirre Japan. Looks awesome to me. So agressive and so freaky play. I am very very sure the loose to UAE was a miracle and normaly Japan win this game 5-1 but they didnt. Without this loose i am sure they would be ACF Winner. Aguierre was the right guy....a man who has balls to do what he wants. Blue Samurai don`t play that bad, I agree its not good but lets wait for 90 minutes. The attitude is upcoming with no doubt.
You can`t say what you want but Kiyotake is gold for Japan. he is the assist god ! Japan was wasted him for maybe 2-3 years in the past. Its time for him to starting almost every game.
What was that? Genki's dribble is almost unstoppable at Berlin, now he blown 1 on 1 situation in an embarassing manner like that Oh, i almost forget that now Teguramori is in A-daihyo coaching staff, and it coincides with our team worse spacing than ever before.