world cup

Japan played too slow and lacked ideas, says coach

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11 Comments
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They need to learn from the English

LOL, that made me laugh. Talk about overrating you team every time.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Well let's be honest, Japan are out. They are done. Size, weather, not being able to "play their kind of soccer"... take your choice of excuses but there will be some given out after they get thumped - and they will. Never will they say "We need to work on our skills, our speed and stop thinking on player can save the team..." Honda, for whatever reason, will stay the Golden Boy - seriously, WHY???? He isn't any better than Kagawa - Zac's contract won't be renewed and soccer fans here will moan and groan about size, height, weather... So much for Honda's "we can win" comment but anyone with a brain laughed at that when he said it anyway. I love this team but I am so fed up with the media and public building them up to unrealistic expectations and then being shocked when they fail. They need to learn from the English - support your team, hope for the best but know in the end, it will all end in tears. And Rooney not being able to deliver! ;)

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tmarie! I agree completely with you, the coach should be the first one to go.

In the preliminaries, when we had a "relaxed" coach (he left everything to the team) and we were in danger of not going to the world cup, the National association for Professional Football fired the coach and got Sampaoli, and that's the best decision it was! He put discipline and strategy plus tactical thinking in the team, as a result, we can play so united even with the divas in our team

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I guess Cyprus wasn't a good enough test for Japan. But we should have seen this coming when they only managed 1 goal against that team...

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Papi: My apologies. I reread your original post and you did not clearly state, as I said you did, Japan should win because South Korea did. I was trying to post this apology for some time but cannot post one comment after another. I still disagree with you on the height thing being a reason why Japan is outmatched, but I still owe you an apology for misreading your comment and assuming you meant something else. So there it is. My bad.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Too slow and lacked ideas. Yep sounds like japan

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Papi: "I just knew things were not going to go the way it was expected, as soon as Japan became over confident that they will beat Greece, just because South Korea beat Greece twice in the last four years - in their smug belief that they were better. "

Ummm... Papi, hate to remind you, but you clearly stated Japan should be able to beat Greece because South Korea did. So you were part of the problem, and the smugness, and excuses. I'm just surprised you didn't mention height differential as an excuse this time. If Japan lacked the speed, or "didn't do what was planned", it's because Greece kept them from it... at least the achieving the plan part.

Can we reach a consensus as to what the excuses are going to be before the game against Columbia on Wednesday? Can't we just sit back and say, "The Japan team is not as good as the hype, and not as good as some of the other teams, and don't deserve to progress?" Hurts a bit, but all the excuses and denial just make people upset.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

This quote could be the ideal comment on all of Japanese society. Zacheronni won't last and like many foriegn workers here he can see through the fog... the only difference is he's rich and can leave anytime - happily I may add.

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I just knew things were not going to go the way it was expected, as soon as Japan became over confident that they will beat Greece, just because South Korea beat Greece twice in the last four years - in their smug belief that they were better. All those meaningless wins in the pre-matches to the cup, brainwashed the nation into believing that they were a big world soccer power which was supposedly good enough to go all the way to quarter final. Ridiculously over rated, and the huge bubble finally burst when it really counted. Thus the huge disappointment when it didn't go as planned.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

The Asian champions were missing their usual pace when moving the ball up the wings and lacked ideas near goal during the Group C match, he added.

And whose fault is that? IC ran them all over the pitch so it isn't like Japan has ever been known for its speed.

I said it earlu this week that if they think just passing the ball to Honda would win them a match, they're wrong. I was right and Zac needs to go - and Honda needs to be shifted over and Kagawa and Kakitani need more opportunties.

And Okubo needs to be taken off with his dives and drama.

Size doesn't mean much if you have speed and skill. Japan lacks both so will use size as an excuse.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Well, exactly why Uchida kept trying to cross into the box to heads whilst the short Japanese forwards were easily covered by the much larger Greeks was well beyond me.

Shoulda kept it on the deck.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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