Both England and Belgium are resting their key players tonight. England resting 7 players and Belgium resting 9 players.
He's not talking about them, he's talking about Japans players not suffering from fatigue which they might have.
Not really lucky, they knew that was the rule which is why they played the way they did. If they needed a goal I'm sure they would have played differently
wasn't pretty, but I could care less what Michael O Neil has to say. Other teams have been grassrolling the entire tournament away. Japan kept the ball in play for the final 10 minutes and advanced. Big deal.
England are my countrys biggest sporting rivals so I hope Japan (a country I love very much) get them and beat them well!
well we did it I guess i'm more upset that we rested players and didn't try to win the game for most of the match, given the risk of the draww in the other match and the potential easier route through teh knockout stage slowing down the game in the last 10 mintues makes ssense althoguh I didn't like it. but given how ooor poland were, we really should ghave gone for the win before then
No there have been plenty of including a disgraceful game between Germany and Austria in 1982 in which they both needed to draw to go through. The whole game they just walked around the park.
yeh definitely should have gone for it earlier but after they scored it was like a big wall in front of their goal.
You mean you couldn't care less. I'm not Michael O Neil, just reporting on what the sentiment is. I'm just happy Japan are throguh, the way they played has taken the shine off of it though.
Still, the foul was never a foul in football. Maybe in handball... just like the free kick against Colombia.
Kasey Keller on ESPN made a good point, that the late Lewandowski chance that he should have scored put a scare into Japan. It was after that chance that they started to pass the ball around. You figure that if Lewandowski gets another chance, he's not going to miss. Warren Barton, a former player whose commentary I respect, said what they were doing is understandable, given the immense pressure that the players are under to advance to the next round. I hated to see it but Michael O Neil can't say that other teams wouldn't have done the exact same thing.
At this point, though, two hours have gone by and no one proposed me - on Twitter, here or on the planet - a better rule to avoid a coin-toss. Which would be hugely worst than Fair Play Points.
I agree it's a weird and counter intuitive rule but the players know the rule before the tournament starts
Yeah it's true though, there's a such s huge pressure to advance but Japan did themselves proud in this tournament regardless of what happened today. Maybe Nishino doesn't care about being 2nd because he's confident his team can beat anyone? Haha maybe not but I hope that's the reason rather than just being happy to be in the last 16.
Anything can happen in the 2nd round but at this point teams are putting their absolute all into winning, if Japan plays their best they can pull off an upset, though I do enjoy seeing the English talk about how Japan would be an easy match
Yes exactly for the reasons you said: andull season with a match every 3 days plus no rest 3 WC challenge. This is the only positive thing from this 3rd match: no injuries, no yellow cards, no fatigued players.
Our players created more chances and were the ones who took the intitative to launch attacks, while Poland was just sit back and counter, even their goal came from a FK won after a counter-attack.
Not luck, but fair play, good sportsmanship, clean football and respect for the opponent, which doesn't seem to be valued much by other teams, some may even call this style "naive". I am glad that it has been rewarded and that the team whose player was visibly, repeatedly trying to break Hasebe's nose are packing their bags and heading home to Dakar, I will not miss them, good riddance. Karma is a b*tch, eh ? The quality of refereeing has been really poor in this tournament, the Mexico team, for instance, should have finished their game with 9 or 8 players, against a team that had them outclassed technically, physically and collectively, given the sheer number of elbows and dirty play that injured two or three Swedish players. How many players are leaving the pitch with a bloody head or nose with no cards being issued at all, despite deliberate and malicious intent from the opponents ? Japan was very poor today, but I am rather tired of teams that grassroll and elbow their way into the round of 16 getting all the praise.
Finally a response from nishino https://www.balls.ie/football/japans-coach-regrets-role-farcical-plan-secure-qualification-391867 Admits he regrets his decision to end the game that way but said he had no other plan, he also said he planned not to go for the offence against Poland and to rely on the other result. Wow
Now that I'm quiet what you say relief me a bit. But for the rest of the world Japan pass by fairplay doing the opposite of fairplay. None cares about Senegal brutal tackles, Hasebe bloody nose etc. People see Senegal as the victim and Japan as some sort of Team Evil.
IMO Senegal plays very fairly, aside from the immature Niang. BTW Kawashima should be MoM, nice move by Nishino to give him the captain’s armband to show confidence.