I didn't like Higashi much today to be honest, while Otsu really surprised me during this tournament. I had never followed him much and thought that the very few playing time he enjoyed at BoMo would have affected his performance, while he had a good tourney overall.
I think the best player that this U23 can give to the JNT is Nagai. Obviously not the last injured one but the one we have seen press, push, run and simply threaten the opponent defenses with his mere presence. Another "rough diamond" could be Otsu (he clearly showed some interesting skills and he's playing already in Europe). And I'm hoping that Yoshida, thanks to this olympic experience, will find some new club where to improves too.
About Otsu, He went missing several moments during the olympics, however he was the only one that could take a challenge and not crumble under the pressure... his movements off the ball were also important, not to mention the 3 goals. we´re all used to notice only the "talented" players but to me, Otsu was something that made all that system work. (yes yes... not only him..but all of them could´ve done better, but yet again, they are still developting)
Always being on the right spot, always finding space, 90 minute stamina, great pace and vision, craftiness and bold playing, extremely comfortable with the ball, knows how to put them in!!! Being basically unstoppable.
Otsu is nowhere the complete player he can be, maybe when he gets more opportunities at BM. But I've been really impressed by him (Even in the qualifiers), he's been the only consistent scorer for the team. I thought Usami was gonna be the x-factor player, but Otsu looks like he's able to produce moments of magic as well.
He deserves a team where he can play cuz the guy HAS the skill to impress. A lot too. Hope to see another score by him in the bronze final.
Can't believe this threads been up since 2008. sucks to end things on such a sour note but after the obligatory day of mourning, I'm not displeased at all with how this tournament went for us. We sent in a young amateurish squad with little initial ambition of going far and ended up playing the maximum six games. Let's remember that our abysmal 2008 Olympic squad basically became our present day NT that's capable of butting heads with the best. Based on our youngsters' performance and the prospects for our current NT, I'm really really excited about our future. Let's do this!!
I really hope we will see the final product of this olympic adventure as soon as possible, maybe in the incoming CC2013 and WV2014!
This has been good. The players got 6 games international experience under their belt and certainly didn't disgrace themselves. That experience spent on guys like Yamaguchi and Higashi is much more worthwhile than having Hasebe & Honda being called up as OA players and getting a medal. Definitely more worthwhile giving experience to Otsu than having Kagawa there. Yoshida being captain has been good for him. Suzuki stepped up mostly. You only have to see the example of how much Shinji Okazaki exploded after the Beijing games to understand that we will probably have a few surprises as to who pushes on from here (cause Okazaki sucked in Beijing).
I think the U-23 Olympic squad was always meant to give up-and-coming players the international experience to help them in the future, the next step forward. I can certainly understand why Yoshida was called in. among all the senior position, Japan have many great experienced and talented players except for the Center-back, mainly Yoshida. he seems like a weak link, just read all their 2011 and 2012 senior matches, CB been a weak spot and Yoshida was critized many times. But this tournament sure seem some wonderful improvements from Yoshida. Both men U-23 and women's played the maximum 6 matches and though it didn't work out the way we'd hope, they'll sure gain some wondrous experience in London 2012.
You can't even rate Usami or Saito becuase they weren't given adequate chances. Poor coaching/selection/player rotation was the main reason for the teams demise. That being said what a bright future Japan has.
Hard to say that about Usami when he's been very poor every time he came on. Saito is another matter.
Giving him a run at the 85' mark in the game was asking quite a lot. It takes a special player to automatically pick up the flow of the game.
he wasn't any better, feels like nobody including me really likes him anyway, but he doesn't diseappear the way Usami does. Remember his performance vs Mexico before the tournament, that was just aw-ful. We can't afford to play with 10 men. The problem was more about Higashi being the viable option ...
http://www.youtube.com/olympic If anyone cares: All matches (as well as in fact all sports competition by all countries) can be watched here in full and in 1080p.