3 goals for Japan! Beaten but signs of encouragement

May 30th, 2010 | by: Aidan |

WA0197-001

Well that was an interesting match certainly. Japan led for the majority of the match against England only to lose out thanks to two own goals falling to a 2-1 defeat.

Tulio Japan took the lead after only 7 minutes thanks to a low corner cut back from Yasuhito Endo to Marcus Tulio Tanaka who had lost his marker Glenn Johnson. Tulio fired home first time through the crowd on the goal line.

I hope we haven’t revealed a nice trick too early with this corner – I can imagine opponents placing a defender in an area to block such a cross in the World Cup. But it worked a treat today.

After that Japan mostly contained England in the first half with some good pressing and pressuring the man in possession. At times that meant doubling up on players to hassle and rush them. In particular Theo Walcott struggled to cope with such close pressing, and Wayne Rooney was being forced deeper and deeper to look for the ball. A very encouraging aspect of the match.

One the few occasions that England sliced through the defence in the first half they couldn’t take advantage, Eiji Kawashima saving well, but that serves as a warning that concentration can’t be dropped at this level of the game.

Half-time saw a raft of changes from England but none from Japan initially. England certainly pushed on more and upped their tempo, which was good to see as it provided a tougher and different test to Japan’s defence.

England’s chance to get back in came when Keisuke Honda decided to extend the height of the wall defending a free-kick by raising his arm high to stop the ball. Bit silly that one Keisuke! But Frank Lampard’s penalty was well saved by Eiji Kawashima diving low to his right, and the follow up was well cleared by Yuji Nakazawa.

Frank-Lampard-penalty-sav-006

4653390626_a107bd1b11_b Kawashima then made another great save from a curling Rooney shot.

By then Takayuki Morimoto had replaced Shinji Okazaki and had tested the goalie with a good effort almost straight away.

England’s goals were both fairly similar – good quick crosses into dangerous areas with the centre-backs in the awkward position of having to do something about it.

Unfortunately for Japan on both occasions the attempted block only sent the ball flying past Kawashima, first from Tulio and then from Nakazawa.

TulioOG

nakazawa

So while this was a defeat there were lots of positives for Japan to take from this performance. The first half was all about Japan stopping England from settling and good pressing as a team. While England upped their game after the break, Japan still looked decent and can be considered unlucky to have lost this one.

As for the players, Eiji Kawashima has surely made a case for being the first choice keeper with some fine saves, not just from the penalty.

Rooney The defence looked far better with Tulio and Nakazawa paired together again (own goals excepted!) and Yuto Nagatomo looked good and was key in nullifying Theo Walcott.

In the midfield, Yuki Abe put in a decent shift protecting the back four and Yasuhito Endo made more of a contribution than he has of late, but for me Yoshito Okubo was the stand out in midfield with good energy going forward and a lot of work helping defensively too, and his replacement Daisuke Matsui also did well. Captain Makoto Hasebe had a solid performance also.

Keisuke Honda had some good shots but needs to influence the match more. Up front while Shinji Okazaki showed good strength at times and made Terry and Ferdinand work hard in the first half for me he doesn’t carry the same threat that Takayuki Morimoto does at the moment.

In his 25 minutes on the pitch Morimoto put in two good attempts on goal, his first in particular saw him lose Ashley Cole to find the space to threaten. Has he done enough to earn a starting place? I think he possibly has.

The difference is that Okazaki keeps the defenders more occupied and gives them more to think about I feel, but Morimoto provides more of a goal threat. Chances are that both will be used at various stages so it’s good that they pose slightly different threats.

Another thing to note is that England changed their formation a couple of times during the match, and this actually served as a good workout for Japan as they had to face a variety of styles of attack coming their way.

All in all the Japanese players will be frustrated at having lost, especially with the way England’s goals went in, but this has been a huge step forward after the last few games and the overall negativity surrounding the squad.

Many positives can be taken from this performance and a few observers from Holland, Cameroon and Denmark may have been a little surprised at how well Japan played.

Japan World Cup Team Blog RSS Feed

hp

Just hope that doesn't scar them when the cup approaches.
Toyoda_plain

GREAT GOAL FOR JAPAN!!! FINALLY.
BUT — THE GAME RECONFIRMED OUR FEARS: THAT IS, JAPAN HAS NO OFFENSE. IT TOOK A DEFENSIVE CENTERBACK TO HUFF AND PUFF ALL THE WAY FOR A CORNER TO SLIDE A CORNER. HONDA, ENDO, OKAZAKI, MORIMOTO, TAMDA, OKUBO, HASEBE – - I MEAN WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR THEM TO MOVE EFFECTIVELY AND SCORE????

ANOTHER PROBLEM IS THAT THE PLAYERS WERE TOO EASILY TACKLED OFF THE BALL. INCLUDING MORIMOTO AND HONDA. THERE IS A BIG BIG GAP IN TACKLING, POSSESSION SKILLS AND PHYSICALITY.

LASTLY, AS ALWAYS, THE LAST 20-30 MINUTES JAPAN TENDS TO SELF-IMPLODE. WHAT KIND OF DEFENSE GIVES UP 2 OWN GOALS IN LESS THAN 10 MINUTES AT THIS LEVEL? JAPANS TENDS TO CRUMBLE UNDER PRESSURE. AND ENGLAND WAS PLAYING KINDA SOFT TODAY. IMAGINE THE DUTCH INVADNG THE BACKLINE MUCH MORE FREQUENTLY. IT COULD BE A DIFFERENT STORY.

AND, THE DEFENSE REALLY STILL HAS VARIOUS COVERING AND VISION PROBLEMS. THE GOALKEEPER WAS OKAY TODAY, BUT CAN HE REPEAT THIS PERFORMANCE AGAIN A MORE DOMINANT DUTCH OR SIMILAR TEAM WITH A LOT OF ACCURATE SHOTS?

I NOTICED THAT JAPAN , WITHOUT SHINSUKE NAKAMURA, HAS A LITTLE MORE TEMPO, ALBEIT STILL USELESS.
http://adidas-skycomic.jp/ H_e_l_l_o

Geh. All my “comments” contained links and now need moderator approval lol.

I wonder what Capello said during his yelling match with Okada.
http://adidas-skycomic.jp/ H_e_l_l_o

Can you not post in all caps. So not reading that.
hp

jeez killjoy, give them credit for trying to work hard together.
http://adidas-skycomic.jp/ H_e_l_l_o

As for England getting that PK wonderfully saved by Kawashima I couldn't help but think at the time “geez isn't this a bad omen for England if a WC game was to be decided on penalties …. AGAIN!” lol
Toyoda_plain

THe PK: Does Honda know it is a no-no to blatantly use the hands? It may make wonders if your keeper save a PK (which rarely happens), but if I am not wrong, you can be carded too and this could work against your team's plans. It was kind of amateurish he did that, at this level.
hp

They made a few defensive errors, ok, but it's a friendly. Eventually they will try learn from their mistakes. It was a better performance compared to their previous games. We shouldn't expect them to do wonders especially when they've been lacklustre in a few games previously. Time will tell, they had more confidence today, but I do agree with you, they need to work more on endurance in the last minutes of games.
http://japan.worldcupblog.org/ Aidan

Moderator approved! Crikey – hadn't realised I'd need to be approving stuff…us bloggers need to up our game for the World Cup too!
http://japan.worldcupblog.org/ Aidan

Don't go there! The thought of an England penalty shoot out terrifies me!
http://adidas-skycomic.jp/ H_e_l_l_o

Thanks Aidan for the approvals! Though they're just pictures I thought be interesting. Which you're free to use of course :p
http://japan.worldcupblog.org/ Aidan

You make some good points – there is still a lot to improve on, but compared to other recent displays this was a step forward. I share your concerns and hopefully more is to come, but I think today an overall positive step for Japan.
hp

I love it when coaches have a go at each other. I haven't seen Okada spit the dummy before.
hp

Man, he's almost looking like an Asian version of Jesus.
http://japan.worldcupblog.org/ Aidan

The review on the England blog site is here…
http://england.worldcupblog.org/world-cup-2010/...
http://sevilla.theoffside.com/ SevillaOffside_Joshua

I think Japan, as usual, lacks an effective striker. I also think their midfielders are relied on too much for to be both scorers and defenders. Honda had a better game without Nakamura on the pitch. I don't think those two play well together (much like Nakamura and Nakata in 2006). Tulio was the hero of the first half, and then the opposite in the second. However, I feel his presence on the field had Japan looking better defensively (i.e. they were closing in on the ball which they failed to do against Korea).

I thought the chemistry of the team was better over all, and Kawashima was great in goal. We will see where Okada goes from here, but I have little hope for Japan to move out of the group stage without some better striking performances, and some improvement on defense at the end of the game.
http://sevilla.theoffside.com/ SevillaOffside_Joshua

Totally agree on Honda, it was amateurish at best. Seemed pretty intentional and could have resulted in a yellow, or if the ref really wanted, a straight red.
http://japan.worldcupblog.org/ Aidan

The strikers are a concern and Japan rely a lot on the midfield (or Tulio and Nakazawa when it's at the right end) to provide a goal threat. I was encouraged by Morimoto today though.

Lots more work to be done but definite signs of improvement.
http://adidas-skycomic.jp/ H_e_l_l_o

Last one XD

Got to love the contrast in emotions between Kawashima and the boy at the back. (This was immediately after the PK save for those wondering)

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4039/4653390626_...
http://adidas-skycomic.jp/ H_e_l_l_o

Thanks!
http://japan.worldcupblog.org/ Aidan

Love it, that's a great photo – I may well steal it and put it in the main article
hp

LOL @ the boy! Reminds me of Edvard Munch masterpiece “The Scream” xD agh man this has made my day happier…sorry guys for mass spam, I'm currently amped up on caffeine and had wayyyy to much sugar yesterday night (AEST).
http://adidas-skycomic.jp/ H_e_l_l_o

Okazaki really really really should have converted that chance he had when he shook off Ferdinand. Instead he sorta tries volleys/lobs it over the crossbar.
http://japan.worldcupblog.org/ Aidan

Would certainly have been a yellow card in the World Cup. The refs generally aren't fussy with the cards in these matches but it is a reminder that players need to be avoiding stupid things like this. Imagine if he got a second yellow for something like this in a World Cup match?
http://adidas-skycomic.jp/ H_e_l_l_o

“”"I hope we haven’t revealed a nice trick too early with this corner – I can imagine opponents placing a defender in an area to block such a cross in the World Cup.”"”

Totally agree. Goes against the secret cunning plan they'd been perfecting up until now. http://japan.worldcupblog.org/world-cup-2010/is...
Tony

if compared with Zico's era, I think this team is lack of beautiful play for midfield. I didn't see any good passing play from Endo Honda or Hasebe. I think Endo performace was dropped if compared to 2007-2009 period. And I believe that Inamoto can do better than Hasebe. Moreover, Japan's defender still have 2-3 times space for opponent to pass the ball through defend line. Anyway, I hope Okada can adjust a little bit and choose the best tactic to fight with Cameroon for 1st match! GO GO Samurai Blue
http://japan.worldcupblog.org/ Aidan

Post updated with lots of pretty pictures – some shamelessly stolen from Hello's posts!
http://sevilla.theoffside.com/ SevillaOffside_Joshua

The Netherlands blog is also analyzing this game on their thread about the Jubilani ball. They seem pretty worried by what they saw in the Japanese team today, especially with Kawashima's performance in goal.
http://sevilla.theoffside.com/ SevillaOffside_Joshua

I agree with your comment about the lack of beautiful play in the midfield, but remember what Zico had to work with in the midfield. He had a younger Shinsuke Nakamura (arguably in his prime), Hidetoshi Nakata in that same midfield, and Alex (while a defender, often played up on offensive runs). So, couple that with what Zico knows about playing the beautiful game, and you get a very appealing playing style.
DavidAW

I think this performance today was far more promising.
Kawashima should be starting. Nakazawa and Tulio I think played very well, until the own-goals, of course; I have more faith in them as a central defensive pairing now than before today's game. Nagatomo was great. Konno was not bad at right back–I think he is better defensively than Uchida, but overall Uchida is probably more affective. I think Endo, Hasebe, and Honda all looked good today, and are pretty certain starters. They seem to be the easiest to criticize, since they are the stars (minus Shunsuke), but they were pretty solid honestly against a top level team. Honda nearly scored with an excellent strike. Abe impressed me too, he was calm and hardworking with pretty neat distribution. Perhaps Hasebe and Abe play better together than Hasebe and Inamoto? I think it's a toss up to start between Inamoto and Abe now.
Aidan, I know you were impressed with Okubo, and I was too with his efforts and constant energy, but I still am not satisfied with his offensive production overall, especially his passing. Often he charges forwards and to the touch line with his head down, whereas Matsui seems to know where his options are, while looking for the final pass, so I would prefer Matsui (or, more likely, Shunsuke). I would like to see Kengo get some minutes off the bench, he is a dynamic player.

As for strikers, Morimoto indeed looked more dangerous than Okazaki. Okazaki is hard working and pressures the defense well, which is important especially since Japan plays with only one striker, but I agree with Aidan: lately Morimoto looks the more confident at creating real goal-scoring chances. I really would like to see them try both up top at the same time for at least portions of the games against Cameroon and Denmark, taking out one of the 5 midfielders, and playing a 4-4-2.
DavidAW

At least there are more high profile coaches making, and have made, worse player selections than Okada, by the way: Cambiasso not making the Argentina squad??? He was one of the best players in the Champions League, this season. J. Zanetti was left out too. And Emile Heskey? Obviously shouldn't have made the 30 man preliminary, and still unbelievably might make the final 23. Absurd. Proven for the upteenth time today with his bad miss at the end of the game–besides the own-goals, Japan's worst moment of defense on the day.

On a side note, how did Korea Republic lose to Belarus?
http://sevilla.theoffside.com/ SevillaOffside_Joshua

I saw that result as well David. Not sure on how that happened. Certainly Korea always plays Japan tough, with the history between the two nations, and I thought they should have beat Belarus.
http://adidas-skycomic.jp/ H_e_l_l_o

Speaking of which how did the “conflicts of interest” play out during the game?
http://adidas-skycomic.jp/ H_e_l_l_o

Player ratings

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4019/4654268531_...
http://adidas-skycomic.jp/ H_e_l_l_o

It was kinda of strange seeing Hasebe as Captain with Nakazawa on the field. Though Hasebe did well as Captain.
toyoda_plain

HP: Tulio – Asian Jesus. LOL. I like it. Could he be the savior for Japan? I honestly doubt it, because Japan cannot rely all the time on him to score, as that would mean they dont have a team. He is good at defense at times, but more than not he is slower and unable to contain the likes of Eto, Rooney, Van Persie, Bendther, Messi, Torres, Villa, etc. I believe. Though he is the best defender for Japan so far.
Also, though I am cautiously not that optimistic, the media is even more negative. Below is from Goal.Com (which Asian team likely to succeed, with Japan ranked behind Australia and South Korea). However, I dont think Japan has such low confidence that it is easily broken, but my point is that they tend to self implode and this doesn't help their cause. The article points out that in six games against mediocre teams (except Korea and England), Japan could only score two goals, and both not from their offensive players. This is a big big problem and handicap.

Another interesting point is that a JFA official recently said something like Japan in 2006 had decent pre-WC games against Germany etc., but during the tournament they self imploded. So if Japan plays below average now, does that mean they would perform better during the tournament? Obviously, this is just an anecdotal remark by the official, but I wonder… (of course the team really NEEDS a win now to boost a bit of morale as they can't keep going like this, losing and losing to your own goals too!)..

Finally, I really have no idea how Okada is going to bolster the defense AND ALSO reshape and get the offense to move and score, because Japan is very slow against big teams in build up, fast break, counters, and midfield play, not to mention a useless bunch of strikers who can't aim, shoot, see their own positioning relative to the goal, etc. Against Korea and England (and the other lesser teams), Japan's upfront players seem more and more lost… even with Honda and Hasebe and Endo (boy this guy sucks more and more each game) and Nakamura and Matsui.. and when not lost, they get easily shoved off the ball, killing any momentum or ideas….

I belive the useless midfield passing should be replaced with a faster quick passing system to wingers and strikers who (unfortunately) always fail to finish..
either way, Japan has a lot of issues.

————

Group – Another hard one. The Netherlands are fancied to do well. Cameroon can cause problems for the Samurai Blue defence and Denmark are solid at the back.

Pros – Japan have some solid European experience in their team. Makoto Hasebe has won the German title with Wolfsburg and played in the UEFA Champions League. Shunsuke Nakamura and Keisuke Honda, who enjoyed a stellar season in the Netherlands and then Russia, have too. A threat from set pieces and usually keep the ball well. Low expectations may help.

Cons – Can’t score at the moment, well, not in the right goal anyway. In nine games in 2010 (seven at home) Japan have scored ten goals. Not terrible but not great as eight of those came against Yemen, Hong Kong and Bahrain. Six games against South Korea (twice), China, Venezuela, Serbia and England yielded just two –neither of which came from the strikers. Despite an improved performance against England, confidence is fragile, coach Takeshi Okada is under fire and the situation does not look good.

Chances – Not good. A huge turnaround is needed. Defeat against Cameroon, though Japan usually play well against African teams, would almost certainly end any chances.
hp

AHAHA, I didn't mean it like that, he just looks like an Asian version of Jesus, with that beard and long hair, but I think every team has their own version of Jesus, Australia does (Josh Kennedy).
hp

^As in appearance, not saviour like qualities…
http://japan.worldcupblog.org/ Aidan

haha, Well I was quite happy when Japan scored, since I assumed England would score several anyway, but then they didn't so I was getting a bit concerned. I was pleased Japan still lead at half time as I think they deserved to, but as the game went on I was getting a touch worried for England.

As it turned out it was quite positive for Japan, and I found myself rather pleased about that – normally I never care for the opposition at all so it was a bit weird.

Not sure how I'd handle it if they ever did have to play each other in a competitive match!
http://japan.worldcupblog.org/ Aidan

I agree that Matsui is the better player, but it's encouraging to see the Okubo can perform quite well at this level should he be called on during the World Cup – he's gone up in my estimations certainly although it was just one game.
toyoda_plain

Fellow readers: what do you guys think about Morimoto? I worry he is kind of inexperienced. He has a quick turn, acceleration, but can't seem to be consistent i.e. can't look/aim and shoot or finish with a high degree of consistency. I mean he is in no way like Rooney or Eto or Van Persie or Robben etc. His acceleration tends to burn out at the last moment with defenders blocking or shoving him off the ball or stripping the ball way and he seems lost at these moments…
I am asking because I am losing faith in Okazaki and the idiot Okubo (the whole match he was whining to the referee!) and the wimpy Tamada…
For god's sake, why couldn't they bring Maeda? or Tanaka maybe?
crabmilk

Yeah, I would definitely like to see Morimoto given more time against Ivory Coast.

I'm not sure about Morimoto being inexperienced: in Italy, he's been playing against some of the best defenders in the world. He is not Rooney of course and has lots of room to improve, but him and/or Okazaki seem to be our only options.

I'm starting to think that Okubo might not be completely useless after all. He worked hard and protected his flank, unlike Matsui who replaced him.

Do you guys think that Shunsuke will be dropped? If so, I would have major respect for Okada. He is not afraid to drop high profile players when necessary (Kazu back in 1998, Takahara and Kawaguchi more recently).
Yharaguchi2686

imo, okazaki plays too much “japanese style football.” as we all know, Japan has always been plagued with a lack of cutting edge, but i dont believe that its for a lack of talent, rather its the lack of goal-scoring mentality. our possession minded game always causes an unnecessary pass whenever we have the ball in the attacking third, and the defense gets extra time to reorganize against us. with our pace, and okazakis in general, we should have far more opportunities on counters, but we always look for possession before shooting and it seriously cripples our chances.

that being said, morimoto and honda are different. when they have the ball, they look to shoot before the pass, and if Okada would only give mori a real chance, i think we could see great things from those two.

but i also like your idea of okazaki linking up with morimoto. let mori score the goals, let okazaki set them up