Anybody know who else is on the bench? Felt like we were tiring when Kengo went off... but then it just went to complete crap with Koroki. He's added absolutely no bite up front and we've lost complete control over midfield as a consequence. Why do Okada's subs never make any sense at all ??
Sneijder took a shot, Honda sliding slightly late, he got into him (not hardly, thou) as both were falling, and Sneijder ankle bent A LOT. You can read more in the Netherlands forum. 0-3 now, Nakazawa again with poor defending.
Japanese soccer is growing, clearly. Half of our players are World level, I believe. But Okada is not the right man to bring the team to the next level.
A good match overall. Lost 3-0, but not too unexpected. A lot of positives and negatives to take away from that. Main negatives would be stamina, not blowing all our energy in the first 45m, giving up after going 1 down, losing concentration. (to say nothing of Okada personnel selections...) Uchida left us exposed a couple times on the right. I thought he did very good in the first half completely neutralizing Robben, but I think he over-extended himself in the second, got caught out of position, and we paid for it. Still a good learning opportunity for the kid. Not every day he gets to face up to players like Robben ... though he probably could if he'd leave the cooshy confines of Kashima. Honestly can't see him learning anything more in JLeague.
At the end it was very sad to lose like that and the team obviously deserved more but on the other hand it was a very good lesson mostly for Okada who has to realise what world level means.Japan played against a world class team in the first half very well but was simply not efficient.And after the second goal they simply lost their confidence but you have to ask why Okada does give Tamada so many chances.
its really annoying that Japan was completely tired out but Okada refused to use his substitutes. He should be introducing new players to create competition within the team but instead he keeps the same players in all the time.
I expected result but if you watched the game the result was dissapointing. Japan dominated alot. But they cant score so.
Thats why I don't call it dominating. If you fail to even test the keeper, you aren't dominating anything.
As a strategist Okada is really zero, in every respect. He is too naive to coach at this level. With some malice, the game could have easily finished 0-1, or max 0-2.
I think it is fair to say that Japan seemed to control most of the game. But of course when Okazaki (min 2 or 3) gets a ball in front of the goal on the right and he controls it with the left backward, you already know something is wrong with the mentality, now matter how good the feet are... Uchida nowhere and Narazaki late on both 2nd and 3rd goal as well crystallize some other of the problems on the field. Every time Holland managed to sneak beyond our midfield, you had the feeling they could score. Luckily it didn't happen too often.
A few side news... 1 - Sneijder injury seems very serious. He is in hospital, and he said "something cracked inside." The ref would have done him a favor by applying the rules, and giving him a red. 2 - OT, but Sputh Korea beat Australia 3-1 in Seoul. Congratulations. 3 - I have been scolded by the Netherlands' mod When I saw Sneijder's foul I really lost it for a few minutes. Not just the foul itself, but his attitude after, as in "yeah, he's just a Japanese player, who cares..."
Honda and Okazaki were the disappointments of the evening, imho. Uchida is still young and undisciplined, but he has potential. Nakazawa, I never really trusted much.
I think Honda would have done better if he started or at least was brought in somewhere in the first half, the way Japan was playing that half might have allowed him to set something up or dare I say actually land one in the net. Well, no one else was going to score so it would have been fun to see him try at least. In the second half when everyone started to slow down and Holland (Elia) shifted it into another gear Honda was basically the worst person to have around for the reasons you guys mentioned.
seems their coach cares: http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=afp-fblwc2010nedjpnfriendly&prov=afp&type=lgns
I loved it. One of the best this year, given that Okada is to stay till the end of WC. I wish I was at the stadium today. For an hour they tried hard enough that we could actually see what works and needs work. Obviously ironing everything out is another problem, but my earlier fears of wasting this game was unfounded. I don't know where to begin and end, and I fear that I'll type forever. So I'll just make fragmented remarks which pop in my head. I'm not promoting or demoting any players here on absolute terms. This game is this game, another game is another, so I'll keep this generally positive, because a lot of it was. The network of defence works well enough so long as the workrate is there. Needs some luck at times, but good enough for us. Need a bit more individual aggression and earnestness. Uchida and to some extent Kawashima may be limited by their own self belief (or the lack of). I was reminded of Kengo's slick ball touch. As much as I sometimes question his decisiveness at world level, and still do, it reminded me of why I used to love this player when he came up to J1. Endo and Kengo tend to keep a low profile at this level, but they were the lubricant, the metalworks under the bonet. They made Naka work, and their mobility works well, in fact better than Naka in many ways. Tamada is far from my favourite and he won't change my mind for now, but he really understands how his side plays. Honda saves stamina too much. It's not that he isn't capable of vision and physical hardship, he just saves it. Probably partly due to the necessity of his role at his club and partly self-awareness due to recent entanglement of events. He might have to go to a really hard league and become an underling to avoid making this a permanent habit. He reminded me of one of those summoned gods in computer games; they just poof after attacking once, until summoned again. You're never quite sure if they're awesome or annoying. Because of the above point, Honda doesn't fit in right now, for the better or worse. I can see why he wasn't picked for the 1st half and it was not because of any lack of raw talent. Subs feel random. A playing-card pyramid effect. Amazing while being built, then collapses in a big heap. It happens time and time again. Stamina goes down, then concentration declines. Then the teamwork and technical ability/passwork decline, then comes the big collapse. This characteristics of ours can't deal with counter attacking tactics for a prolonged period. Partly a mental strength, but even a mental strength is mostly a function of stamina in cases like this. You get tired, then your 'Hmmmpph' goes down with it. The goal scoring issue remains as intact, but I'll overlook that for now. おつかれィ！
To be honest I'd rather see Japan lose rather than win. Anyone remember 2006? Japan was coasting through the friendlies and then what happened when the tournament came around? As they say its much easier to learn from a loss rather than a win.
Why do you make up this stuff? Pre-match analysis in the Netherlands included two pundits all praising Japanese football,, the technical abilities of Japanese footballers, and how big football is in the Japan. That's all that was even said on the subject on Dutch television and in the Dutch media in general. The only negative thing that was said about Japanese football after the game is that you don't have goalscoring ability. Trust me the verdict on the Dutch was about a billion times more harsh. Again I don't really understand where what you're saying is coming from. Truth of the matter is the Dutch media are completely focused on their own national team. They can't even be bothered enough about Japanese football to be negative about it, they're entirely focused on Dutch football. Just like most national media are.
Sneijder is a twat and you'll find very few Dutch people who like him. He's obnoxious to everybody not just to Japanese people. As you seem interested in the Dutch media's viewpoint, they commented that he deserved to be sent off for tackles in the first and second half. Also his injury is not serious at all. He hasn't broken or torn anything. Good god you're paranoid.
Johan, welcome to Japan forum mate. I too got the impression that Japan were considered to be easy by "the Dutch". I will just explain my part as I don't want to come between you two, or my wife will kill me when she finds out. The point I came here to make is this: When media picks up on a few words from somebody of another nation, it becomes generalized. That's how it is. Imagine if one Japanese of a reasonable background said "Dutch economy is crap" and it was picked up by all papers in Holland. It will create a certain degree of stereotype for quite a lot of people. Not all, but enough people. A few short liners from Dutch players and commentators were picked up by the Japanese media and were plastered here and there. So naturally it will give off that impression. I know it's not everybody thinking like that, but you know how the story goes with this sort of thing. It's the usual media mambo jumbo and we too became a victim of it while back with Australia. It happens. I'm not paranoid with the Dutch or this game, or anything related, but I still got a similar impression as the one goru_no_ura expressed. Besides, considering the gap between Holland and Japan in football, it's damn natural to think it'll be easy anyway, whether or not it is spoken out loud. No amount of flattery will convince anybody (especially us) that Japan is a stronger football nation... right? That's all I wanted to point out, alongside my reasoning. I know it's just a generalization. No biggie, no hard feelings.
Yes... I think overachievement at this stage is not helping anybody. But seeing the match today, I am not quite sure what the lesson will be for Okada unless he doesn't throw some of his principles overboard. Yes, they had possession, and yes, normally Oranje would have been 1 down after Sneijder's lunge. Yes, van Marwijk said the final scoreline is flattering for the Dutch. Such good was Japan's displays before they went down like that. So to what conclusions will this lead Okada? He did everything right, so it's just his forwards who will have to be more effective...? Well, this sounds disappointed, but let me clarify it is not the scoreline. It's a friendly after all. Of course it would be nice to see a team play beautiful football and win but today (again) it was shown to us that this doesn't work in the real world (unless you are Brazil or Spain). What really scares me is that Okada very often seems to do the exact wrong thing which results in Japan deconstructing itself. It doesn't take a tactical genius to see that what Japan needed was replacements of tired players on their positions, and not shifting to an all-out attack (I mean against the Dutch, there is no way you play with a defensive line of 2 players!) They had a good match going until the 0-1 so they have to keep their cool...