I'm away from home, can't watch the match, and Vietnam takes the lead. I know this match is meaningless but still. At least, end your campaign on a high note.
Pass the ball to Mitoma and keep praying magic will happen. Otherwise Kubo is showing he's just a "luxury" player if he keeps being wasteful with every attacking opportunity. Shibasaki needs to be put out of his misery...
Him and Kawashima are already guaranteed a ticket to Qatar regardless of the next six months. Nothing to see here.
Honestly, that's ridiculous. Kawashima is 39 years on and he's no Edwin van der Sar. Why do we even bother with him?
Nice instinctive play by Yoshida to move up the pitch and jump on the rebound. However, that was a goalkeeping howler. 1-1.
Because Kawashima has been in excellent form this season, Tani/Schmidt have been sitting on the bench and we need his experience for the very inexperienced CB pairing.
That was embarrassing of a miss by Yoshida. Worth throwing an entire cart of drinks to the ground in disgruntlement.
FT 1-1 Disappointing result but to be fair, Japan had the upper hand most of the match, they've created plenty of chances but the ball just didn't want to go in. Vietnam, on the other hand, 1 shot = 1 goal.
They really need to get rid of Moriyasu ASAP. He's not exactly starved of quality players in J-League and Europe.
despite this draw, there is still a chance that japan will go into pot 2? If Senegal and Portugal do not qualify, there would normally be a chance...
Kawashima should be your last problem about the squad. He is a good mentor for the team and still plays in Ligue 1 , not often but when he does he is excellent. So...
In my opinion, Moriyasu should have played this game to the hilt because there was still a chance to be in pot 2.
Japan's match against Vietnam today was a clear manifestation of the following notion: Japan CANNOT go to the World Cup without Yuto Nagatomo and Yuya Osako.
Well, for me it's more: Japan SHOULD NOT go to the World Cup with Moriyasu. He's back to pattern 1. Starters-reserves. Like in the first round of qualifying. What an idiocy, while I actually didn't mind this starting formation per se, that's not how you integrate players...Keep Morita, (add Haraguchi+Hatate. Something like this. Not sense doing this starters play one game, reserves the other idiocy over and over. Moronyasu will probably redo it in the next friendlies. Fire him already. Thanks, good job, you showed us Asano and Sasaki (Kitazawa and Genta Miura too, but fortunately got over them after a while), now time for somebody who knows what he's doing.
What is the common thing for all the matches that Japan dropped points at the 3rd round? Shibasaki started. (As a Vietnamese, thanks Moriyasu)
no. with the draw, and Iran beating Lebanon, Iran goes back ahead of Japan in the rankings. if all of Portugal, Sweden and Senegal fail to qualify, Iran will move to pot 2 but not Japan.
Shibasaki was class when he moved to La Liga, remember his incredible goal vs Barca. But after that injuries and sinking form end is carrier. For me Shibasaki is by far one of the worst players in history for JNT in this form. He plays in La Liga 2,common, impossible to put him in Japans Squad. And even there he is medicore.
JFA really need to set up some good friendlies leading in. Wiki page claims Japan are playing the US in May. Is this true?