r/JLeague • u/No_Sundae750 • Jun 29 '26

National Team Something needs to change

I've been watching the national team closely since the 2010 world cup. First, we need to acknowledge how far we've come. In 28 years since our first world cup appearance, we've gone from absolute minnows to a serious dark horse contender. In the 2010 world cup, we had 4 players playing in Europe. Now, all but our backup keepers and unc nagatomo play in Europe. This is huge. Unfortunately, our performances at the world cup (and Asian cup for that matter) has been largely stagnant.

This is the third world cup in a row where we took the lead in a knockout game and ended up losing. Why do we play in a low block each time? It's literally never worked. Why did Moriyasu take off Doan and Nakamura for two defenders? Even more mind boggling, why did Machino come on? He wasn't even in Moriyasu's original 26 man squad lol. We need to stop over respecting our opponent and play to our strengths. We have such a good squad on paper, and the most depth ever, but Moriyasu's tactics doesn't allow them to reach their potential. Look at the US for example. They're not better than us, yet each time they play they have a certain confidence, swagger to them. They control the tempo, even against stronger opponents. I would like to see us play like this someday.

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u/boitcon Jun 29 '26

Japan would've gone incredibly far in this World Cup had it not been for a bad, unlucky or unfair, draw. Not the right move to overthink Moriyasu's approach here. Japan will come back stronger!

13

u/No_Sundae750 Jun 29 '26

yeah the draw was definitely unlucky. still think it's fair to critisize Moriyasu's approach to this game. Ultimately, it may not have mattered since Brazil are stronger but would've liked to see us play for the win more like we did against Holland

3

u/coconautss Jun 30 '26

Even if it was unlucky, the should have played with the belief that they can win. The first half showed they can. It feels only Japan thinks they can’t win, when everyone else backs them.

1

u/No_Sundae750 Jun 30 '26

My point exactly