Finished watching the game. Emma Hayes is simply missing creative mids in her team, without them its gonna be very hard to stay competitive among the top. Athletic prowess alone can bring a solitary success from time to tome but in the long run it will not guarantee USWNT medals like before. Imo this will be her mountian to climb - to find at least 2-3 CM's that will be able to carry US team to the semis at possible home WWC. On he other hand I hope for the sake of next team he will coach, that Futoshi Ikeda during his tenure with Nadeshiko has learned what his coaching style is missing. Don't get me wrong I think most of his tactical choices were good and few strategies worked better than anybody hoped... still he was given probably the biggest and best pool of players to chose from that Japan ever produced... and in the end he went with lots of "safe" options. No risk, no gain. Considering the preparation for, and Olympic tourney itself, my thoughts on Ikeda: In plus: Kitgawa as Endo replacement Tanaka moved into deeper role (I know she should be scoring goals upfornt in first place but her work between the lines and link up play were outstanding) not affraid to use youngsters Tanikawa, Ishikawa and most importantly Koga (I doubt Feyenoord will be able to keep her for long) In minus: calling Miyazawa (she missed a lot of the season and still isn't close to her pre-injury form) Seike as patch up player - one doesn't sacrifice player with 20 goals scored across the season for mundane job of pluging holes in the line up. Ueki - I dont get why she is still on this team. Versatile, skilled - yes... however proven completly ineffective against top teams. Japan WNT has really wide group of quality players to chose from - that alone should keep Nadeshiko in top 10 for many years to come. Unfortunatelly its also an easy way for JFA to claim "the win" and then to stay complacement (as they did in the past) not really need to push for any change.
How can a team like Brazil be in the SF and (even with some bad choices) a team like Japan is not? Football can be weird sometimes.
Very frustrating match to watch. Firstly, US team was absolutely within a reach today. They played unispiring, flat football that was easy to predict and neutralize for Nadeshiko defensive block. One unforgivable mistake by Kitagawa and Rodman's moment of brilliance cost us the match and the tournament. Secondly, this team need a prolific scorer. Fact is, Hasegawa, Fujino, Tanaka and others had easier situations than Rodman in this match. They had no defender in front of them to stumble and fall, just a clean space for a good, medium difficulty shot. I'm sorry, but if you want to win Olympic quarter-final you simply can't afford wasting those chances. We need that deadly, not necessary technically and physically exquisite scorer, woman able to send strong blast into the net in tight spaces of penalty box. I sincerely think we would've won this match with a player like Homare Sawa, Rodman or Smith up front. Don't know why Tanikawa didn't play, but she has shown signs of such player in Swedish league and against Brazil. My gloomy prediction is this is fantastic generation of creative, elegant and technically brilliant players will get no international medals until some killer instinct striker appears. My message to all youth coaches in Japan: thank you for finding and raising all those inspiring technical talents like Yui Hasegawa, now get me a strong, heavy-legged, potentially boring, potentially slow young woman that will send a strong shot on goal 50% of the time she receives the ball in penalty box. [End of rant. ]
I have not been able to watch the last two games, because I am not in Japan and just busy with work. It sounds like Nadeshiko put up a good fight. I do wonder about risking a player like Fujino who by all accounts was injured and in pain. I am not sure how much the injury affected her play, but given Nadeshiko stayed in the game for a very long time it seems like it was the right choice to pick her. Does anybody know why Tanikawa did not play? Many people on this forum have commented that Nadeshiko does not have a game-changer, but she is that player. I am not saying she should have started, but having her come off the bench late in the game would have been ideal. I assume she was injured. They still need more central midfielders and players that can run at defenders; Jun Endo is sadly missed. Football has so much counter pressing these days, teams need players that can get past a player one-on-one to break the press. On an aside note: The Spanish do work incredibly hard to get the ball back, but I do wonder if this kind of play starts to wear a team down in a competition like the Olympics. Nadeshiko got them at the start of the tournament when they were fresh. I can not imagine the Spanish can keep that level of pressing up for the entire tournament.
This is where people wish a Blue Lock project actually exists. I can't remember if I said this in the men's thread or in a Nadeshiko thread before, but I said that Japan needs to find a share of people who were raised like Zlatan and Rooney were in their respective childhoods. By that, I mean people who had it really rough of an upbringing and who are then thought to channel their energy into one thing only: hunt for the back of the net. All of those players raised in the same mould will lead Japan to nowhere unless and until we have that someone from a different mould as the tip of the spear.
You will laugh, but I have even player like Abby Wambach in mind: basically a slowly translocating statue with no other football skill than scoring. Player being living antithesis of what we love in Nadeshiko, but also breaking the mould and getting those freaking goals!
Totally agreed, when I see Nadeshiko approaching opponent I already know she will prioritize not fouling, likely go around the player and try to pick out the ball cleanly with big risk of losing the duel and letting player through. When I watch Spanish/American/German player I know she will simply disrupt the action in ANY way necessary: by interception or foul. Disagreed. There is no way in universe Homare Sawa and Aya Miyama would get dominated by anyone in any era. It just wouldn't happen.
A Japanese source is suggesting Ayaka Yamashita’s transfer to Manchester City is imminent. Man city know the taste of Beleza players and now they are addicted. Understandably https://www.sponichi.co.jp/soccer/news/2024/08/04/kiji/20240804s00002014185000c.html Maybe dominated was the wrong word. “Would have a much harder time” is more accurate.
To be honest, my expectation to win the game was down by 50% when I knew Tanikawa was not even on the bench. And when Seike left in the half time, it was more 30% down. Against strong opponent like US, the possible scorers could be Tanikawa (6), Seike (2), Fujino (1) and Tanaka Mina (1), no one else.
Had to go out to a teather play after the match, yesterday: it was a very good play and it lifted up my spirit a lot. Still bitter for the loss, though. Also, serious question: with just USA, Brazil, Germany and Spain in contention, who do you root for now, guys? Probably Spain, since they're a so good technical team (similar to some old incarnations of Japan, as someone pointed out), although they had a difficult time vs Colombia, I read. Also, they would break the spell that always prevented teams from winning back-to-back WWC and Olympics and I like that similar records are eventually beaten. I wouldn't be against Germany, who had the merit of kicking out Canada's cheaters (if these last ones had won a medal, t would have been a scandal! ), although they already won the Olympics in the past, so there would be less of a sense of novelty. But if they manage to stop the USA, they would deserve the gold even if only for that achievement! I sure don't want the USA to medal, even less than Brazil, that anyway doesn't thrill me either. I'll probably miss the semifinals anyway, since that evening I am already committed with another play (I would have probably even missed Japan if they had advanced, though I wouldn't have complained for sure for not watching the game in that case).
I totally agree with you: in my opinion, Tanikawa should have started all of the games here (except maybe the one vs Nigeria): she could have helped us a lot, especially with her accurate and powerful shots from the distance. Just out of curiosity: what do these numbers mean? An additional note that I am afraid has to be made: on paper, Yui Hasegawa should have been our top-player, but she didn't show anything special in these 4 games. I guess we can safely (and sadly) say that she choke out another big tournament.
Good point. She forced turnover at 2:1 goal vs Brazil and initiated nice Ueki-Hamano scoring combo vs Nigeria, but she is simply too good to have only one moment of brilliance per game.
Expectation rate to get goals Tanikawa - long range shots accuracy and strong confidence Seike - speed and coolness Fujino - strong shots Tanaka - instincts as a FW
I don't think being of the "thuggery" type is the only prerequisite needed. Take Son Heung-min, an Asian player with, I assume, a "normal" Asian upbringing, but one of the most prolific scorers on the planet. Would be cool if we could found a Japanese women's equivalent.
I guess they need some backup for Khiara Keating, particularly if she ends up being convicted of Class C drugs possession (she has plead not guilty and was bailed ahead of a September hearing when a date will be fixed for her trial). From Aoba Fujino’s comments, it seems her injury is more worrying than first thought (she even mentions possible surgery..). So, along with Shimizu, Man City’s two new Japanese signings are both injured before they have even played a single match
So would be 4 there? @Manchester Nadeshiko Is your forum name a prediction? Got it copyrighted? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bit of fun Right to left as we look. - Hata Miyu (Iga) - don't know but looks familiar. just cant place her. - Tsuneda Mayu (Iga) - So who is the one on the left? There's a small clue in the picture. She is a Nadeshiko League player.
Seeing how Germany is playing against USA (Germany have conceded more ball possession time and far more shots than our Nadeshiko did), the fact that Nadeshiko couldn't carry over the line against that US team is even more hurtful. Considering that Brazil and Colombia knocked out France and Spain respectively as well, I guess we will look back at this Olympic tournament and talk about a missed opportunity for a medal.
I was annoyed by the technical mistakes from our girls, but my goodness, GER - USA was hard to watch in that regard. Little fluidity, stray passes and heavy touches galore... Japan was still a lot better to watch imo, it's even more sad they could not win a medal at this Olympics.
US can't create a nice combination in attack if they life depended on it. They scored both goals in QF and SF after long balls forward and ridiculous individual mistakes of defenders. USWNT developing possessional style of play is just an eternal fairy tale. But they have two women that can run 100m in 12s and kick very strong shot on frame in 100th minute of the game. Japan and Germany don't.
My eyes were bleeding as I watched that shitshow of a semifinal. The worst is that USA will win the whole thing because France and Spain somehow blew their chances against rather weak opponents.
What the hell. Why is Spain suddenly so easy to play against? What were Nadeshiko doing in the first game LOL Could it be that you were writing from the future?
If we say Yui Hasegawa had a poor tournament, then Aitana Bonmati has been borderline embarassment there.