Mitoma came close again! That guy does his best on his own, but his teammates are letting him down. edit: This absolute shitfest is over. Plenty of people at the JFA need to look at themselves in the mirror after both disastrous results in football.
Good match guys. I have nothing but respect for Japan, and they are my go to team in neutral matches. I really think that the difference today just came down to fitness, as you guys had to play one extra match of extra time. Plus Ochoa. You guys have a great team, and I hope we can face each other again in Qatar.
Personally I don't care about the bronze that much, so this game just magnify what we all know about this team. The players had their moments, both good or bad. The managers are the ones who must take all the blames after all. As you guys knew me from my country and what I posted for the last 4~5 years, you can say the direction that Japan took to prepare for this Olympic was quite surprising, or bizarre, for a Asian fan like me. They used teams for under aged against Asian teams like us, or even in Copa. They called various players and experienced them in various positions and formations. The results in those matches were mediocre at best. After a long time dominated by JNT, we found our Asian teams starting to have decent chances against them, which for us is a surprise. Some may argue that they had a plan, they would blossom at the Olympics. I don't know if the 4th place is an acceptable result for them or not, but for me there was no "blossom" here. JNT teams from both junior and senior teams are slowly turning from possession attacking teams to defensive counter attacking teams. I'm not against the style, but the result is mediocre. In defense they are not solid enough, in attack they are not fast or direct or critical enough. There are countless attractive counter attack teams in the world, but surely JNT teams are not, at least now. After a long time I find myself watching JNT teams as tiring and boring. Also, the way they give priority to players that fit the age group of this Olympics may damages the chance of various players who deserve the calls to the senior teams, or the ones in other underage team but don't have the fit ages (anti mode on: Doan was called to senior team countless times for last 4 years, really?). I mean, there a chance this Olympic campaign may hurt the development of other team, especially the senior team.
They were clueless when chasing a goal, the 2 goals from corners should have been avoidable. Uninspiring performance, should have played Mitoma earlier. Japan need to buck up, if not it will be ugly for next year's WC.
Not sure what game some of you guys saw, must not have been the same one I saw.... Nothing to do with not trying, simply this time Mexico scored first. And then added the second not that much later. And like Mexico had problems coming back into the game after that, this time it happened to Japan, being up 2-0 helps.Same game, other way around this time. Basically this Japan and Mexico were pretty much equal, just the 2 games went differently. Nothing to do with trying and caring. The game... Doan, generally thought his Olympics were ok, but maybe it's because I have 0 expectations of the guy anymore. He just isn't all that he was made out to be before the WC in Russia when everybody wanted him in the team for that. Here in general I thought he did well enough, he can hold the ball, that's his main strength really. Passing, vision, generally creation he's nothing special. But did ok in the Olympics.Today he was invisible, he's the guy that should have gone out at half time. Or first change in the second half. Kubo actually had a good game. He's never going to be the Japanese Messi, but he's not Usami v.2 either, something in between finally. Soma as somebody wrote a while ago, a bit of a one trick pony, yep. Good at that, but will only bring you so far. Mitoma excellent today, ok, coming in vs tired players helped for sure, but he had 4 great actions in the 30' or so he had. Too bad he started injured and wasn't even on the bench for Spain. Hayashi never offside today, incredible. Actually he is one guy that if he develops a bit could become useful for the senior side. More onside mostly, better scoring, but otherwise liked of what I saw. Nakamura for all the praise he's received here, today Lainez was all over him really. Endo, yep, the foul, the guy he was on scored the second one, but otherwise he still was there. IMO without him this team would have looked much worse, even if today certainly wasn't his best day defensively. Generally think the team was pretty much on the same level as London 2012. Good defensively, today 3 goals, otherwise the defence was there. Of course Yoshida-Sakai-Endo helped a lot there (with Tomiyasu missing half the games Yoshida there finally made sense, still think he's hopelessly overrated and if Tomiyasu-Itakura are fit they should be able to hold it together) Offensively London was rather better, Kiyotake was better than anybody in 21 (Mitoma's 30 minutes today of course brilliant, but it's 30 minutes) And Yamaguchi 12 was outstanding, he had good passing, good everything, both offensively and defensively, too bad he never developed into the player I was sure he would at the time.
Overall OK of course. 9 points in a tough group. 4-0 against France made me really think they could go all the way. But I think the loss against Spain in the last minute killed them. Frustrating as always it is, missed chances, no strikers, one more creative midfielder would be nice. In all nothing is really new here. And about a player like Doan, yeah he did not deliver 100 %. But being overrated and a bad player. Come on. You already forgot about his season in Bundesliga?
No, can't forget what I don't know, don't follow the Bundesliga From what I've seen of him in the last 3 years in the NT, Doan simply isn't all that good IMO, maybe my expectations were to high, after hearing from everybody how good he was ahead of the WC 18 and how he should be called up right away. He's an ok player, but really not more. At this level, Olympics, U24 I thought he was decent enough, overall good Olympics. IMO much better than what he has shown for the senior side most of the time .Today though he was a complete waste. His worst game of the tournament by far. One bad game doesn't make his Olympics a failure, but for his senior side career he's been underwhelming for 3 years now... Anyway, the goal here for Japan was Gold, minimal goal a medal, didn't work out. Game against Spain can go a different way too, that's football. They weren't dominated in any game. The most disappointing one maybe NZL they have to crack that team somehow before the PKs. So despite failing to get that medal I'm not going to call this a failure, Just a bit here and there going differently and it's good.
Don't care that much about Bronze tbh, on one hand disappointed that Japan didn't go to the final but on the other hand, happy that Japan lost so that Moriyasu and staff know that their current tactics/formations are limited so that they will know which areas to improve on before the WC next year. Japan should always be proactive in searching for alternatives/options when their current plan don't work out, if not they will always be unable to break through when they're searching for a goal. They should also work on not conceding a penalty or from set pieces so easily as well.
Tbh, I’m very disappointed with this loss. A chance to medal, sure it’s only the bronze, but still a medal, on home soil. After the group stage they were tournament favorites, rightly or not, along with Brazil. Disappointing too for the players that they played all these games to empty seats. Whether or not it would have affected the result, competing for a medal in front of a packed house of supporters is a once in a lifetime kind of thing. I recently watched the Gold Cup final, USA vs Mexico, and was reminded how much the crowd can inspire players to push themselves when their stamina is running low. Mexico lost even though the vast majority of the rabid crowd in Vegas were supporting them, but my point is that this Japanese Olympic run would have been played differently with supporters, win or lose.
I have a theory, but I don't know how correct it might be. I bet someone at Brighton and USG asked to limit his playing time to have him at his best once the Olympics were over. Otherwise, I can not explain it.
In fact, I think we have a different problem about Doan: there's a huge distance about his club and national performances. It's not a bad player: it's just not there once he has to wear the JNT jersey. I'd bring him in every 23 players-team for Qatar, but maybe it's time to think about him as a super-sub and prioritize someone else.
That's a shame. I would have loved for someone like Hidetoshi Nakata or Makoto Hasebe to give a sharp hot take in the media (be it going live on TV or an OP-ED in a major newspaper) like your Roy Keanes, your Lothar Matthaüses, your Gary Nevilles, and others do. Nothing is better than stirring up a few things to move the needle because we would then see who is man enough to answer the bell and who is not.
At this rate, nothing will change and we'll keep seeing the same mistakes being repeated. They desperately need some sort of a revolution.
Haven't seen the mexico game yet, will do soon. Not really surprised with the result though. I'm reading from your posts that there are concerns about the players attitude maybe, which yes would be a different issue. But these reactions seem a little exaggerated to me, Mexico has historically been a better team than Japan at this age group. And if you look at statistics, a team beaten in the group stage often defeats the other one if they meet again. There's all that extra motivation which does have an impact. It's also why you see the crazy stuff like Barca - PSG 6-1, that happens only because there is a precedent. Japan got 4th with a close match against Spain, I think it's a good result. I do blame Moriyasu for not playing Mitoma more, however. That costed, ultimately.
Alternative options are not feasible when you regard some players as untouchable. I still admire Phillipe Troussier for dropping Hiroshi Nanami just one year before the WC, as he noticed that having a creative defensive/central midfielder is not working against top oppositions. Hence, he used two more physical and defensive-oriented CMs/DMs and it worked. Moreover, Troussier had the courage to bench Hidetoshi Nakata in some matches when he was underperforming, which worked as well, as Nakata became more motivated to deliver and fix his shortcomings. In the Tokyo Olympics case, having Kubo and Doan as starters regardless of their form and performances was the achilles heel in this tournament.
I think the reason is his lack of chemistry with both Kubo and Doan when playing together. Soma and Hatate proved to have better chemistry with both Doan and Kubo, while Miysohi and Mitoma did not. As both Soma and Hatate are willing to play as helpers for both Doan and Kubo, who both set and direct the offensive effort of the team. While Mitoma, and Miyosh to a lesser extent, could not. Playing with 3 players very dribbling-oriented behind the striker don't work, one of them at least has to sacrifice at times. This is what Soma and Hatate did, and this is why they both were ahead of Mitoma in the pecking order. Why Mitoma played well against Mexico compared to his other cameos in the Olympics? Because the others pass the ball to him in a good positions instead of taking the chance by themselves. For example, Mitoma's goal came after a pass from Kubo. I am confident if Kubo find himself in a similar situation earlier in the tournament he would not pass the ball to Mitoma. However, as this match was dead, and Kubo seemed frustrated of the amount of chances he wasted instead of passing to a teammate, he might just thought of passing the ball out of desperation, and it worked.
It's understandable and everyone can agree with the starting lineup. But the substitution should be better. Instead they took a rather extreme step: subs out both Kubo and Doan in the extra time. So they turned from 1 extreme side (too many possession on the right side between those 2) to another one (bypass possession and play hoof ball to the CF)
One thing I notice in both this team and the senior team: it seems Japan football obsesses with the idea of playing 2 box-to-box CMs (which they call volatile, isn't it) and 1 AM behind the CF. Is it how they play for the last 10 years? In my opinion it only works if the AM is an exceptional talent who can keep the ball and dictate the play. In reality recent Japanese players in this position rather play like a second striker, their strong points are quick movement to exploit the space around the penalty area to score (Minamino, or even Kagawa in his heyday at Dortmund). So the formation looks like 442 at time, and it puts high burden on the 2 CMs, they have to handle both the attacks and defenses in the middle fields against 3 CMS of the popular 433 formation. Also in this formation, the main CF always prioritizes his play to feed the AM/SS, not to score. It works against lesser teams, but against teams like Spain who has excellent midfielders or teams with high pressing ability, these 2 CMs are pushed too deep behind, as the result it leaves a huge gaps between defense line and front line. If the CF's post play isn't effective against top physical DF, it depends on the winger/side attacker as the only method to push forward. I think if they have the courage to drop the AM or one of the winger, and put a pure DM in, they should have a better shape against top teams. I vocally asked for quality passes from the midfield to the CF, and I'm pretty sure guys like Aoyama, Endo are capable of that if they are encourage to push higher. Heck, even Shibasaki would look better with quality passes and finishes when he is allowed to play closer to the front line.
Endo is a fairly conventional defensive midfielder (#6, or "anchor", holding player, etc.). What they could have considered is playing 4-3-3 to enhance the positional play and counterpressing while giving the likes of Ao Tanaka more license to go forward. You could say the 4-2-3-1 was chosen in part to cram both Doan and Kubo into the lineup, but the former played occasionally in an attacking CM role at Bielefeld as well. This team had a lot of talent but was structurally too dependent on individual brilliance to withstand 2 consecutive extra time matches. You can blame Moriyasu to a certain extent for tactical & lineup choices, but Tanaka put it best when he reflected that Japan has great quality in 1v1 situations, but are increasingly inferior to Mexico and Spain in 2v2, 3v3...11v11 contexts. Tactical intelligence and decision making are the next area for development, and related to this is the problem to bring coaches up to the level of the Japanese players.