Phew, I could have really done without these last 10-15 minutes!!! I now go to have dinner: I'll be back to further comment.
AFC Womens Olympic Qualifier F.T....Japan 2-1 DPR Korea Edit (or as my neighbour just put it..."you beat the bad guys then")
What game guys, what a game! I feel like I lost 3 kilograms and my hair gone gray... Bravo, Olympic Nadeshiko!
They made hard work of it, but Nadeshiko are going to the Olympics. KItagawa had a nice game tonight, though Hasegawa was everywhere. It seems obvious, but playing Kumagai alongside Minami tends to work. It might be because they play like that every week. I think tonight's formation is better, but it creates problems in central midfield due to Hasegawa and Nagano sitting too deep. It gives the opposition at times - especially in transition - too much space with the ball. I think sometimes they should play somebody directly in front of Nagano and Hasegawa
This tiny lady does everything: cleans, distributes and holds the ball, controls the pace and initiates the attack. Generational talent.
if it were a 4-3-3 that would be my choice for the midfield, maybe Tanikawa in front of Hasegawa and Nagano.
Ikeda outplayed Korean coach in terms of game managment and strategy. Japan still had 3 changes at end of the game and could play another 30min of extra time if needed while Koreans were pretty much spent. It is a taste of new experince for North Korean FA - how proffesional football enviroment in which Nadeshiko play each day nullified greatest advantages of NK - athletic prowess (they'd lost the edge) and disicpline (easy to read tactical schemes). I think also lessons from the AFC Cup match against China were drawn.
I'll take a minute to appreciate Ueki: in the 6-7 minutes she was on the pitch she did everything Ikeda could have asked from her: never stopped running (of course, being fresh: but she did that with some purpose), retrieving gold-precious ball, keeping them at her feet or sweeping them to the galaxy and beyond when needed, always trying to keep Japan in the opponent's half. Her contribution in the those stressful final minutes was important, much more than Koga's (who had replaced Kitagawa at the same time she was replacing Tanaka).
I struggle to understand why Ikeda never tries it. If you want to play with a back-four, that would be a much more obvious thing to try out than messing about with Kumagai as a midfielder. Surely there are plenty of No 10s and if we can find the right player, we really can dominate the midfield and control the game longer period.
Though I do doubt Ikeda’s in game management often. It was definitely better here than it was in that semi-final.
Yes, I thought Ikeda could throw her in a bit earlier but I guess he had to consider the possibility of the extra time. One thing about her time in the WSL, I'm impressed with her hold-up play and she does well in her role in the build-play in the very physical league. On the other hand, I don't know why Seike was subbed in. It was obvious Ueno had to be substituted, but not sure Seike was the right player. I mean Seike is a bit different from other Japanese players - very direct and selfish sometimes (which can be good or bad), but I don't think she was the right player to be subbed in at that time in this match. Wasting chances with her poor decision-making while other players are around and taking the shot in the added time when everyone else trying to kill the game.
Not sure if this clip is blocked overseas. Tearful Kumagai runs in to Iwashimizu’s arms repeating “I’m so relieved” before her post match interview. ／熱い抱擁😭＼キャプテン・熊谷紗希と解説を務めた岩清水梓さんのグッと来るシーン⚽AFC女子サッカー パリ五輪最終予選🆚日本×北朝鮮📺#DAZN 見逃し配信中 pic.twitter.com/yMf9oLuvhJ— DAZN Japan (@DAZN_JPN) February 28, 2024
I am really relieved that we made it: now, with just 3 European teams at the Olympics and USWNT on an apparent downward slope, anything is actually possible. Of course I am not saying that medaling will be "easy", but, if you consider there are just 12 teams at the Olympics Games, that's already an one on four chance to medal! Jokes apart, as @pierre bezukhov correctly put it, we made a hard work of it, at first by "choosing" to meet North Korea with our pre-planned 2-0 win vs Uzbekistan and I am not sure it was a wise choice; then we maybe were too much self-confident because of that 4-1 score vs them in the previous round of the qualifier tournament. Finally we had a quite puzzling line-up in the 1st leg of this final play-off and we managed to take a goal just five minutes after scoring the 2-0 in this one. To sum up, we made things more complicated than they already were. Of course, there were also things we had no control over (North Korea's mind-games over the place and time of the 1st leg; some injured key-players as important as Hinata Miyazawa, Hikaru Naomoto and Jun Endo) and we managed to overcome those hurdles. All in all, we had a good game today (apart from the mental lapse of the goal we took) and I guess we have showed that we deserved qualifying (although we have to bow to Ayaka Yamashita's monumental save in the 1st Half ). Now, while Naomoto and Endo are obviously lost for the Olympics, does anyone know if there is a chance to see Miyazawa on the pitch in time?
She is supposed to be able to come back late march/early april. Considering Ikeda past records with Takahashi and Chiba coming back from ACL before the World Cup, I think there is good chances to have her in the squad.
Well, it seems my prayers and hopes about a better game came true, but we had to suffer till the end. At least they are qualyfied. Congratulations to Nadeshiko Japan Let's hope for a nice result in Paris.
It was such a complicated format, so I may have misunderstood, but I thought we did that because we didn’t want to meet Australia in this two-leg tie? If that was the case, it was a good decision as we would have never beaten Australia to go through in two-leg tie with the form we have been in since the World Cup. Or that was my misunderstanding and we would have met someone else?
She's more efficient as a left winger in a 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 than a left back. As a left back at Albirex, I saw her too many times being caught off guard when the ball went behind her or reacted too slowly when she had the chance to clear the ball.
Of course a 10-0 score vs Uzbekistan says nothing in particular about Australia's current form. It's true that they made 4th place at their home-held WWC, but I don't rate them so high, expecially without Kerr. In my eyes the double-header vs North Korea had many more potential pitfalls than an equivalent clash vs Australia. Of course, it's academic and no-one will ever know, but I would have felt much more confident that we could have advanced to the Olympics by battling vs Australia, than vs North Korea (even on paper, although we well know that it is warped by North Korea's long hiatus, the respective positions of the two teams in FIFA women's ranking currently are: Australia #12 and North Korea #9, so much closer to our #8). At the very least, it seems to me that it could have been the same and that, consequently, it wasn't worth bending over backwards as we did in our match vs Uzbekistan for the sake of meeting North Korea instead of Australia.
Yes, she is not comfortable at all in defensive position. Hiroshima now plays in a 3-4-2-1 with her in the left wing, imo it doesn't suit her at all. Good thing : she can come from behind in full speed. Bad thing : she has almost zero defensive capability, although she will fight to grab the ball back. That's why Watanabe, Yanase or Ogawa next to her will do the job.