But Belgium - WERE - QUALIFIED! This is pure madness. Nishino gambled hard: it paid off, but not on our merit.
I am surprised that Makino played as badly as he did yesterday. He was starting the friendlies alongside Yoshida before Vahid got replaced and did decently. He also started a friendly before the WC. I even thought he was going to be starter alongside Yoshida ahead of Shoji. He was absolutely a defensive liability yesterday.
He is a good defender, but not dependable in the world stage. He is prone to mistakes, lack positional awareness (which I think it's his main shortcoming), and he is way too physical to the point that he commits unecessary fouls in dangerous positions and give away FKs and PKs (his physicality might also be an advantage for him in some occasions). He has good run in 2017 which motivated Vahid to make him the starting CB alongside Yoshida, but in 2018 he was not so good. Prior to 2017 and Vahid's decision to start Makino, he was only a fringe NT player (sometimes he was considered as a back-up for Nagatomo as LB). With that all said, there is no wonder he is warming the bench during the WC, and that when he is given the chance he messed it up.
Today dinner with parents and they all know that Japan was outrageously lucky to pass the group stage for 1 or 2 less yellow card and so on. This is so sad cuz it could be something to be proud of and worldwide recognizable but in this way it's something nearly to be ashamed of and negative recognizable. Anyway it's in the past and a victory or even a good match against Belgium will make forget this.
I understand the uproar but honestly, at least Japan did not resort to tactics like grass-rolling, diving and scissor-tackling players, etc. The uproar over Japan doing what they did in the last 10 mins in the match against Poland when they could concede another goal on the counter is a bit too large imo. Poland's counter-attacks were very dangerous in that match. Japan could have concede another goal if they tried to push for a goal. Nevertheless, I hope Japan don't play too passive against Belgium, Japan lacks the players to park the bus successfully like what they did in 2010.