Japan team selected for friendly vs. Senegal

I thought Koji was out for 6 months!

Just to be clear, he is NOT in the squad. On the other hand, a lot of new (old) faces in the squad: Nakazawa, Teshima, Motoyama, Yamada T, Kurebe and Kubo.

 

prediction

mighty japan 3-1 senegal
goal
kurobe
yanagisawa
h. nakata

 

Do you mean Yamada at right back? I'm expecting the same lineup as the Nigeria match, except with Okubo in the place of Takahara.

I expect Ono to come on as a second half sub for either Nakamura or Nakata, and I'd like to see new faces tried in defense (Nakazawa?).

 

If you can read Japanese, interview with Zico from Sportsnavi: http://www.sponichi.co.jp/soccer/kiji/2003/09/04/01.html

Zico says he wants to use Motoyama as a supersub at forward, not midfielder. Motoyama was effective in the supersub role, which he played until 2001 for Kashima, and Zico is clearly concerned about the lack of scoring from the strikers. I believe Takahara is the only forward to score for Japan since.... you know, the last time I remember a forward scoring is Yanagisawa vs Italy in 2001.

He also mentioned that Ono will be used off the bench, and that he is expected to work his way back onto the team rather than contribute immediately.

 

wasn't morishima playing as forward in the tunisia game when he scored?

after the italy and before the belgium game we had two goals by fw. one by takahara against poland and another by nishizawa/morishima (some messy goal and nobody really knew who scored but i think that was nishizawa on the record) against slovakia.

 

I'm going to pretend Morishima scored against Tunisia in a 3-6-1 formation. True, I guess I overstated the inability of forwards to score.

But I still think it's one position where we don't have a long term answer beyond the top 2 quite yet. Okubo and his U-22 friends will probably develop, but we don't know for sure yet.

 

jef reserve 2-1 senegal

senegal made right decision to have a practice much and arrive early in japan otherwise they could've repeated nigeria's fate.

 

El Hadj Diouf has dropped out of the squad. Too bad.

 

Several interesting developments mentioned in the J. press yesterday and today which, at least to my eyes, suggest that Zico is giving a lot more thought to the theory and strategy of "the team" than he is getting credit for.

First, when asked about Motoyama, Zico insisted that he was being called up as a reserve striker, and would NOT be used in midfield (that is to say, if he does appear, it will be up front). Second, in the practices, Yanagisawa has been playing with the "A Team" alongside Okubo, and a lot of the play simulations have involved low, through passing and movements that allow Yanagisawa to provide a "cushion shot" target for Nakata and Nakamura that is immediately relayed to Okubo dashing forward into space. Based on these quick relays, Okubo scored three and assisted twice in a 30-minute "ko-haku" match, with every one of those opportunities coming on quick through balls with Okubo in full sprint. Three times he put the ball in the net, and twice he found his shot obstructed but had destroyed the defence sufficiently to have an easy drop-pass opportunity to one of the midfielders.

While this is mere speculation, the combination of these items leads me to a very interesting thought: Perhaps Zico has figured out that he is stuck with a collection of diminutive strikers, and cant count on the traditional 4-4-2 strategy of "overlap on the wings and then drop a cross on the big guy's head". Instead, he decided to turn back a few pages in the Brazilian history book to the Pele and Eusebio days, when the most deadly attack pattern involved drawing your opponent's back line up tight, with crisp midfield play, and then slicing it wide open with a sudden through ball and dashing run.

If this is the case, he certainly has the players to the job:

- Busy midfielders who, while neither fast nor powerful, are excellent at holding the ball against challenges, can put together ten-level exchanges of one-touch passing without getting dizzy, and most important, can spot an opening quickly and fire a disembowling through pass to the cutting player (Ono, Nakata, Nakamura, Ogasawara, Endo . . . and interestingly enough now that I think of it, Yamada Takuya)

- Speedy wing backs who can dash suddenly forward from the second line and, once through, can either beat a lone defender on the dribble or
else turn the corner and drop a pass back to the onrushing midfield (Alex, Yamada, Ichikawa)

- Nimble strikers who, though lacking in either stature or "olympic sprinter"-type speed, can go from zero-to-60 in the blink of an eye, leaving their defender in the dust and thus "collapsing" the back line. More importantly, players who are in continuous motion, always drifting to the location of least defensive concentration (Okubo, Yanagisawa and. . . yes . . . Motoyama)

Once again, its only speculation but it makes more "sense" -- to me at least -- than any other strategy Ive seen touted for the post-Troussier
Japan NT.

Assuming that this is really what Zico is trying to do, I would expect a starting lineup much like this:

. . . . . . . . . Narazaki
. . . . . . .Tsuboi . . Miyamoto
Yamada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alex
. . . . . . . Endo. . . Inamoto
. . Nakamura . . . . . . . . Nakata
. . . . . . Yanagisawa
. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .Okubo

Ono and Ogawsawara would come on at half time (probably for Endo and Shunsuke, but possibly for Endo and Inamoto), while Motoyama would sub Yanagisawa at some point in the second half. Dont know how many subs are allowed in this match, but Ichikawa might get a chance to replace Yamada at right wing back and Nakazawa could see action in place of Miyamoto at central midfield