world cup

Zaccheroni plans radical rethink of Japan's strategy

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Zac should have had plan B, C, D and E ready when everyone figured out the "pass the ball to Honda" plan. They were a mess on Sunday and deserved to lose. I love the team but they need to sort it out if they atually want to win a game.

And what's this crap from Hasebe with "We didn't get to play out game". Poor losers. Loved him but not anymore.

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I think Japan would do better if they'd take more shots farther outside the box.

Aside from Honda, I never expect anyone on the J-side to take a long shot and neither do the opposing teams.

Defenses often just back up and crowd around the goal knowing that Japan will dribble/pass and set up for a medium range shot on goal. There's no outside threat.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Defenses often just back up and crowd around the goal knowing that Japan will dribble/pass and set up for a medium range shot on goal. There's no outside threat.

You sound like you are commenting on a Japan vs Bahrain match or something. Japan scored on one of their only attacks and had a point-blank shot on another attack yesterday. Other than that, they simply gave up the ball way too early to think about shooting. Ivory coast are a good team but Japan's attacking play was shockingly bad. Even Honda gave the ball away easily after his goal.

And what's this crap from Hasebe with "We didn't get to play out game". Poor losers. Loved him but not anymore.

Didn't know he said that. Ivory Coast did waste a lot of time and the ref didn't add on enough time for their time-wasting but Japan seemed to lack the desire/energy to play anyway, so 1 more minute wouldn't have made the difference. If Hasebe himself, however had been able to play the full 90 minutes, perhaps they could've defended better though. Zac put on Endo to try to get their attack going but the fact was it was hopeless because the whole team was misplacing passes. I'm sure he regrets that now and if he could do it again would put on a defensive-minded player to try to close out the game instead (Hosogai would be a good option if her were on the squad...)

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If you have to radically rethink your strategy after one game, there's something wrong with the original strategy. Its not good to blame the players, maybe he's already thinking damage control for himself career-wise. Zaccheroni reminds me of how Capello screwed up England in the last world cup.

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they were out shot 21-7. of course they lost

0 ( +1 / -1 )

they were out shot 21-7. of course they lost

That statistic doesn't mean too much. Most of Ivory Coast's shots weren't too dangerous until they brought on Drogba and Japan's marking got screwed up. Even so the 2nd goal should have been saved by a keeper at that level (that's not to say Ivory Coast wouldn't have scored again though).

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That statistic doesn't mean too much.

Actually, it does. Of course, there are exceptions when a team loses despite having more shots, but I think you'll find that teams that outshoot their opponents by a 3:1 ratio generally win. I've been watching the Japan national team play for over 20 painful years now, and this is a common theme. I doesn't matter how well you play, if you don't shoot, (basically) you can't win.

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Possession means nothing unless you turn it into goals like Italy did against England. Japan can pass it around nicely, we all know that, but as others have said they don't shoot enough and don't get enough crosses into the box.

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Isn´t it a bit late to think of a winning strategy now? I thought that was what he was doing for the last 4 years.

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therougou, saw it this morning on TV. Came off as a winge.

And sorry but the stats DO mean something. IC took chances and went for it. Japan, as always, seems to pass the ball around until they get the perfect shot and well, very few of those go in.

Maya was useless and was lucky he didn't get another card. Honda's passing was horrible the second half and Endo... Lord, I was surprised he made the team. Time to give Kagawa, Kakitani and a few others the ball rather than always pass to Honda. Reminds me of when it was "pass to Nakata" only. Didn't win then, won't win now unless they stop thinking they only have one person who can score.

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All these comments make me think like Japan it just starting to get soccer (sorry, fútbol), but I agree that talking of a radical change in strategy is problem of the coach. not the team. what worries me is that when you have friendly matches before the WC, that's the place where you think strategies, not only when you play with these teams, but also when you see the teams in your group playing in friendly matches, here, is kinda common that we watch a lot of soccer, so we have opportunity to watch other countries. In paid TV you can watch europe league, it is not so much because of the countries, but mostly for our LatinAmerican players over there or watching the coaches strategy.. (like Pellegrini, who won with Manchester City)

I hope it is for the best, I'd like for Japan to at least classify for the 2nd round

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@Bogi, Asakura Cowboy, and tmarie:

All of you are talking about Japan holding possession without shooting, but I guess none of you actually bothered to watch this particular game. The problem was they were too bad to even do their usual passing game. Zac tried to improve that with Endo but it didn't help, and ended up confusing them on defense. I really doubt there will be radical changes, but he has to do something to get them going again.

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