From the last Gambare highlight show it looks like attackers can stand still in the box with the ball at their feet without getting challenged. Also from the highlights the attacking looks strong and players aren't afraid to shoot but the defenses are a little lax and the goalkeeping is worse than MLS.
In the last U.S. / Japan friendly (in San Francisco), I think it was mostly American MLS guys vs. Japanese J-League guys. I'm less certain about the latter, but my guess is that most of those guys play in the J-League. That game was pretty well dominated by the U.S.. Seemed like a good 70-80% of the match was played in the U.S. offensive half of the field. My impression was that the Japanese players didn't challenge nearly as hard for possession as the U.S. players did. Of course I don't know what percentage of J-League players are not Japanese nationals, so that may still not be all that good an indicator of the relative level of play between J-League and MLS.
Agreed. Good attacking play and shooting, but defending isn't particularly good and the goalkeeping is awful, so it's hard to judge, really. Looks fairly entertaining, though, to be fair.
Using the same sample size, I'd have to say that DC United would finish in the top two or three in the EPL every season.
you used to be a very respected member of this site, and your posts were well thought out. over the past year or so you've just turned into a dick. We appreciate your photos, but your attitude has taken a serious decline over the past year. i guess you missed in my original post "take that as you wish". unless you wished to take that as "J-League is better than MLS" then ignore this post.
Wait. So I show that a sample size of 5 or 7 games is insufficient to grade the relative strengths of leagues and that makes me a dick? Cry me a river.
MLS teams have a lot more foreign nationals, but some of the J-League's are high-quality. Another factor to consider is that the J-League has 18 teams, so its domestic national team talent is more spread out. To give an idea of how different the two leagues are ... 2005 J-League Top Goalscorers R. G (P) Name [nationality] Club -------------------------------------------------- 1. 22 PAULINHO [BRA] Kyoto 2. 21 (1) BARE [BRA] Kofu 3. 18 (1) GLAUCIO [BRA] Fukuoka 4. 17 Taro HASEGAWA Kofu 17 (1) Tatsunori ARAI Tosu 6. 15 (2) Michiaki KAKIMOTO Shonan 15 ALEMAO [BRA] Kyoto 15 (1) Takaaki SUZUKI Tosu 9. 14 (2) BARON [BRA] Sendai 10. 13 SCHWENCK [BRA] Sendai http://www.rsssf.com/tablesj/jpn05.html 2005 MLS Top Goalscorers 1. Taylor Twellman NE 17 2. Jaime Moreno [BOL] DC 16 (but 9 were PKs) 3T. Landon Donovan LA 12 (4 PKs) 3T. Jeff Cunningham COL 12 (2 Pks) 5T. Christian Gomez [ARG] DC 11 5T. Herculez Gomez LA 11 5T. Amado Guevara [HON] MET 11 (4 Pks) 5T. Carlos Ruiz [GUA] DAL 11 (3 Pks) 9T. Clint Dempsey NE 10 9T. Youri Djorkaeff [FRA] MET 10 (2 Pks) As you can see, players put up much bigger numbers in Japan than they do in MLS ... and this is in spite of the fact that MLS plays a longer season (32 games to 30).
From my observations the last several years...granted, they all come from watching Gambare...that the majority of teams in the J-League seem to have at least one Brazilian on them ...which probably caomes from having more cash to spend than MLS. My observation is that the general style of play in the J-League seems to be Brazilian (again, that's judging from a highlight show...I imagine that a little creative editing would make RSL look like Barca...ok, a lot of creative editing)...which the Japanese Federation seems to want to transfer to the national team...including the selection of Zico as head coach...and he's been there an awfully long time. Interesting that there seems to have been an influx of Argentine players into MLS the last several years, no?
Yes it was all J.LEAUGE based players; however, that was one the horriblest games JNT played in a while. Japan usually plays 3-5-2 but the manager wanted to test 3-6-1 for the first time, and it failed 100%.
like people have said before, the J-league has a lot more cash to spend, and less major sports to compete with. In addition, the youth pop culture in japan has embraced the league. In terms of level of play, I think it is probably around the same as the MLS, but because of popularity and other factors, it is viewed as a better league. When I went to England 2 summers ago, Urawa red diamonds were playing in the pre-season vodaphone cup with Man U., Boca Juniors, and Benfica (not positive about Benfica). Though Urawa didn't do that well, they held their own, with a little more money invested MLS could well be playing on a higher level also.
Japan only has THREE professional sports leagues, making attendance and support at each game, for any team, much better than we expect in the States. 1) Soccer 2) Baseball 3) Sumo
Basketball, Ice Hockey, and Volleyball is still considered as minor leagues. I also want to point out that many J. League fans repects MLS in some aspects and one is that MLS clubs are building SSS.
Besides Sumo, other fighting sports are also very popular and draw big crowds (20K to 75K) Pride FC K-1
Rugby has an ok following in Japan, so does auto racing. If you want to add it in as a sport, professional wrestling can draw large crowds too.
I am no statistician. My guess is that 5 or 7 losses in 5 or 7 games is statistically significant. On the other hand, you can argue that teams did not necessarily play to win in these matches, and MLS and J League teams might be at different parts of their training cycles during these matches.
Good to know. I thought the game was probably not reflective of the JNT in general, because frankly they didn't look very good. The strange thing is that despite all those JNT / J-League midfielders I thought the U.S. won the game in the midfield.