And if Tunisia can make those kind of mistakes against Sweden, imagine what kind of mistakes they can make against Japan or be forced to make against Japan through proper tactical pressure.
Bloody hell... 5-1. Tunisia look merely better than newcomers Curaçao and somehow worse than Paraguay.
I didn’t watch the first half but caught Japan’s first goal in the match against Netherlands. It wasn’t much intensity from both sides, but I like how Japan stayed calm after conceding and quickly fought from behind to level both times. Towards the end, Japan seems to attack more. Too bad they didn’t win, but it was a nice hard earned draw. From the comments here, you guys doesn’t like how some of the players perform and I hope Moriyasu can change it up towards the next 2 matches in the group stage. I hope it won’t be like 2022 when Japan lost against Costa Rica 0-1. It was a lack of intensity or complacency. I hope Japan can pull a win against Tunisia on Saturday.
Forgot about this match ASAP. Don't understimate Tunisia AND don't overstimate Moriyasu's masochism. Costa Rica lost SEVEN - NULL in 2022. And then they parked the bus against our Team B fielded without any reason by Bakayasu and we know how it ended. We have a fecking match point this saturday. Tunisia will park a double decker, there will be no space for Nakamura or Ueda, nothing but we need to score at least 1 and defenders must spit blood and don't DON'T make any stupid brainfart please. This match it's like a final. Especially if Sweden will beat Netherlands we have the chance to advance AND avoid FRANCE. Please do the job.
I'm afraid of the Tunisia match now more than the Sweden one. Tunisia will play with a nothing-to-lose mentality and might surprise us. I hope it's not a repeat of that baffling Costa Rica match of 2022.
Unfortunately Tunisia is a typical banana skin team which Moriyasu Japan used to fail beating in the past. Hopefully Moriyasu learned some lessons from the Netherlands match and will make some crucial changes. But the big problem is that Moriyasu did not call up the right players for the left wing position of Mitoma. Generally speaking he did not call up enough quality players for the wing positions. If Kubo is injured then Ito has to take over his place. And then Maeda has to start again against Tunisia unfortunately. The other options are Suzuki from Freiburg who had a big injury and has not played for months and Machino who is useless. But at least Moriyasu has called up 5 strikers for 1 position. What a brainfart move of Moriyasu.
Agreed. It's like the guy knows nothing but total defense or total offense. He's like playing a FIFA game at this point. I'm still butthurt about Fujita and Kodai Sano.
This is wrong. They have a lot to lose. 3rd spot means qualification, they MUST win against Japan and then try a draw against Netherlands that can draw with Sweden to have this: Sweden 4 Tunisia 3 Netherlands 2 Japan 1 I'm pretty sure they will park the bus and counterattack. We need to destroy that bus and shutdown their counterattacks. Or it will be another Costa Rica, even worse.
Surprised by Sweden, this now becomes very difficult, even if Japan beat Tunisia you would awesome Netherlands would beat Tunisia as well, so Japan really needs at least a win against Tunisia and a point against Sweden to get first or second place
Im also surprised with 5-1. I thought 2-1. Japan should take this but Tunisia will go out in 100. They wont accept another embarassment. And on the other hand we will probably see a Moriyasu put out the "b" team. As stubborn he is.
Yep ominous signs for Tunisia. As for the next game Moriyasu knows that if he relies on his A team too much Japan will tire in the tournament and won't get far. We have to call upon others to perform and get results. Maybe we'll see 4 changes: Tanaka, Sugawara, Suzuki Junnosuke and Ito Junya coming in
I really hope to see Goto, he is exactly what we need upfront, tall and a player who is on fire, can score and assisted in the same rate, good at headers, good technically. I think he should start instead of Ueda. Are there any news about Kubo ?
With this many strikers in the roster, is a 3-5-2 on the cards in the next game? I would start Ogawa, J. Ito and Itakura, perhaps also Ao Tanaka.
Kamada played well. Slow? That was what he was supposed to do. There defensively, offensively was involved too, his pass to Ueda who then hit the outside of the net was fantastic. Kubo and Doan? Perfect, again, that was what they were supposed to do. Of course Kubo could have played offensively, pressing, creating 3 goals (instead of being involved in 1) but then let Gakpo run wild and be back 6 goals... No point. Doan on Gapko, Kubo in support immediately, that was the plan, they executed it well. Then start Sugawara-Doan? An option, I agree, but you want some creativity somewhere too, so Kubo was fine, even if he had to play more defensively than he's used too. No Gakpo for Tunisia and Sweden, if he's fit and plays, he will not have as many defensive duties. But there will be some changes I think, not because the team didn't deliver, it did, this was mcuh better than 4 years ago vs Germany, Japan got lucky then, completely overrun, not this time, they held the dutch well. But with 26 players, the heat, the goal to go far, he will want to rest some players. Like Kamada or Sano, oh... he didn't bring Fujita or Morita or any of the other countless japanese defensive midfielders... But pretty sure Moriyasu plans a certain rotation, can imagine Itakura in for the next one. And maybe some Nagatomo at some point.. now that he's there I want him to play. He's still better than everybody's darling, the guy that regularly crosses 5 meters above everybodies head, Junya Ito. Maeda on the left not brilliant, but actually he's the closest to Minamino there. Minamino isn't creating much either, he's a scorer, same for Maeda, no problem to keep playing him there. If not Moriyasu still has Suzuki, or one of the endless Shiogai, Machino, Goto, I fear they are all there not for the CF spot but mostly to play on the left or possibly right. Or Suzuki or Nagatomo at LWB and Nakamura up. But yes, the left side is not too strong, but who else could he call? Sato plays mostly on the right as far as I know. Could do left. Kashif, who looked like the logical successor to Nagatomo has been injured since forever, comes back, back out, at this point I fear the career might be over. Tawaratsumida injured too I think now, and might be too early for him too, but he is good... for the rest don't know, but with Mitoma and Minamino out of course that weakens that side.