Anyone else extremely impressed by the Japanese player's skill and ability to play creative and beautiful futbol?
I always was impressed with technique and skill of the Japanese team for many years, especially within the midfield. They are proving their worth real well as the up-and-comers of elite class of world football during this confederations' cup. I've been nothing but impressed with their inspired performance in this tournament and hopefully they'll continue their run (they deserve to advance that's for sure). As a Korean, it's good to see our neighbours' putting up a good performance and increasing their skill level. Not only because it inspires Korea to improve as well, but because it proves that both Japan/Korea's performance last year in the world cup is no fluke. Good luck to Japan!
concerning what k 19 said as it proves that wc 02 wasnt a fluke, i couldn't agree more myself. i am one of the ones who thought they only did well because of the home field adv (and i know this is true for korea), although now i see they are very skilled and play the game beautiful. i was in awe watchin the second half of japan vs france, they played such simple football with quick one touch passing, one twos, great through balls, and of course excelled on freekicks. korea was also impressive against argentina. i love the way they play also because they do play simple but they play in a more athletic manor.
If you combined Japan's technical attacking midfielders and Korea's physical holding midfielders, then you'd have a super Asian midfield. Of course, both the defenders and strikers are another story......
a nice heel kick to the colombian striker. sure we are skilled. gosh, i wanna kill koji nakata and miyamoto
Again, stupid mistakes do in Japan. All their goals were given uo on stupid mental lapses. Until they solve this problem, they will never win.
That's been the story for Japan, no? It was a stupid mistake against Belgium last year, then THREE stupid mistakes (two by K. Nakata, one by Ono) against Turkey. Again, a stupid mistake does us in. Lack of concentration is killing us.
No doubt. With Japan, it's all mental. More than conditioning or skill, it's the menal part of the game where they fall short.
They played the most beautiful futbol in the CC, sad to see them go. However, we see much more of them in the future I am sure. My guess is they will go further than they did last year in 2006.
Actually, this last game I found them very Japan with Nakamura and without Nakamura is like night and day, almost like France with and without Zizou.
Koji Nakata is on my hitlist! against Turkey in World Cup he kicks a ball for a corner when there was no need or rush to put it out that way, he could have put it out wide. Turkey scores on the corner, BOOM! World Cup is over for Japan!
Japan players have very good Individual skill, and they play as a team better than most in asia. This is something I'm realy intrested in. How can a professional player, who is also very skillfull looses his consitration for the very short time it takes him to kick the ball to the goal, or to a team mate? I dont get it! I think lack of concentration (IMHO) is another word for lack of skill.
I have been very impressed by the Japanese team. Here are my two questions. 1. Where does Nakamura play? 2. Is this fairly close to Japan's A team? If the answer is yes, why does Zico want to bring an A team to this tournament?
1) Reggina in Serie A (Italy) 2) It was pretty much the A team, with the notable absence of Shinji Ono (IMHO, if Ono was in they would have advanced to 2nd rd.) Zico used the tournament as an opportunity to try out new people but more importantly to get the first team players to learn how to play together. With many of the top players in Europe, this was one of the few times the full Japan team gets to play together under Zico. Results aside, the tourney revealed that Nakata and Nakamura can co-exist together in the MF.
I think you have to look at physical and mental aspects of a player separately. There's no doubt that Japanese players have very high level of technical skills, but I think they still have a long ways to go mentally, and concentration is part of it. The level of play in J-League is pretty high, but it's nowhere near as intense as top Euro leagues or international play. To maintain a high level of intensity for 90 minutes is exhausting. In the J-League, you can play at a lower level of intensity, and you can have lapses and still get away with it because teams don't have that killer instinct that takes advantage of every chance and play doesn't happen as fast so you can recover quickly. And I think that's what's getting exposed when Japan plays top national teams. Their mental strength isn't quite there yet and they're making mistakes that wouldn't be punished against weaker opponents. The idea that lack of concentration is lack of skill is true to a point. Concentration is a skill that's necessary for sports and top athletes in any sport are usually born with concentration skills. But then you have really amazing athletes who go in and out of games, or have really good games followed by really bad ones. Nakata and Nakamura have it - they seem involved in every play and they are intense from the beginng to the end of the match, and that's partly a result of playing in Serie A, imho (of course, top athletes are usually born with mental strength). But it's easy to understand how some amzingly talented players make awful mistakes.
it's fun to think if i were miyamoto, what made me do that back heel. pressure from the opponent? endo is his teammate so he thought endo would be there? wanna try something cool? thinking about a girl and not concentrate on playing?
One problem is the J-league. If you are a defender then you make a small mistake, you may not get punished. But in international stage, you will get panished. If more of Japan's defenders playing in Europe, they may improve. Another thing is that you can have all skills you got, but sometimes skilled players play like Nancy boys. You do need some tough SOB in the field like in Center D and in forward. Need to have someone like Brazil's Adriano plays in the top.
Ummm, your feelings are your own business, but it would be good to take note of the fact that it was not Nakata, but Endo, who played the back-heel to Miyamoto.
Well, that wasnt the ONLY absence. Also missing were Fukunishi, Matsuda and Suzuki, and it is also important to remember that five of the players were playing only their 3rd, 4th and 5th matches ever for the National Team (if you include Alex, who never played in defence before) From that perspective I think it qualifies as a B team, though probably at least 5-6 of these players will be considered the "A team" within another year.
tsuboi, endo, yamada, and okubo are quite new for the national team but to me they looked better than the "a" side.
I agree, but the point is that the team is still in a building progress. You cant really consider that the team is at its top competitive form if the players have only had two chances to play together, before. In that sense, Japan was just as much a "B" side as the US, Colombia, France or Turkey (though maybe not quite as under-strength as Brazil)