There were a couple of times where they should have reached the quarter-finals, most notably in 2010 with that infamous Komano penalty.
Japan 2-0 Belgium was the biggest chance. Especially since they took that lead in the 2nd half. After the Croatia debacle, I'll never feel comfortable with PKs.
Belgium was always going to be a much bigger pill to swallow than Paraguay, even after leading 2-0 for 75 minutes.
It is harder to find a GK who excels in penalties shootout rather than players who are good at scoring penalties imo. If Japan had Livakovic/Martinez, etc. there is a chance they might have progresses on QFs on 2022 WC.
Was he the GK for the 2010 PK Shootout against Paraguay? I feel that the All Japan High School Tournament 2023 has at least 1 or 2 GKs that might have potential though. The tournament had quite a lotnof penalties.
Penalties in regular time and Penalties shootout are of slightly different nature imo, but get what you mean. GK of Tsukuba University (Ryusei Sato) which knocked out Machida Zelvia in PKs seems decent as well.
That wasn't the problem at the last World Cup against Croatia, the problem was that every single penalty kick looked exactly the same and was easy to save, it's like they didn't practice penalties at all. Gonda, on the other hand, had an excellent tournament.
In the first 2 matches he was atrocius conceding a pk to Germany and sleeping (with the defence) while Costa Rica had its only shoot..In the third match vs Spain he did nothing special. Against Croatia he sleep again (with the whole defence again) on Perisic head butt. In 2010 Eiji was decisive against Camerun with a vital save that give us 3 points and did nothing bad against Netherlands and Denmark (nearly saving Tomasson's inexistent pk). Eiji was just an unexpected Okada's discovery just a couple of weeks before the trip to South Africa. In all the other WCs JNT had mediocre GKs.except 1998 Kawaguchi. Anyway JNT need to score more, in pks and not, gk is just an addon.
Gonda was atrocious conceeding the penalty but he made up for it by making several tough and crucial saves during that Germany game, I strongly encourage you to go watch the highlights of that game again. Against Costa Rica, Morita was at fault for losing the ball carelessly which led to the goal. Against Spain, Gonda had a very good save late in the second half. Against Croatia, he saved a very good shot from Modric in the second half which many keepers would have let in. Nothing against Kawashima but Sneijder's goal in that Netherlands game at the 2010 World Cup was 1000% his fault so you can't say he did nothing bad and he could have done better on that penalty against Denmark.
??? He literally saved it, what else could have he done? He's by fair the best PK stopper Japan ever had... (see asian cup vs south korea, or friendly vs england)
He could have saved it better to avoid the rebound. And while yes he's the best PK stopper Japan ever had, he still has had his clumsy moments over the years.
Look at 3:05, he parries the ball right in front of him after saving basically inviting Tomasson to score.
I was a keeper myself, I know how hard it is and I think Kawashima could have done better on that one but that's besides the point.
Kawashima is a good GK with his moments up and down. But hes something like a legend. Love him. So much heart and passion. Never forget when Oliver Kahn at the WC 2010 said, that Kawashima reminds him of his younger himself cause he acts crazy and furious and that you need that as a good GK.
Yes!! I forgot that, Kawashima was kind of non japanese with that kind of stuff, what a temprament. Pissed off. I loved that.
He's a great keeper, I never questioned that. Of course I would choose him over Gonda, Suzuki or Kawaguchi any given day. My point was rather that Gonda was very good at the last World Cup for the most part.