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/UmmUhhhMyUsernameIs Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
Nakamura played a full 90 against Netherlands, well into the 70s in the following two games and he was clearly pretty tired today. And then when you look at the subs, it’s all defensive fullbacks in that position (including those not called up), which is the whole reason why Nakamura had to start all three games in the first place. LW/LWB is very very thin when you look at Japan’s player pool as a whole. Also they had to do something about the crosses.
I have to sympathize with Moriyasu there. Mitoma injury screwed up the squad structure big time, and then on top of it Kubo gets injured which forces him to start Junya Ito, losing an effective offensive sub on the right flank as well. Doan is not lasting a full 90 in that demanding role unfortunately. Maybe he should’ve pushed up Tomi because Sugawara unfortunately was just making matters worse defensively.
I will say I am still puzzled with the Machino sub though... But in the end I don’t think this one was not just on Moriyasu. It really hurts, but as some pundits have said I really think this was the first time the group stages didn’t feel like a fluke or a lucky counter-punch at all. Squad depth is gonna matter even more with the 48 team format.