Agree but they have on paper, a very decent team with good till very good players individually and you could see when it comes to be important, they delivered. I am not sure what to think about that team.
They missed Gyokeres and sub in Isak only at 62' (and he scored too). These two will score for sure against Japan. We need to ensure the Final16 (or 32? I'm confused) before the 3rd match.
Everything can happend in the wc and Göykeres and Isak is really dangerous. But right now for them it does not look good at all.
I'm not saying Sweden is a horrible team, it's however definitely a beatable team that Japan should beat comfortably.
As someone said about Australia in 2006, Ivory Coast in 2014 and Costa Rica in 2022. There isn't any comfortably beatable team in this group, no Curacao or New Zeland spotted, and JNT will miss a solid defence and a well tested midfield. We simply must score with those two strikers as much as possible. They will do. We must too.
Agreed but our defence is far from being bad again. In my opinion it's by miles the best defence we ever had in history. Look what we do last WC with Yoshida and Itakura as or CBs ? Watanabe and H.Ito are waaaaaaaaaaay better then both of those others ever was + that you have J. Suzuki, Taniguchi (who is on crazy form) and Seko. Seko was not for nothing player of the season for his club in Ligue 1. + We have Itakura who is not the worst and maybe a restrength Tomiyasu. Sure it could look even better with a Machida, Takai and Ando. But a backline out of Ito, Watanabe and Seko/Suzuki looks crazy for me. At the end it could of course fail but don't know where your fear comes from ? Apart from maybe Nakazawa and Tulio in 2010 it never looked that good. Our defence is intentional class, cause every player was playing Champions League or Europa League this season apart from Seko.
We agree, I remember those games. The job must be done against the Netherlands and Tunisia first and foremost so a potential bad result against Sweden (which I'm obviously hoping they can avoid) can be somewhat acceptable. But honestly despite what happened in 2014 and 2022, I can't imagine them losing to Sweden or Tunisia.
Yeah that's the bad. I also think Itakura will start. I really really hope that we don't see Itakura and Tomiyasu start both. Then it will be very hard. But one of them will I guess.
I was thinking who should be the penalty takers if Japan reach a shootout? My picks in order would be 1. Ayase Ueda 2. Ritsu Doan 3. Takefusa Kubo 4. Yukinari Sugawara 5. Daichi Kamada But this would depend on subs made and who is available to take the penalties. This year we have better takers compared to 4 years ago which was a disaster
He's a player with one of the best striking abilities in the squad. He is a free kick taker and I reckon for a penalty shoot out he would have been subbed on into a game so he wouldn't be too tired. I reckon he can hit a good penalty with power and accuracy.
If there was a penalty shootout who would nominate and in which order? Oh, and would you sub in Hayakawa for Zion Suzuki last minute?
1. Junya Ito 2. Ueda 3. Doan 4. Kubo 5. Maeda In that exact order. And yes I would probably sub in Hayakawa for Zion Suzuki, I don't rate Suzuki very highly.
The squad are in Monterrey where they are based for the WC. Endo did not take part in training today :/ In other news the Netherlands lost to Algeria at home 0-1 today. Algeria are a good side so I won't read too much into that
Too much talk about penalties... We ll see if Japan will fold again in this world cup, although to be honest I think if we realistically look at the team, where the players are playing, how much they even played, injuries and who is missing we can safely say that players are playing at smaller clubs and are maybe as a team overrated against teams like Netherlands. Iverall hate to say it, but dont thinm this team is anytjing special but they are good playets for sure. Jyst nothing world class in this japanese team. Something you would need to reach too 16 or god forbid top 8. They need to get out of the group as number 1 or 2 or it will be considered failure. Getting pass the 32 i can see ut considering with which groul they cross Do you guys remember who japan had in previous teams? Hasebe, kagawa, honda, kakitani, haraguchi, inui, usami, sakai, yoshida, endo.... Guys that was a better team in comparison to this one. And still was not enough unfortunately Also what tge heck happened with youth development program in J league. Where is the nonsensd if Cerezo osaka Kagawa -> Inui -> Kakitani -> Minamino They used to produce such talent
Do you mean here or in general? Because I definitely would like them to avoid penalties altogether if they can. A lot of those players had a very good World Cup in 2010 (those who were there) but were horrendous in 2014 and then some had a decent tournament in 2018, namely Kagawa, Hasebe and Inui. I believe the current team is better, if anything up front and in midfield.
The best 3rd places will pass the group stage. So this WC is more easier then the previous ones. It's 90% sure that with just 1 win you reach the Final32. With a draw and a win 100%. About KO stage we lost to every type of opponent, easier and not so who cares. At last: we miss top the likes of Kagawa and Honda but this time it seems we have a proper striker. Something that JNT miss since... Ever.
First of all sorry for the typos guys i am using my phone and its late here in Europe. But in regards to the proper striker i disagree. UEDA is an ok striker not such a great one as eredivisie goals would suggest. We can probably be realistic and call it what it is... Good striker is Lukaku or Son from korea. Great striker is someone like Mbape or Kane. Ueda is... an ok striker but below all of the above mentioned. I would even say it like GK 7 in comparison to Kawashima 6.5 in the past Defence = is injured or played too little so even if on paper better i think its same shit really Midfield would be a ok 7 i agree and better in comparison to hasebe era but.... then endo is injured so even that is debatable Winger ofenssive midfields you cant tell me that is better to what japan had cause it is not. Especially with Mitoma and Minamino out it is objectively worse and strike which was akways like 5.5 - 6.0 is now maybe 6.5 or so So yeah without the injuries and with players being in form and playing maybe we could have a discussion but with how it is this team is definitely worse. I think they must reach top 32 cause well it is easy with this system but then they have maroco or brazil and again if we are being honest they will probably say bye bye then cause those two teams are better Remember japan reached top 16 in the past so realistically speaking will probably be a worse result...
🇲🇽⚠️ Bad image for Mexico in front of the world...🇯🇵 Japan’s national team reportedly faced poor conditions at Tigres’ facilities, which were rented for their World Cup preparations. 😬🏟️👀 The situation reportedly escalated to the point where Japan was close to leaving the… pic.twitter.com/QPpk7YdeOV— NextMex (@NextMexOficial) June 4, 2026 These were the conditions at Tigres’ training facilities, the team will be moved to another facility.
Good . Wtf didnt Mexico prepare it better? Dont need anymore reaons for people to think it was bad enough to give the wc to those 3 countries.
These things can happen. It's not like the training ground selected was from an unreputable team but it's the JFA's responsibility to choose the right training camp base. Mishaps like this can negatively affect the team