Right close your eyes and imagine the same side except. - Sota Hirayama was picked - Robert Cullen was picked - Tsukasa Umesaki was picked. - Sorimachi used 4-4-2 in all the games They would've won the god damn olympics. On another note, a player who would've benefited heaps from this tourney if there was a vet in the team would've been Tatsuya Tanaka or Seiichiro Maki. Get them warmed up against some more solid defences for the 4th round of WCQ
The reason Sorimachi called up no overage players is not because he thought his team was already good enough. The fact is Sorimachi is a coward who was afraid to upset club teams by taking away their players. This same cowardness shows in his tactics of not attacking until the last 10 minutes of each match.
No argument there, but they aren't exactly overage players. I'd add Koroki to the list as well. And Aoyama. And we could probably go on. But I digress. You have an excellent point with Maki -- but I seriously doubt JEF would have released him while facing relegation. Regardless, he's "warmed up" rather well on his own. Personally I don't think Tanaka would've really added anything and I'd prefer to see the young guns get a shot. I think Toyoda proved to be the only one that really wanted a goal (and not just because he scored one... I thought he played very good today).
I'm fkcing dissapointed. I really believed in this Japan team. Nothing more to say really, i live the damn analyzes to you guys.
And while you're at it, get rid of the voyeuristic beach volleyball too! "Sport" is a poor excuse Over the years Sorimachi side has had a good impact on the development at this level, and even in defeat there were plenty to take away and to get optimistic about. The danger is, that can lead to a "More Of The Same Please" mentality which ultimately becomes a bottleneck to furthering innovation and development. For me, players' mistakes stood out a bit more for some reason. Maybe I was in that sort of frame of mind, but especially against Nigeria passes seemed to go astray, often giving away the ball in the midfield. Still, in our typical ways we played pretty football as well, combined with the usual inept finishing. In spirit I still rate the discipline which Sorimachi drills into his players, but like A-side the same problem persists and Sorimachi would have to look a bit further to get goals. I'm sure all these points will be made clear to Sorimachi once he's back in JFA, and I bet he knows it himself anyway. So perhaps it's a good thing that this tournament left them with no wiggle room to excuse themselves. Probably another point will be made on Sorimachi's lack of ambition in using OA and like the earlier poster I too agree he is at fault there. 2000 was very important for the "golden midfield" (which is always a pain to say) in 2002. This Olympics should've been better for the sake of 2010, but now they'd have to find something else for an inspiration. This being the Olympics which is a massive event for them, this string of bad results will be memorable for the boys. I think even they thought they'd do better. A tough, but a necessary learning process I'm afraid... Tomorrow's another day I say.
Well lets say its a kick in the butt for them, plus seeing that people would think japan play crap in the future, now look it in a good way, opponents and their supporters may underestimate japan in the future, but Japan can ass kick back to prove them wrong. You know what I think, why didn't they just select the whole 2007 U-20 World Cup team, since the Olympics is U-23. Plus the Olyroos game against Cote D'Ivoire is good. But seeing that the Mens Olympic football tournament overall has sorta drained my passion for this years Olympics, lord, Even Argentina were playing crap, and did you see Cameroon play Italy, the most boring game ever, even more boring than the Italy v Spain Euro Cup match. Cameroon passed to their defenders for like 5 freaking minutes in the last ten minutes of the game.
Has Enclosure been perving on the hot beacher girls Haha, I actually like Indoor Volleyball, more of the atmosphere, since its more fun to watch, because more team effort I guess. But when it comes to Beach Volleybal I think majority of men would disagree with you, Beach Volleyball is all they talk about, because the decent looking atheletes. But they hardly show the mens volleyball, which is a shame, coz I can't perv.
I've only paid attention to the judo when Asians are up for the exact reason. Like all westerners, they make the rules into their own game. The US commentator guy is atrocious too... in typical US fashion, he thinks skillful time-wasting with a 10-0 lead is a great result. They should strip the French chicks' gold away for literally running around the ring cuz she was too scared to meet her opponent for 4s. Anyway, Japan has won their medals by ippons... which I think shows they're not just faking it. As for the US... they shouldn't have bottled it. I've really lost respect for the dutch though... pretty pathetic when you've got all those big names on the field and have to dive.
its true, they do dive a lot. They hit the outside of the post on a free kick earlier after diving outside the box. It didn't help that the ref team was from dive-loving Argentina. If Japan wasn't going to score anyway, I wish they had just bunkered and got a draw to prevent Holland from advancing. Oh well, Argentina should tear (or dive) them to shreds anyway.
Japanese managers shouldn't accept national team jobs forever. When they were active as footballer, Japanese football was a joke even in Asia. They know nothing about professional and international football. Lack of football history - It's the biggest problem in Japanese football. The TV ratings got only 4.8%. People are starting to lose interests in football again. JFA need to take some actions.
Good idea. This U-23 team's average age is 21.3 or so but they were crap compared to the U-20 team in the 2007 u-20 WC .
Interesting article from Honda on the PK and failure to score http://www.rte.ie/sport/olympics2008/2008/0814/japan.html
OT, but who is in HRM? Does anyone know how to write a simple Renumeration Policy document!!! Its driving me up the wall.
Yeah I appreciate Beach volleyball as a sport alright. But sometimes I do find it funny that it was chosen as one of the olympics games out of so many out there, when indoor volleyball already exists. There's something about it that I find funny, I can't put a finger on it, but they build a stadium, fill it with sand and put women (or men) in G strings while slow motion camera captures their well defined bum as they fall over to reach the ball. Then slap on the label "OLYMPICS THE GREATEST GAME IN THE WORLD" over it If it were like Gymnastics, where it specifically focussed on the test of elemental statistics of human physique and art, then I can understand. But in Beach volleyball you don't get points for diving artistically. Crowd pleaser, more like. By the way, do you get disqualified if you wear clothes to play in it? By the rules do you have to wear those skimpy swimsuits to play it in the Olympics? Anyway. Talking of Japanese managers, I tend to agree with maguro (at least in sentiment). The appointment of Okada was more of a chance encounter due to a set of circumstances, which somehow got stuck because of the natural sequence of events. Whether this is good or bad, nobody knows yet. There are some advantages though, in that JFA is able to establish a centralized movement and synergy of Japan's footballing efforts. Only in such a setup could you even consider implementing a 2 tier system in the national team to tackle continental/world competition. It has its downside too, in that it could go badly wrong if the creativity doesn't have its intended effect. I'm cautiously optimistic, but you never know with these things anyway. When things go well we always forget the past concerns, while when things go badly we say Ahh I Told You So. The benefit of hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn't it.
Haha, True, I don't like the idea of seeing close ups of semi g strings on the screen. But why are you complaining, your a guy, enjoy the perv.
Actually, a tie at home versus New Zealand (a soccer powerhouse, winner of countless world cups) is a great achievement. Let us all congratulate with China. It makes the Japanese women's triumph over China even more significant.
Probably we should do as the North Koreans in 1966, and put the Japanese players who did not win into a gulag to eat rats until the end of their days.
Done. After f*king around with him a bit... I am sorry, I can't help it. I love the way he writes in English...
Aww... you are clearly gagging for more of that pretty image in your head, so I shall let you indulge - I endure 3 years of daily perv that by the time the Olympics arrive on the 4th year, I'd have been sapped to the skin and bones. An extraordinarily draining cycle of 4 years I'm afraid
While it took me 10 seconds to flush you out of this forum... By the way, you really give a BAD name to Korean fans and to Korea at large with your stupid trolling. Ok, you want to send a message, have fun, make a joke, I understand. But you, with your continuous socks, are compulsive obsessive. I think this year only I kicked you out some 30 times. You really you make look yourself as a sad, sick person, and you give the impression to those who do not know better that most Koreans might be like you (that fortunately is not true). Don't have nothing better to do in your life than making socks to spam the Japan forum? If not, I am truly sorry for you. Anyway, as a Korean, here you represent your nation. Won't you behave a bit better, and show some respect for your country?
I've always wondered about this - but why don't you just delete the posts with these personalities? That way there is no 'reward' in trolling as nothing would be left to show for it. Red carding can be countered by making another account, easy. But if posts kept disappearing, ultimately there's no point in trolling so the problem would solve itself in most cases.