Sorry, but I simply cant comprehend how you could possibly criticise the defensive skills of Soma and Narahashi in one breath, and then go on to suggest Alex as a possible side back. Alex has absolutely no defensive abilities whatsoever, and that was one of the main reasons why he got benched at S-Pulse for several matches after the world cup. Anyway, all of these names are meaningless (except maybe Araiba). None of them have a prayer of being on the NT in 2006. Instead, it is time to start talking about players like Tanaka H., Ishikawa N., Hirakawa and Komano. Based on the comments you guys have been making in this thread, it sounds like you havent watched any J.League matches since 2001. I cant think of any other defensive players in the league who have looked as impressive as the four I just mentioned. The only one who even comes close is Narahashi, and as I just mentioned, he is too old to consider as a player for 2002. If we go back to the original issue on the thread, nobody who has watched J.League matches in 2002 could possibly view Narazaki or Kawaguchi as a candidate for NT keeper in 2006. Sogahata, Kurokawa, Fujigaya and Tsuzuki are the only ones who can be considered candidates based on their recent performance. Do you guys watch J.League at all? or only NT matches?
I was under the impression that the question was about who is Japan's best keeper is right now, as in August/September of 2002. If the question is 'who should be in consideration for the job in 2006,' then the answer is probably contained within those candidates you mentioned (most likely Sogahata). Methinks the skewing from "best current keeper" to "Japan's keeper for 2006" is what's behind the static.
Sogahata has been Japan's best keeper since the start of this year. Kawaguchi is out of shape and would not even have been named to the WC squad if not for "nostalgia" reasons. Narazaki may be in better shape, but based on his recent performances in the J.League, Id say there are at least 3 or 4 others who are better than him. Almost all of the soccer magazines in Japan blamed him for the first goal in Japan vs Belgium, and he probably was partly to blame for the Turkey goal as well. Based not on just my own opinion, but on all of the commentary in soccer-related magazines following the world cup, it is virtually unanimous that Sogahata should have been Japan's top keeper.
Fair enough. I'm one of those people who believes the first goal against Belgium was keeper error - bad positioning more than anything else. I'm not as sure about the goal against Turkey, but that's up for debate. ----------- Another thing from your previous post, as per people watching J-League. Keep in mind that there are those who can only watch NT matches (if that) and have to rely on text accounts for any domestic league action.
That is understandable. I know that people living overseas have a hard time keeping up with J.League, especially now that J-Ole has closed down. I try to provide information through the RSN, but obviously there is a big difference between reading a match report and being able to see the action for yourself. The point I was trying to make, which should be fairly apparent based on what happened in 2002, is that Japan's players are getting better at a very rapid rate. The kids coming into the league right now have experienced a lot more intensive training and development from an early age than any of the veteran players, and they can only get better over the next four years. Honestly, apart from Ono, Nakata K. and <i>possibly</i> Inamoto, Ogasawara or Takahara, I doubt that any of the 2002 team members will still be on the NT in 2006. People who are still talking about someone like Nakanishi -- who I admit was a good player six or eight years ago but today wouldnt even crack the top 20 among J.League defenders -- needs to stop living in the past and start following the young players who have just come into the league. Those are the people who will be the stars of our team in 2006. I suppose the best thing to do is show an example of what I mean, so that people get the idea. TODAY, First team . . . . . Takahara . . . . Yanagisawa . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ono . . . . . . . Nakata K. . . . . . . . . . Inamoto . . . . . . . . . . Miyamoto Araiba . Matsuda . Tsuboi . Fukunishi . . . . . . . . . . Sogahata TODAY, Second team . . . . . Alex . . . .Kubo/Matsui . . . . . . . . Nakamura Nakata H. . . . . . . . . Yamada N./Ishikawa . . . . . . . . . . Toda Hirakawa . Moniwa . Matsuda . Narahashi/TanakaH. . . . . . . . . . Tsuzuki/Narazaki 2006, First Team . . . . Takahara?. . . Tanaka T./Katagiri . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ono . . . Nakata K. . . . . . . . Okubo . . . . . . . . Nemoto/Morisaki Kaz. Hirakawa . Moniwa . Tomizawa . TanakaH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sogahata 2006, Second Team . . Toda M./Nakayama S. . Katagiri/TanakaT. . . . . . . . . . . . Nakamura?/Ogasawara Motoyama?/Matsui . . . . . . . . Ishikawa/Inamoto . . . . . . . . . Morisaki Kaz./Nemoto Yamauchi Y. Matsuda . . Ikeuchi . . Komano There are several other players who might make it onto the team in 2006, but it will all depend on how they develop over the next few years. The point is, though, that the younger players are already almost as good as the veterans (if you can call people like Inamoto and Ichikawa "veterans"), and they will probably continue to get better, whereas players like Alex, Nakata H. and Yanagisawa have already reached or passed their peak.
Calm down, cowboy. I do watch J.League games as well as NT/club youth/school games. Just like mine, your view is also subjective. Please do not assume we don't watch J.League games just because my view is diffrent from yours. Anyhow, the position of SB is given many tasks, and significance of each tasks will never be the same from one team to the other because a coach has his own ideas and it is also influenced by the other players surrounding him at SB. You could put one defensive SB one side, and you could put Alex on the other side to take more offensive roles etc. Back on the topic of this thread...I don't give much credit to Shimizu's Kurokawa. While Sanada was sidelined for months with injury/disease, he made a number of fetal mistakes especially in catching in the games he started. He has some good stuff. IMO, Fujigaya is better in U-21. Besides, I forgot to include Kobe's Kakegawa in my list in addition to Kawaguchi, Tsuzuki and Sogahata. He's the most underrated GK in J.League.
My point was simply that you said first that you consider Soma and Narahashi too weak as defenders to play wing back. Then your next paragraph said Alex should play wing back. That makes no sense at all, since even if your subjective opinion thinks that Narahashi or Soma are not that strong on defence, you would have to be deaf dumb and blind to think that Alex is a better defender than those two. If you suggested playing Alex as a pure wing (ie, midfield) position, that is a different question. But a wing back needs to be able to defend. And Santos is not able to do that. Even his own coach and teammates think so. By the way, if you want to get an idea of Zico's thinking, read his interview in the Nikkan Sports today. One of his comments was that "a wing back needs to be able to defend. If they can help on attack too, that is very useful, but if they are not able to play defence, there is no point."