FIFA U-17 World Cup Brazil 2019[emoji769] Vs Netherlands First Stage - Group D, Estádio Kléber Andrade, VITORIA (CARIACICA) 27 Oct 2019 - 20:00 Local time Vs USA First Stage - Group D, Estádio Kléber Andrade, VITORIA (CARIACICA) 30 Oct 2019 - 20:00 Local time Vs Senegal First Stage - Group D, Estádio Kléber Andrade, VITORIA (CARIACICA) 02 Nov 2019 - 20:00 Local time
Japan’s starting line-up against Netherlands: GK 1 Z. SUZUKI. DF: 2 K. SUZUKI, 3 HANDA, 4 S. NAKANO, 5 HATA. MF: 6 FUJITA, 7 MITO, 8 NARUOKA, 17 TANAKA. FW: 9 WAKATSUKI, 10 NISHIKAWA. Surprised to see Toyama benched, let’s hope it is for rotation reason and he is not injured.
HT: Japan 1-0 Netherlands. (Wakatsuki ‘36). Japan is dominating the Netherlands, who are the European champions. The result could be much higher if Japan did not waste many of their chances.
Is it me or does Nishikawa strike others also as a bit lazy off the ball. Like he'll just lose the ball and then jog around while the Dutch side slowly pass it around the back. F**king chase it!
Yes. That is why I think Kageyama did a big mistake by starting him as a striker against South Korea in the U-20 WC instead of Taichi Hara.
I watched the 2nd half and it looked like Netherlands were going to equalize as they have more possession and were attacking more before Wakatsuki's 2nd goal. Otoh, I think Naruoka seem to have some potential. He managed to intercept a pass between Netherlands's players. Jun Nishikawa seems to have a few bad touches in the game and fumbled a few chances.
Oh Man! Japan fielding not the best eleven totally destroyed the European Champions fielding Ajax best talented youngsters but you guys complain as it was a bad match.. Anyway Japan failed to score too much as always. A 4 - 0 w/o the VAR pk would have been a fair result. MVP Wakatsuki (2 goals) and Nishikawa (2 assists, 1 pk) Zion Suzuki did nothing till the 89th minute when he did a pretty good save + he has a nice long pass with both feet and hands. I value him quite good.
Don't forget about Handa Riku, his ball control is one of the best that I've ever seen for that age. I also really love the fact that he comes from a small prefecture (Yamagata), it's amazing how the japanese youth football system allows that. Other players in this team that were not born in one of Japan's main prefectures are Wakatsuki (Gunma), Shinya Nakano (Saga), Keita Nakano (Shiga), Tanaka (Nagano), Mito (Yamaguchi), Mitsuda (Mie) and Brandon (Okinawa).
Riku Handa seems to be able to tackle decently as well. He gave the ball away at times but overall his performance was pretty good imo. Anyway, lets hope that Japan can go past the RO16. Japan seems to be stopping at the RO16 or maybe the QFs for the past few youth tournaments despite playing well e.g the U-20 WC this year where they lost despite playing better than Korea imo. Hopefully they can try to reach the QFs or even SFs in this tournament.
I'm glad that Wakatsuki joined Bellmare. One of the better teams for young players to join even if they get relegated.
He seems to lack a little composure when in goal-scoring positions and take slightly longer than needed to shoot due to his first touch but he reads the game pretty decently imo, his 2 assists today showed it. If he can play with his back to goal and improve on his first touch, he will be valuable for the JNT in the future.
He wasted 2-3 chances with only the goalkeeper to beat in the first-half due to his intension of dribbling past the goalkeeper instead of shooting directly. The result was 0-0 then. Imagine what could have been happened if Netherlands scored first and gained momentum? I guess it will be a total different game, even if Japan managed to win, it would be by just 1-goal margin. His attitude needs to be disciplined. No need to do Messi-esque stuffs time after time, he needs to play more straight-forward.
the raw talent is there. i’m aware it’s one of the stronger schools in the country but he’s still playing high school football. professional environment next season will (hopefully) make him ruthless in finishing.
shonan’s recruitment has been excellent. wakatsuki and his team mate hata taiga joining established guys like saito mitsuki, suzuki toichi, sugioka daiki.
What could have been happened if.. Yes, nice try. But it never happened. They never scored. Instead Netherlands shoot only 2 times on the net in the whole match deserving 0. Nishikawa did what an high school dude gifted by the gods of football do. If he doesn't do it now, he will never do it at all. He's a teen, who assisted 2 and scored 1 vs European Champions, please leave him alone ;D
His style is totally fine, as you said if he delivers assists and goals, the misses will be forgiven, but I'm worried he might be too slow and too awkward physically to really shine with the pros.