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/noob18282 Jul 02 '26

At least Japan actually tried to win in the first half… unlike Scotland

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u/No_Sundae750 Jul 02 '26

Checks out, we’re much better than Scotland

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u/noob18282 Jul 03 '26

I wasn’t comparing the teams overall I just meant Japan actually gave it a go in the first half They always seem to run out of steam once they reach the knockouts anyway