Well Maeda hasn't convinced me and he's probably not going to become world class in the future at his age. Lee maybe but its too early just for one goal. Morimoto's 22, when Lee was 22 he wasn't doing shit neither was Maeda. There's plenty of time for Morimoto to start his career up again. At the moment its Morimoto, Maeda, Lee then the rest. Or put Honda or Okazaki up there. But I want Honda at CM for Endo when he retires. Yes then there's Havenaar who's maybe an option.
Okazaki is still the best of all. Lee has scored a beautiful goal but I don't think he status has changed, he'll still have to battle to be called up. I rate Nagai highly. His Asian Games were incredible. He's far more talented than Havenaar and his speed cannot be matched by any other player right now. He deserves to be tested.
I agree about Nagai he's got a lot of ability. Just I think at CF we need a player who can hold the ball up effectively which Nagai's not suited for. Maybe a wing-striker or second striker, maybe as a supersub as those positions are occupied by Kagawa & Okazaki who aren't doing badly.
I think Zac is a type of person who likes tall target man... so I dont see Okazaki/Nagai type will feature there
The guy who blogged this article seemed to brag that he was catalyctic to the new crop of today's Japanese players. Here's some outrageous statments that I find it hard to believe. " Nearly all of the current young players who are playing on the national team grew up watching my show before going to school and practiced many of the skills on their own. I’ve also had many of these same young players pass through my clinics over the years, most notably, Shinji Kagawa. I identified him at a young age and singled him out from several hundred players. Keisuke Honda was another fan who watched the show, his coaches have told me. " This guy was full of himself. But I would give him the benefit of the doubt. Since most of the members on this forum are very well-tuned with Japanese football landscape, can you verify what he said in this article had any grain of truth? http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/02/asian-cup-japan-is-on-the-up/
He might be exaggerating a bit, but he is quite famous in Japan for teaching football. I remember reading his columns in "coro coro" a kind of comic book for kids. [ame="http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%83%88%E3%83%A0%E3%81%95%E3%82%93%E3%81%AE1v1%E3%83%86%E3%82%AF%E3%83%8B%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%82%B9-DVD-%E3%83%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B3%E3%83%89%E3%83%93%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B0%E3%83%A9%E3%83%BC/dp/B00264U5CG/ref=sr_1_5?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1296780689&sr=1-5"][/ame]
If we ever needed proof that Qatar tried to fix the game, it'd be teh fact that for losing to Japan, Bruno Metsu was sacked. No FA with a team like Qatar's standard would sack their manager for losing to Japan. Only would happen if he was expected to win which wouldn't happen on paper.
This is based on the assumption of rational and competent behavior of Qatar FA – which is greatly exaggerated I believe they might have expected him to win this tournament regardless of (possible and unlikely) fix of that game simply because they don't know – or rather don't want to admit – that Japan is hell of a stronger team. Y'know, this sort of arrogance is not uncommon in the Gulf states and if you multiply it by incompetence... Under such conditions sacking a coach after the tournament should be called a modest and weighted decision. Ask Saudi FA for more details
Even Chinese finally started to learn something from the past now. This messy organisation in most of those Gulf countries doesn't bring too much optimism about future. Still - that's good for the big countries because incompetent decision making man in those FA can not be helped.
Fortunately he has some target men. 1) Hirayama, don't be hatin' 2) Ibusuki, suceeding oversees, very tall. 3) Havenaar, very good in J2, let's what he will do this year. I have to say that relying on a target man is not my favorite thing since they're usually slow, and I prefer fluid football, but if it works, why not.
Feature where? Okazaki is the best striker Japan has by miles. He should be nr 1. He is the only one that has scored frequently the last years. Tell me another japanese player that has done that? Respect!!
Japan U23's have a friendly with Kuwait MNT on Feb 9th. Last minute cause a game with Uzbekistan was cancelled.
He seems more comfortable playing from a wide position before sneaking into scoring positions, from his play in the NT and S-Pulse. Which still leaves the tip of the attack up for grabs if Okazaki is to be played to his fullest potential.
It is looking likely that the full NT and the U22 are going to play S. Korea... again.... http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/soccer/japan/news/20110207-OHT1T00330.htm It is going to lose the specialness if we keep meeting at this pace....
Got some Italy NT's fans said Japan NT now are "pirate copy" of Italy NT because of Zaccheroni, do u all agree with this ???
So what? If a teams plays a nice passing game do we you call them a copy of Barcelona? Sorry to be blunt, but who cares what fans of other NT's think?
In the italy forum? Frankly at this point in time I'd be quietly confident if Japan were to play Italy right now. Well apparently Japan are also the Barca of Asia according to Bruno Metsu lol.
Word about that Carlos Queiroz will be announced as new head coach of the Iran NT. (Didn't that guy turn us down when we were looking?)
Maybe it was a bad time for him? He tends to bounce around jobs quite a lot. edit: wikipedia says that Zac was hired in August, but Queiroz was sacked from Portugal 10 days later, so I doubt the JFA would have talked to him.
They wrote on their Italy NT thread title, "Congratulation to the pirate copy of Italy team win the Asian Cup". I feel that they dint give any respect at all, they should just write like this " Congratulation to Zaccheroni bring Japan NT win the Asian Cup 2011", then i will feel ok with this.
Queiroz was reportedly one of the candidates Hara talked to but he declined because of his Portugal job.