Correct, I think it's the last game. Good header by Hosoya to get the win. They were a bit underwhelming in the second half but in the first half clearly the better side
So is this tournament a "tournament"? Or is it just a bunch of teams playing friendlies against each other? No ceremonies, nothing? Pretty weird tourney if you ask me. Anyway, what matters the most is that JNT u-21 got the experience and exposure they need since the supposed u-21 continental and WC competitions got cancelled thanks to COVID.
+ they had 2 matches against two of their potential rivals for the Paris Olympic Games ticket (Saudi Arabia and Qatar).
U-21 Japan National Team squad - AFC U23 Asian Cup Uzbekistan 2022™ (6/1-19) Squad GK KOKUBO Leobrian (SL Benfica/Portugal) SASAKI Masato (Kashiwa Reysol) SUZUKI Zion (Urawa Red Diamonds) DF UCHINO Takashi (Fortuna Dusseldorf/Germany) NISHIO Ryuya (Cerezo Osaka) KATO Hijiri (V-Varen Nagasaki)* BABA Seiya (Tokyo Verdy) HANDA Riku (Montedio Yamagata) HATA Taiga (Shonan Bellmare) SUZUKI Kaito (Tochigi SC) CHASE Anrie (VfB Stuttgart/Germany) MF MATSUOKA Daiki (Shimizu S-Pulse) SAITO Koki (Lommel SK/Belgium) ODA Yutaro (Vissel Kobe) YAMAMOTO Rihito (Tokyo Verdy) FUJITA Joel Chima (Yokohama F. Marinos)* MITO Shunsuke (Albirex Niigata) MATSUKI Kuryu (FC Tokyo) FW FUJIO Shota (Tokushima Vortis)* HOSOYA Mao (Kashiwa Reysol) SUZUKI Yuito (Shimizu S-Pulse)
Defense is a bit shaky, but from midfield up... there's a lot of quality. Furthermore, Oiwa is coaching this time, so I'm confident.
Oiwa coaching the team should be a reason to NOT be confident, though. At least considering his stint at Kashima...
vs UAE (right-left) Z.Suzuki Uchino - K.Suzuki - Anrie - Kato Matsuoka - Fujita Yamada - Y.Suzuki - Saito Hosoya Something like this, or Suzuki as second striker 4-4-2 Wingers and mf could be swapped
Arrived in time from work to watch this. Really poor first half display. Didn't create anything going forward. Cheisu was chaotic with his defending. Matsuoka as deep lying playmaker but was almost invisible and almost gave the ball away cheaply under pressure from an UAE player. The team seems to not be very focused today. Poor selection from Oiwa...Not seeing how they can win this today
As expected Cheisu's defending proved costly. He's a ticking bomb at the back. I don't understand why Oiwa started him.
Gifted win after all. Poor penalty from UAE and Suzuki was there. What a bullet header from Hosoya! I think he is the type of striker that senior team is searching for years. Not in the game at all, but have a chance and scores. Should be in contention for the senior team after the WC.
Full time 2-1 for Japan. A lot of luck because UAE wasted a PK, but there we go. Access to Knockout stage is locked. I don't think Chase was bad... The hand was unlucky, though he and Suzuki sucked hard on UAE's goal. But most of the time, Chase was first on the ball.
I disagree. His positioning was bad as well, but is part of the learning curve..still very young though. He may be a good player in the future who knows. We'll see. Was an important win because Saudi can be a dangerous team
Unfortunately I missed it too, though I saw the result. The situation is not so bright unfortunately. Japan needs to hope that Saudi Arabia draws or loses against UAE, or does not beat UAE by a better goal difference than Japan did. If SA beats UAE 2-1 for example, Japan needs to score 6 goals against tajikistan to top the group
A few interesting results so far in the tournament, this can only be good for the AFC as a whole to have more competitive countries outside of the big four of five teams. Winning group D most likely gives us an "easier" route on paper against Thailand (and avoiding South Korea) and then playing the winner of Australia/Turkmenistan (and avoiding the hosts Uzbekistan). Decent showing by a very young group of players.
Well, that's on the coach. I get the turnover, but you know that if KSA wins you'll have to play Korea immediately. Stupid. The wingers in this team suck, btw.
LOL Korea again. Hopefully Oiwa will use the best players for this game rather than continuing the rotation per usual. Either it has been 2 games in a row where Japan collected a red card, hopefully they don't repeat this in the Knockout games.
They missed alot of chances as well hopefully, they can capitalize on it as well. Backline and GK were also pretty good today, think there was an instance where Seiya Baba (if remembered correctly) blocked 2 shots at goal consecutively. Anrie Chase were composed on the ball as well. Yuito Suzuki is good with his back to goal, he can consider moving to Sint Truiden, etc. Hosoya was decent as well.
Luckily this wasn't a tennis game because could have been costly. Korea almost equalized, but Yamamoto block was great. Japan should have closed the match before the break. Cheisu learnt from his mistakes and didn't rush in tackle like against UAE. Good performance from him. Hosoya has that poacher instinct although missed that open goal when Fujio put the ball on the plate for him. Not the best generation of Korea and the former Cerezo player Hwang with some questionable selection leaving Shimizu player Oh Se-hun on the bench as well as Cho...