From France Football website. France Ligue top assisters http://www.francefootball.fr/FF/stats/ClassementChampionnat472_P.html He is currently one of the hottest Japanese.
Well done Matsui, has had a hell of a better season than Nakamura or Ono/Nakata x2 and finds himself having to sit his ass in France during the world cup. He must be kicking hell out of something right now
Japanese Article Former Japan manager, Troussier said it was his biggest surprise that Mtasui didn't make the World Cup.
don't give matsui too much credit. you guys are all forgetting that the french league is much weaker than j-league
In this historical context, J-league is the one which needs to proactively give reasons why it's better than a european league. The other way around would be a passive argument which is worthless in most cases.
i guess the Matsui and not being on Japan situation is as bad or worse as the situation of Poland's coach not picking Dudek on their squad.
Actually no. Matsui was considered as one of those "border-line players" as it was unclear whether Zico would prefer him or Endo. Endo got squeezed in and Matsui was left out. Normally this would still be a shocker of some degree, but it was blown away when Maki was chosen over Kubo. Kubo was considered by many to be Japan's best striker, scoring very well back in 2004. But since then he was absent with injury for all of 2005 and when he came back in 2006 he was nowhere near his old self. Zico described Kubo as "the axis of attack" and "someone who could be an ideal striker". But after several non-spectacular displays in both J-League and national team, all the while Maki (and Sato) were running their butts off to slide in at the last minute, Zico chose Maki. Since it was predicted that Kubo would be chosen no matter what, the journalits were shocked beyond belief when Maki's name was called instead of Kubo. For several days the newspapers were going on and on about Maki's "miracle" and Kubo's "despair".