- The Japanese defeated the Germans. Thanks to the extraordinary speech of their captain, who called a half-time boxing match
- Ritsu Duan, who was playing at a big party, did a great job with Leo Messi’s style. In Qatar, he is considered the greatest hero of the Japanese, because he scored 1-1 in matches against Germany and Spain
- If Japan qualifies for the quarter-finals of the World Cup, they will play against their neighbor or the mighty Brazil, who for years have been an unparalleled role model for the Japanese.
- More interesting stories can be found on the new website of Przegląd Sportowy Onet. Check!
The match between Japan and Germany is suspended. The guys went into the locker room, got smothered in the first half and were lucky they only lost 1-0. Coach Hajime Moriyasu allowed team captain Maya Yoshida to speak.
– This is the moment when the Germans caught their guard. They lowered their hands like a boxer who was not expecting a blow. Now we can hit them and hit them hard. Let’s get back on the field and rewrite history! The center of defense spoke and received spontaneous applause from his colleagues. The Japanese took to the field and scored two goals against Germany.
Eight days later, exactly the same (from 0:1 after 45 minutes to 2:1 at the end) was their meeting with Spain. That is why they will unexpectedly win Group E and will play Croatia in the 1/8 finals of the World Cup. Croats are a team on their fingertips. What’s more, I think Japan as a group is a better team – says Adam Błoński, founder of AsiaGola and an expert on Asian football.
in the shadow of a star
How did the Asian national team manage to turn the tide of meetings with the world champions of 2010 and 2014? For Ponski, this wasn’t much of a surprise. – Even before the tournament, I expected Japan to be knocked out of the group at the expense of Germany. At the 1996 Olympics, the Japanese defeated Brazil, drawing 2-2 with the same team after exchanging blows at the Confederations Cup in 2005. At the last Tokyo Olympics, Japan reached the semi-finals, losing to Spain only after extra time. , he lists.
Japan today is a team full of people with something to prove. On the right side is Hiroki Ito, who lost an eyebrow after a childhood accident. When he played for his native Jubilo Iwata he was a reserve and people were a little surprised he moved to Germany.
Meanwhile, he had become an important figure at VfB Stuttgart. But the greatest hero is Ritsu Doan, who led to draws in matches against Germany and Spain. He is a soccer player who has always been in the shadow of Takefusa Kubo, the great star of Japanese soccer. In 2017, in the U-20 World Cup, Duan scored three goals in three group matches, avoiding everyone similar to Messi in the match against Italy and basically running the ball into the goal, but Japanese journalists wrote about Kubo anyway, who was found In the team, although he was only 15 years old.
– Duane was still a right-back in Gamba Osaka’s youth team, although he already impressed with a very powerful shot that he now delivered in the match against Spain. Only the coaches of the following Japanese national teams noted that he had a talent for attacking play and changed his position. Today, he plays for Freiburg in Germany and marks an important point in the Bundesliga’s revelations, says Błoński. It is likely that Duane will start the match against Croatia in the starting lineup, because Kubo has a muscle injury.
He is looking for creativity
Coach Moriyasu is also an interesting character. There are a few selectors who have come under heavy criticism prior to the tournament. When the Japanese lost to Oman and Saudi Arabia in the World Cup qualifiers, the hashtag #Moriyasuout went viral in the local media.
“He’s a smiling madman.” Someone once aptly called it an adaptation. The point is that as a coach he can adapt to the situation on the pitch, and he is not a guy who draws his own plan on a constant basis. Moriyasu knows how to pick players and use them skillfully. Take striker Daizen Maeda from Celtic, who is mocked by some because he looks like Krillin, a character from Dragon Ball. This guy had 62 speeds in 62 minutes against Spain. One a minute, a lot. Thanks to this, he had a hard time on his rivals and it was easier for his teammates. On the other hand, Moriyasu has been criticized for sticking to one tactic, Błoński analyzes.
The latter is due to the fact that the current Japan coach grew up as a coach at Sanfrecce Hiroshima, where he was Mihilo Petrović’s assistant. The Serbian introduced an original 3-6-1 formation system that was supposed to make the most of his creative and intelligent midfielders, there are plenty of them in Japan, Which was also heavily influenced by the comic book and then the anime series “Captain Tsubasa”.
Moriyasu, when he single-handedly took over the team, was loyal to this formation for years and won the Japanese championship with the team. He also used the 3-6-1 formation for the Japan U-23 national team, and considered it for the senior national team. Today, his team plays differently, but it has not changed that the coach is primarily looking for creativity in the second line.
Brazilian idealism
If the Japanese beat the Croats, whoever they’re up against, they’ll have an exciting quarter-final game. Either they will play South Korea, which would be a big deal in Asia, or they will play Brazil, who have been their role models for many years – the football ideal they strived for.
It is no coincidence that in “Captain Tsubasa” – a fairy tale that shaped Japanese thinking about soccer – the title character is trained to become a hero by Brazilian superstar Roberto Hongo, who, had it not been for meeting Tsubasa, would probably have become an alcoholic.
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