We alternate both tactics, depending upon the mood. After all, leaving a trace of the mod's power of redding is a deterrent as well.
Guys, I wouldn't be that stressed out about being eliminated from first round. The Koreans and Japanese generally don't play soccer well in the heat. And did you see the crowd atmosphere in the stadiums? There were more nationalistic Chinese audiences whenever Japan or Korea would play soccer. The anti-Korean and anti-Japanese sentiments among the Chinese were really strong. I praise both Japan and Korea for at least participating and trying hard ( albeit not their best ) in the first round of Olympics soccer. Players from both teams practically risked their lives going there in light of rival host China. I don't mean to disparage anyone but the facts are sometimes worth listening to. Maybe....just maybe........soccer really isn't an East Asian thing. Maybe the men from both countries should go back to drawing flowers and doing research in 32 nm lithography and OLED displays for electronics.
1 - The Chinese crowd did not seem particularly hostile, at least compared to what we are used to... 2 - Japan and South Korea grew enormously in the last decade and a half. But soccer is a complicated game. It will take time, and a full circle of a couple of generations before the roots are long enough. I mean: England invented football in the 19th century, but won its World Cup (the only one!) in 1966... 3 - I join you in cheering for both team's effort. They had a hard task, and were not particularly lucky with the draw and the refs.
You gotta agree with goru on this, maybe there was a little bit of hostility seeing that most of the crowd were a bit quiet than usual, but they wouldn't want to tarnish their image just because of Japan would they? If they showed the deplorable attitude like they did in the 2004 Asian Cup, it would be the news story of the month. Its to do with image, and hooliganism like that would most ruin their Olympic cheerful image. They wouldn't want that, especially when the whole world is watching. and I must argue, that weather conditions are not an excuse, it may be hot in China, but the Japanese team and I think the Korean team had warm ups in similar weather conditions, they should of acclimatised by then.
weather is not an excuse. weather conditions in all three countries are not that dissimilar this time of year. usually, isn't tokyo more humid and hotter than beijing this time of year, but not by that much? i know seoul's usually cooler and less humid than beijing this time of year, but, really, it shouldn't be that much of a jump after a few days training.
I was implying that East Asians suck in soccer as much as, say, South Americans suck with semiconductor research. I know that Korea and Japan is supposedly more active in soccer now than in the past. But really, what is it that really changed between now and ten years ago? The gap between the Asians and Europeans don't appear to have changed. Soccer-strong countries ( such as Brazil, Argentina, Spain, France,etc ) have always been strong in soccer for the last half century. And they're keeping it up very well. Likewise, the Asians haven't changed either. Just doesn't seem like it's meant to be otherwise.
Doesn't mean there isn't a chance for improvement though. Sportsmen don't give up when they're not good at something, they do their utmost to improve. That's how Phelps keeps shaving seconds off his own world records. It may be tough to catch up with the best considering how everybody seems to be improving, but to give up would totally lose sight of the meaning of sport (or even living).
What has changed -so far- is that while Japan used to lose by 3-4 goals, now usually the difference is much less (one goal, often), and sometimes Japan also ties or wins. Believe me, I follow Japanese soccer dutifully since 1995, and it is MUCH BETTER now. Just looking at World Cup's results, in three editions Japan got wiped out only by Brazil, in a game where Japan was up 1-0 and was denied a second goal by a mistake (??) of the ref.
Goru has made a good assessment of the progress countries like Japan and Korea have made. They are tough little teams now, while they used to be cupcakes. Plenty of room to grow, too. I'm pretty excited about what Asian football will become over the next 30-40 years. I feel the same about Australia and USA/Canada, too.
It takes time, ne... I mean, African soccer is now almost at the level of European and Southamerican soccer... but do you remember Zaire in 1974...??? 30-40 years it is a reasonable curve, and Japan and Korea are perhaps at their 10-15th year, while China perhaps at the 5th, and most of SE Asia hasn't started yet...
Pretty much spot on. We can also see with Africa that developing infrastructure is something which can be done in much shorter time period than developing raw talent. Japan and Korea have made leaps and bounds since starting, but the real work will begin when the likes of Park and Naka return home and get to making the next generation better faster, and hopefully at some point we can get some coaches that know wtf they're doing too -- maybe that'll be Inamotos' job =D
I was agreeing with you. Haha. Maybe I should of said, damnit...Chinese weather...it's poison to both the Koreans and the Japanese.
And there lies the problem... A new generation of players may come in but without proper coaching... young players will only learn to basically pass the ball around in the midfield. Where are the "older" generation players that will transition into future coaches?
Which reminds me: What's Hide doing these days? The worst case scenario for this would be the new generations to mimic exactly the current NT's super passing game, because it's the only way the current generation knows how to play and teach the game to younger players.
The passing game isn't the problem, its one of the things which makes Japan a good technical team and exciting to watch, the problem is that at the end of those passes there is no-one to pull the trigger and shoot. Tamada against uraguay is the prime example of this. If someone could teach the strikers to be more decisive in front of goal the problem would be dramactically reduced.