Bit of an unrelated topic but what is your favourite song related to Japanese football? Currently mine is Change by Monkey Majik and Yoshida Brothers. The lyrics for this song sum up where Japanese football is right now "I need a change cause it's all gone wrong for me Somebody else to lead me now"
Maybe they're waiting until the Asian Cup, as far as I know his contract runs until 2028. At least he wasn't extended prior to the tournament.
I will look for Brazil Norway with that familiar taste of "What if Japan were in place of". Classic. Sad. But I'm really interested: if Japan had won how this match could be?
I still think it's deeply unfair that they got Brazil so early when weaker teams than them got easier opponents.
Yeah, look at Australia for example, unfortunately though that's the Asian teams all out of the competition, very sad.
All the Asian teams already being out of the competition does not make the AFC (and by extension the Asian Cup) look good at alll...
Who cares? Qatar and SK were awful in ridicolous groups. No sense to steal WC spots to CAF or CONCAF, they deserve more. JNT will improve even without the other asian countries. On the contrary when JNT dominated in Asia and won the Asian Cup then performed poor in WC. Less Zico and Zac Japan, more Okada and Moriyasu Japan. And nope, I'm not talking about the managers but the "era".
Overall, this World Cup did show that more teams participating is a bad idea. With all due respect to Jordan, Uzbekistan and Irak, they had no business being at the World Cup.
Truth but I tink they may go for more team next WC. Some teams that people laughed at before did great though. Look at Cape Verde today. What a team.
If only Japan could play with such confidence against top teams as cape verde This wc and its 48 teams so far has been a great success.
That's the problem though with that performance, it will definitely cement FIFA's desire to expand the tournament even more which would be a disaster.
Wondered if Japan got Egypt, could they have possibly won? Australia took them to penalties after all.
Kongo, Ecuador, Cap Verde (nonetheless they do a great fight against Argentina), Bosnia, Ghana would be also very beatable teams.
Honestly, Cape Verde showed how to play without fear against a top team. Playing out from the back, not afraid to take risks but being confident in their ability. The market value for the Cape Verde team and the Japan team is incomparable, so why couldn't Japan do what Cape Verde did, instead they got scared and hoofed the ball up the field any time they felt a bit of pressure and just sat there almost waiting until Brazil scored. It's really frustrating, and I hope they learn from this.
I know your point but big parts of the games Japan played very good this world cup, also against Brazil. They played a great defensive football and played it out of the back. But the last 20-30 Minutes against Sweden + the 2nd half against Brazil was the total opposite. But I said it before it was the tactics. Nobody mentioned it here but after the game Moriaysu said exactly that. He said he want to bunker the whole second half with a very deep block + after Japan concede the 1-1 his only thought was to carry that to extra time. He also said those tactical changes from a good active defense from a very passive way to deep passive defense was a big mistake and he said, he was sorry for made tactical mistakes again. But apart from that Japan played a great football. Sure it's very frustrating but it's not that it was a bad tournament but you all are right without Moriaysus failure again it would/could be going far.
🇯🇵 | Hoje, Go Oiwa é o favorito a assumir a seleção japonesa para o ciclo de 2030! Hajime Moriyasu enxerga que seu ciclo se encerrou e abriria espaço para o treinador da seleção olímpica.Oiwa começou sua carreira como treinador no Kashima Antlers, clube que dirigiu entre 2017 e… pic.twitter.com/bryctubNrZ— J.League Insider - Brasil (@JInsiderBR) July 4, 2026 Rumors are that Moriyasu perhaps rejected to continue staying, Go Oiwa currently the favourites to take over. Actually would not minded to see Toru Oniki and Go Kuroda given a shot. Go Kuroda's defensive style suits knockout tournaments a lot. Still remembered how he managed to reach extra-time in the most recent Asian Champions League Final with Machida Zelvia. Toru Oniki, nothing much to say. He won with both Kawasaki and Kashima Antlers, perhaps can be considered as 1 of the most decorated coach in J-League now.
Norway showing how ordinary this Brazil team is, they didn't park the bus, at the end they were toying with the Brazil team. Haaland obviously the difference, and Japan - man for man a better team than Norway, is crying out for an elite superstar like this who can make the difference in close matches with individual brilliance. They need their football version of Ohtani.
Utterly impressed by Norway. They showed zero respect and did not give a f*ck their opponent were called Brazil. To be fair, I think having a giant Viking terrifying the opponent's defence must have helped a lot, hehe.