Official 2021 Nadeshiko Japan Thread [R] - なでしこジャパン（英語スレッド）

I had a suspicion they would play well, but probably lose. With Takakura her teams seem to get better, but unfortunately they never play anybody easy in the knockout phases partly because they play so poorly early in the tournament.

In Japanese it is very common to drop the subject so google often does not pick up who the subject is in a sentence like in your translation.

That last part was from her to all football players inside and outside of Japan. They have to work and become a big group to make a strong competition lest people should lose interest in women's football. Women's football in Japan is in danger of losing significance. That is not a direct translation, but more a summation.

Of course I am not a native speaker, so maybe check with ponderingu.

 

Is Kei Matsubara(?) still writing for yahoo? She seems always well informed and usually present at the games.

 

She will probably publish an article in a day or two.




It's not just Kinga. A lot of well known figures are speaking up about the "failure" of this Nadeshiko team and what actions must be taken for woso in Japan to survive. I'm not translating all this but....

Nagasato
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/e36d89e88efac87947b280653280689cef120362

Ando
https://www.nikkansports.com/olympi...m_medium=social&utm_campaign=nikkansports_ogp

Sasaki
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/d0017a3b3a95fff1355cf774a50d571078c6583c

Kumagai & Iwabuchi post match
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/9815a5fa94f4ecf5cf2c5f7798cfd3eb48ce233b

Even Maruyama
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/d8b7f8e2ecabc9de436217310c552bf59ca06d2d?page=1

They all have slightly different opinions. Nagasato and Ando seem to be very critical of Takakura's approach with this team and JFA's approach with woso. But all these people are basically saying they have to stop and look at the entire system, try to figure out what's lacking and how to fix it all. (Maruyama's message is much more positive)

There's a sense of urgency that I personally didn't feel even when they failed to qualify for Rio. It seems people have realized that woso in Japan is truly in danger of becoming irrelevant now.

Also, apparently some people are suggesting Akira Nishino (led Japan's Mens team in 2018 Russia and current Thailand head coach) as Takakura's replacement. Very unlikely to happen but interesting suggestion.

I feel like I am unintentionally spamming this thread so I'm gonna keep quiet for a bit. All things considered, I'm actually very excited for the next few years of woso in Japan. It seems we are gonna see many changes.

 

No!! Not at all! Your reports are very much welcome especially since you can understand the sentiment at ground zero. But if you are upset from the outcome, i understand of course please take your break. And that last line you said sounded a lot hopeful especially since the old guard, the OG Nadeshiko are starting to speak up. I cannot even begin to think what Homare Sawa's thoughts are now after that.

 

Ah thanks for the correction.

 

Here it is

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/byline/matsubarakei/20210731-00250783

"We have to act with urgency and come up with a new development policy before 2023"

This article focuses more on this game specifically and who moved on to the semi's. She says she will publish another article for her overall analysis of the tournament.



Utsugi also shared her thoughts

https://2020.yahoo.co.jp/column/detail/202107310001-spnavi?page=1

 

Would you mind to summarize Utsugi's statement? She is/was one of my favorite players and she has been absent since the end of 2019. It is good to hear from here...

 

I really hope the JFA puts some serious thoughts into the future coaching staff.

The players are not to blame, especially not single players. No individual player of any kind can make a difference, except when the team around her enables her to do so. And team selection and team building is the job of the coaching staff.

An important part of team building, aside of a suitable atmosphere among players and staff, is the selection of fitting strategies and tactics. As those are hard to train in the short time national teams have available those both need to be familiar to the players as well as be in active use at the players' clubs. Often successful teams consist of bigger groups of players from select few clubs through which those players already have an intimate understanding of each other, making them the spine of the team lifting the other players. But even without such groups, veteran players can share their experience, so those can be very useful even if they don't end up playing.

These are the basics. Then you get to actual applicable strategies and tactics. Those are for making a given selection of players work in a team, and make them work against specific opponents. The goal here is to always give the players fitting answers to challenges by the opponents during the game. Tactics are the keys the coaching staff gives to the players the players can then use during the match to unlock the opponent.

Maybe Takakura had a plan. But the selection never settled, and veterans were unceremoniously discarded, even at the last second after continuously playing before (hi Shark). Maybe she planned with improving as a tournament goes on, but publicly stating that she doesn't know what went wrong tells me to begin with she never was in the position of giving her players the keys to unlock the opponents. The reactions by the players have been accordingly damning, with Iwabuchi saying after the group games that every game is very hard and they (the players) have to give their all. This is how you have players talking who are completely ill-prepared, who don't really have an idea what are their actual strengths and weaknesses against opponents, who lack both self confidence as well as a stable framework to rely on. And all of that falls back on Takakura and her coaching staff.

I really hope the new coaching staff will tackle all these issues.

 

I have been thinking about this and I assume they will go with Ikeda, but it might be wiser to go with somebody outside the national setup. Ikeda does seem to improve his teams, but he has a lot of great talent to work with, so it is hard to know how good he actually is.

The Cerezo coach Takehana might be an interesting choice.

But they should stay away from foreign coaches unless it is somebody remarkable; Pep Guardiola for example. The Japanese men's team has only gone from strength to strength since only using Japanese managers. Being able to communicate is so important.

Does anybody know what Takakura's coaching philosophy is? That is not a facetious question. Has she actually said what or who her influences are? I get the impression it is Dutch football of the 70's and total football, but that is an educated guess.

I have said on numerous occasions some of her choices were perplexing. I think she also let some of her biases cloud her judgement when selecting players.

 

Thank you for the clarification.

 

I tried summarizing but ended up translating the whole article because she was very passionate about every point she made. I apologize for the many typos and countless grammatical errors I probably made.

"As soon as the game started I saw the lack of experience this team had. It only requires basic understanding of the sport to know that conceding at the start of the game or the start of the second half is going to make the game much harder to win and they did both.

The positive aspects of this team is in the attack. The goals we did score came from great individual skill and creativity. But these games weren't friendlies, this was the olympic tournament. The most important thing in a big tournament isn't how they score goals, it's how the team avoids conceding and is able to come out with a win in each game.

When the team was down 1-3 and there were 10 minutes left Japan was letting Sweden pick up all the second balls. When Sweden's goal keeper deflected Iwabuchi's shot from range near the end of the match, the first player to get to the rebound was Swedish. It just doesn't make sense at all.

Nadeshiko are on the world stage fully aware of their physical disadvantages which means they can't use that as an excuse" (This is probably a jab towards Takakura's comments in the post match interview) "If they can't figure out how to make up for that weakness and compensate for it they are going to continue struggling. If we're talking about physicality, players like Miyama or Ono were not any bigger than Iwabuchi. And Japanese women aren't going to suddenly grow taller in the near future. So players have to figure out how to compensate. For example timing your tackles so that you make contact right when the ball is furthest from the opponents feet. If the team had thought this through, some of these goals they concede would've been avoidable.

During the Sweden game I was very perplexed with the substitutions too. If I were a manager and my team was losing 1-3 I wouldn't be sending in my defenders or midfielders. Instead I would've sent in my attackers and maybe even push Kumagai up and have my team power play. Even if the team conceded from that I would at least want to lose facing forward. In the dying moments of the game, something might have happened if they had a tall player in the penalty box and they sent long balls inside repeatedly. I wouldn't want to people watching the game to think 'this team can't score in the next 10 minutes'. No matter if the team is down 0-5 or 0-10 I think it it absolutely necessary as a national team to show that you are fighting for that one goal in the those 10 minutes. Especially for these olympic where there are so many people taking risks to make these games possible. I wanted them to convey that appreciation through the TV.

I think there were many people who switched to another channel on their tv's once the game was in its last 10 minutes. To be honest when I saw the news that the fencing team had gotten gold I wanted to switch channels and watch them too. I know I am not on that field playing in the National team and I know these players are better than me now. But during the last minutes of the match I sincerely wanted to see someone, anyone chasing the ball desperately and committing to tackles that might've even earned them a card."

I know the players must've felt frustrated after the game. But how many of those watching in front of their tv felt the same frustration? I think there were a lot of people after the game saying 'I knew it' or 'It's as expected'

This Nadeshiko team has to realize that their world, their influence doesn't only effect the pitch they play on. Especially during an olympics tournament which is being hosted while people are losing their jobs and lives to Covid and there is so much emotion surrounding the event. I wanted to hear more of their thoughts about that during the tournament.

The team I played in won a world cup in 2011 when Japan was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami. I truly believe we couldn't have won that tournament without embracing and appreciating the fact that we were lucky to be playing football during tough times.

Of course what happens on field is important. But this team has to realize how big an effect football or sports can have on people and that nothing they do would be possible without the support of so many people working behind the scenes. Embracing these facts and trying to contribute to the wider society is the core of Nadeshiko's history and it was suppose to be one of their charms.

I have a very positive view on this Nadeshiko team with a core of young players. But if things continue like this I fear people that supported woso for years will start to fade away and we won't be able to attract new fans either. So many of these young players are tactically brilliant and that's also why I find it so disappointing that the team seems to be overlooking a big part of our philosophy."

 

I kept writing "coaching staff" because I think no single manager will make a difference. JFA needs to ensure that for all the different areas of interest, like physical and psychical health and fitness, scouting, tactical preparation etc. pp. there are dedicated staff that can help the players. The managers should ideally be chosen based on their experience working within such setups.

 

Thank you very much for this. I know it was a huge undertaking and is well done.

Rumi nails it with this comment. It summarizes every point I have seen in this Forum and many of my thoughts as well.
The parts where she points out the physical disadvantage, the lack of team work in front of the goal, and the dismissal of the philosophical background are well put.

On her self-evaluation all I can say is that she can say what she wants, but she is still classes above of some of the younger players.

 

Wait - wasn't part of Takakura's plan to find young, tall and fast players for that reason? Isn't that why she held on to Sugasawa (yes, not that young) and Takarada, Shiokoshi, and some of the other taller women came on?

 

Pia Sundhage has more lives than a cat does. I was really surprised to see her now with Brazil considering how there is basically no new talents over there; I think she is wasting her time there. However, she is the kind of architect I would have if I were to build a national women's team towards dominance. After all, she built the foundations of the now-dominant USWNT starting in 2008 and of the now-strong Swedish side with the 2016 Olympic silver medal.

Nadeshiko Japan will need a solid mentor to prepare them to be part of the world's elite. You really sure you wouldn't consider her name if she somehow becomes free tomorrow?

edit: I was thinking of going full UrinatingTree in my post-mortem of Nadeshiko Japan's elimination, but I will narrow it down on Takakura only and will post it on the day she gets the sack.

 

Nope. Brazil not investing in their woso it's a song of the past.



32 debutants for Japan in 2017-2020
22 debutants for Brazil in 2017-2020 (339 minutes per player, 7455 minutes in total)
17 debutants for England in 2017-2020 (584 minutes per player, 9925 min in total)
14 debutants for USA in 2017-2020
8 debutants for Australia in 2017-2020 (111 min per player, 891 min in total)

Sundhage was hired as a part of larger strategic refresh program rather than one time deal to get a medal. CBF surely is aiming at 2023WWC.

 

Maybe you're right in a sense, but she always said that she intended to choose players with technical ability preferentially.
In the case of Sugasawa, she was the top scorer in the last Nadeshiko League.
About Tanaka, when she was asked before why she didn't choose her she answered that she would not give enough effect in the international stage.
So I feel she is ever inconsistent as for players selection and who she sends the pitch in every game.
And I think the most important factor is strength more than height to keep or take the ball.

Sorry my comment might be inconsistent too.

 

I only need to look at the Brazilian starting lineup against Canada to see how much they rely on the old guard. I don't pin that on Sundhage, but more on the reality of their team.

Bárbara (GK, age 33)
Bruna (RB, age 35)
Érika (CB, age 33)
Raffaelle (CB, age 30)
Tamires (LB, age 33)
Duda (RM, age 26)
Formiga (CM, age 43... WTF?)
Andressinha (CM, age 28)
Marta (LM, age 35)
Beatriz (ST, age 27)
Debinha (ST, age 29)

The average age for the starting lineup is 32 years of age. Even if take Formiga out, that is still 30.9 years of age on average for 10 starters. The number of debutants in the last 4 years reflect nothing if they don't make it near the starting lineup and primary substitutes when it matters.

 

Very good translation. Thanks a lot.

 

That makes sense in a way and it is possible that I misunderstood some things. It would explain Hasegawa, Shimizu, and Iwabuchi. But not her defensive choices, in particular on the left....