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2014 FIFA World Cup |OT| Spa1n v The Netherland5

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K

KidA Seven

Member
Dapperk said:
Haha no. Maybe against the lower ranked teams in qualifying, but against top tier teams they always get destroyed in possession.

Japan basically scores goals off the odd counter attack, and set pieces. They are great in set pieces.
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Japan's style of play is based on possession. That does not mean other teams don't out possess them. When other teams that are just as technically gifted as Japan and are better teams, they will naturally have more possession. A midfield consisting of Hasebe, Endo, and newly integrated Yamaguchi isn't that strong of a midfield pair. Certainly not compared to the midfield pairs in the international game.

The fact remains that they play a possession based game. The high defensive line and the fullbacks being so high up are a strong component in their system.

Against Ivory Coast, they only had 42% possession. That's the lowest amount since the Brazil match in the Confederations Cup. They had more possession than Uruguay, Italy, and split with Mexico. They had less possession against the Netherlands and Belgium. Van Gaal also employs a possession based system so it's no surprise the Netherlands had more. Actually looking at the stats mean it's pretty split between win/loss on possession.

Japan get their goals off counters when they're up against a better team, but most of their goals are based on intricate 1-2s around the box heavily involving Kagawa and Honda.
 
K

KidA Seven

Member
Jubern said:
I was disappointed by Japan's game but absolutely not surprised, it was totally on par with what I was expecting after watching them on a constant basis for the last few years.

It boils down to a few, fairly clair-cut problems if you ask me:
- They can't defend for their life. Central defense has been abyssmal all year and the positionning on counters left me wondering more than once what the fuck they were doing;
- Honda and especially Kagawa are very hit-and-miss. The latter was transparent today, not to say complete shit. Honda was good, but it's far from always being the case;
- They never do shit with the ball. They struggle to build decent plays and miss simple passes all the time;
- The team has a whole really seems to have a morale problem. They will ALWAYS drop the ball in a major way at some point;
- Kawashima just isn't good enough anymore. The problem is that I'm not sure there's any JP goalie fundamently better than him and he's a big presence for the team.

I wanted to believe and tried hard to convince people this group was totally doable for Japan despite my growing concerns. Today's game put a serious dent in that belief...
I'll keep supporting them until the end though.
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There are too many flaws in the team. You nailed a lot of them. Japan need to start producing CBs, strikers, and midfielders (not #10s like Kagawa and Honda). Japan's fullbacks and attacking midfielders are the only positions at a level that's required for the international stage. Japan has had to deal with Havenaar and Maeda as the strikers until the last year. Kakitani, Kudo, and Osako are a step in the right direction, but none of them have played in a top European league. Osako will get experience in the Bundesliga next season, and Kudo will definitely remain in the J League. Not sure when Kakitani is going to Europe as there have been rumors of him being offered by some Italian and German teams, but I think he'll remain in Japan until next year.

Even if they do get a taste of European football, that doesn't mean it will solve anything as they will have to excel in Europe to get regular playing time. A competent striker will take away a lot of the pressure Okazaki, Kagawa, and Honda have.

Japan as a team also do not have great attackers that will dribble at players. Kagawa doesn't do that anymore ever since he left Cerezo. The only one that does is Manabu Saito, but he's not at a level that can bench any of the attackers. There is hope in that department though. Minamino and Usami are both young and extremely talented. Usami is the more technically brilliant player, but Minamino is the more physical player and is more of a winger than Usami. Japan needs these players when their passing game isn't creating anything.
 
J

Jubern

Member
B-Dubs said:
Every team is bound to have a year or two like this. The Italians couldn't make it out of the group last time, now they're looking pretty good. You guys may not be so hot this time around, but it's nothing you can't fix by 2018.
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I think the problem is deeper. The team fared fairly well over the last four years and the players, while rarely amazing, are really not too bad. I think it's more of a maturity problem that's really hard to overcome, especially with the INSANE pressure they are put under here. There are so much ads, campaigns and features that you think this is actually an accomplished team with a shot at winning. It's hard for people like Honda and Kagawa to grow in a healthy way when the media keeps talking about them like they are worldwide superstars.
 
Y

Yurt

il capo silenzioso
BqJI1XSCIAAm-vi.jpg:large


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BqJPE5tCYAA4NRl.jpg:large


0kYzKmO.png
 
B

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
Jubern said:
I think the problem is deeper. The team fared fairly well over the last four years and the players, while rarely amazing, are really not too bad. I think it's more of a maturity problem that's really hard to overcome, especially with the INSANE pressure they are put under here. There are so much ads, campaigns and features that you think this is actually an accomplished team with a shot at winning. It's hard for people like Honda and Kagawa to grow in a healthy way when the media keeps talking about them like they are worldwide superstars.
Click to expand...

Ahh, they're getting Freddy Adu-ed. That sucks pretty hard for you guys. Maturity will hopefully come with time and the space to grow properly.
 
R

Randy Monk

Member
Any predictions?

Group E Switzerland v Ecuador = Draw

Group E France v Honduras = Frenchies

Group F Argentina v Bosnia-Herzegovina = Argies
 
L

LNBL

Member
The Chosen One said:
Who's watched every game so far this WC?

I have, but I think I'm going to tap out for tomorrow's Swiss v. Ecuador game. I'm getting a severe lack of sleep and I'm falling behind on work. I'll still watch the Argentina and France games later that day. And I'll DVR the Swiss v. Ecuador game in case it turns out interesting.
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Me!

Hope ill play well in an hour despite only sleeping for 4 hours haha.
 
I

Ikon

Member
I'm going to miss all of today's games due to travel but I get a feeling there won't be any upsets: Switzerland, France and Argentina got this.
 
S

spekkeh

Banned
Bam Bam Baklava said:
The fact that people are even discussing the US moving on is ridiculous. It should not be uttered it's so insane.
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People said the same of Costa Rica and to a lesser extent the Netherlands. USA is a decent team, and Portugal has a spotty defense, or who knows Germany could have an off day. As Portugal and Germany are pretty equal, you might end up with a situation where it's going to be tied for two.
 
C

Cindres

Vied for a tag related to cocks, so here it is.
Myoclonic Jerk said:
What's the best android app to get the schedule of the games?
Click to expand...

Maybe not quote the same but I just added this ical feed to my google calendar:
webcal://www.drewdez.com/world_cup.ics

(Go to calendar on the web, click the down arrow next to "Other Calendars", Add By URL)
 
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