japan in the olympics

japan became the 11th team to qualify for the olympics with a 0-0 draw in tokyo against saudi arabia.

a lacklustre 35 minutes was followed by a very good last 10 minutes. and almost total domination of the second half. basically, japan woke up to show that they can play football.

the last 5 minutes was crap, because they tried to waste time, and it almost backfired when saudi was on the attack for the last 1.5 minutes and the first 1 minute 20 seconds or so of the 2 minutes of injury time.

it could so easily have gone all wrong. one saudi goal, and japan would have been out of the olympics. japan should have killed the game with the number of chances they had. it was disappointing to see them stop trying to score as the clock ran down. a draw was enough, but you probably need only 5 seconds to score a goal, so i don't really think time wasting is a good tactic. and moreover, japan was controlling the game and looked more likely to score, so why not?

they started time wasting too early. and when they got that free kick in a good crossing position, rather than continue to waste time, they should have tried to put the ball in. the corner as well. at those moments, it was still too early to waste time. i tink you should only start to run down the clock with 1 minute of normal time remaining. even 2 minutes of play is too much.

but other than this, i must say that japan outclassed saudi. the only problem was of course, the lack of killer instinct and winning mentality, a problem which has plagued every japanese team since god knows when.

basically, mizuno and honda are centre mids, so there was a lack of width in the first half. i was thinking then, if sorimachi had wanted to change things, he could bring off okazaki, who din do anything, push kashiwagi up, and bring on a true winger, or someone with a lot of pace. but in the second half, okazaki started providing the width, and honda and mizuno stayed wide, used their skills to cut into the middle, so everything was ok. but even then, in the 75th minute or so, i thought okazaki should still have been brought off to freshen things up, even though he had improved alot. tactical change. but japan made no substitutions.

hosogai was very impressive. almost everywhere, almost like a 5th midfielder. whenever japan have the ball, he pushes up, so it becomes three at the back. lee is strong, relatively fast, and has good control. okazaki played well in the 2nd half, but i think not well enough to warrant a place in the first eleven. that is why i think if there isn't anyone else, then kashiwagi should play upfront and let either mizuno or honda come into the centre. it's not because kashiwagi cannot play there, but watching the game, i realised why they are all gushing about him. he is one of the youngest players in the team, turning 20 in december, but he is absolutely superb. holds the ball well, plays exquisite balls, creates dangerous chances, distributes the ball well, he even defends well. but the thing is that honda and mizuno are players who can play in midfield, who can pass the ball well as well, so the idea i have is that put one of them in midfield to lessen the work of kashiwagi. get the ball to him so that he can inflict the damage, and of course try to inflict damage themselves. i do think it is a waste to have both honda and mizuno on the wings, although they played very well when they started playing. in the words of the commentators: we can see that all the key players of japan are starting to get into the game. that was the decisive moment of the game.

the man of the match is surely kashiwagi. but i expect mizuno, honda, mizumoto, hosogai, lee to make it into the national team as well.