Subject: NT matches: World Cup

Hi.

Arf, I had no spare time, organizing all the data, updating skills, tactic and such things :S

Next weeks I hope it can be more calm and prepare and discuss the matches more slowly :)

For the user who have already not reported updates of their players in the NT, please sk-mail them to me to have the team as fresh possible (btw, all the updates you have sent me have been actualized ^^)

I have put a mix of young and veteran players, looking for the best effective squad I think versus India.

As being (theorically :?) India a less experienced team in terms of potential, I have bet for a combination of skills/Stamina (to have the attrition factor on our side), as it can work well, at least in this first match until I can make more ellaborated plans.

[Note for NT players owners: please, train Stamina if your player's is low ('good' or worse). Some of the most recent players have very good potential, but the low Stamina makes them less valuable and decreases their possibilities to play vs other stronger players :( ]

Our squad for this match will be:

Starting 11:
1 Nobuo Matsuo GK
2 Hisato Furuhashi DEF
3 Tomokazu Yamamoto DEF
4 Alex Shinoda DEF
5 Tashiaki Arai DEF
6 Tomohiro Hironaga DEF
7 Reiichi Inoha MID
8 Toyoaki Suguri MID
9 Oshikatsu Ono MID
10 Harumi Shinoda ATT
11 Taisuke Hiraoka ATT

Bench:
12 Yasuoka Inamoto GK
13 Kiyoshi Masashiko DEF
14 Yoshimatsu Asari DEF
15 Shozo Teshima MID
16 Suezo Togawa ATT

The tactic will be a surprise, but both offese and defense can be very active (it is not tested yet, but I guess it will be more offensive than it can seem - and hope it does not result a in disaster :S -)

Let's wait to see a good match (and hopefully see our National Team win ^^)
(edited)

Well, the match was a bit thougher than I expected (altough I settled the defence -5- so to not be catched off-guard), and the Indian players shown they have become as least as good as ours.

The tactic worked well, though luck (fortunatelly, it was well balanced) could have give us a bad surprise. But I am happy of seeing that our boys fought well and their effort got a well deserved victory (and hope a lot more follow ^^)

Next week, Nippon will play at home versus Canada. It is a good team, with bigger manpower and experience better than ours, but I think it is not impossible to win (;p), but surely some changes should be done and the match will be very different to the last one. I will stretch my brains this season to think about some good ideas, and any advice and suggestions will be welcome :)


Please, I remind to update the players' data (don't worry abot sk-mailing me a lot ;p), and I aslo would recommend to rise the Stamina by training (it would give us more operational range regarding the substitutuions if some of the younger -and very promising- players could play at good condition the full match).
(edited)

Congratulations! :)

Thanks, but the next two ones will be... brrrr :S (but I aso hope that there could be some luck... ^^)

Well, it was a little disaster :(

As I saw Canada far superior, I bet to try again the tactic and lineup that used vs India, with some adjustments. Probably the defeat was inevitable, but I also wanted to compare against both teams (India and Canada) to get a better idea about the difference in overall skill and opposition which our players could present to different level teams :s

A painful lesson, but I hope to have got some interesting observations for the future. The next match vs Hrvatska will be a though one too. I'll make some major changes to try to put a stronger opposition, altough I fear that our hopes of a surprise in the result will be quite limited.

As no advices or comments are made - :( - I'll try to figure myself a good tactic.

Please, I continue recommending to build up a bit the stamina, mainly for our NT younger DEFs. They could have a good and *real* opportunity to join the first team in a regular way if they could resist the 90 minutes without falling down.

Well, let's see what happens this Saturday.. :|
(edited)

you should play with more defend tactic:P 3 def's with Canada.. that's not good idea:p

Hmm ... it was the first match I saw from Japan, so all my thoughts are based on this match! ;-)

I don't think you have a chance against team like Canada, the goal has to be not to loose too high ...
The skills your players have are by far weaker than the skills of Canadas players.


I think the tactic was pretty optimistic, especially the defenders were placed too high.
Your defenders are not as fast as their strikers, and of course they can't tackle them from behind ...
Sure, it's a surprising tactic, did you wanted to play with an offside trap?

And in my opinion, Ono was placed too offensive. He often was almost on the same line as the Canadian defenders. It's just hypothetical, but I think he would have had more balls if he had played a little bit more defesive ...

And a third little thing I would do is to place the strikers closer together. Maybe even both on the same side, or one exactly in the middle and the other one leaving like he is now ...


I liked the throw-ins and freekicks, the positioning of the strikers are good, if Ono had higher passing, it could get much more dangerous! ;-)


Hmm ... finally it's pretty hard for you, you just don't have the player to get good results against these teams ... :-((

Yes. Fortunately the match served me to catch a realistic idea about our players' possibilities.

Next friendly vs Hellas I'll try some changes. It will be an U-21 match, but the relation in quality I think will be similar (a lot of teams in Greece = more good trained juniors to choose from). I hope it can serve as a good test, and the results along with the observations of the match vs Canada can be useful for planning better the rest of matches of the season :)

Well, all ready for the match vs Hrvatska. Some tactical and players' changes to try to achieve the miracle. At least, I hope the fight be more even than vs Canada.

Let's see what happens this Saturday, and may the luck (or was it The Force? :p) be with us.

Good luck! Nippon Nippon!:D

I saw last match with Hrvastka.. hmm chi couldn't play with high defenders... Hrarstka (and others NT) have fast attackers.. your defenders must stay very back.. and one def/mid could back to centre defend:) Maybe will be 4-0 no 9-0 :) You haven't got chances for win but you can lose with less goals.. Hrvastka has got better players and everybody know it :) Good Luck in next NT matches:)

P.S That's only my opinion.. maybe you think differently from me ;P

Yes, unfortunately our defenders were not match vs those attackers of theirs. Anyway, I hoped that our defense was stronger than vs Canada, but it seems that it didn't result so. I fear the alternative will be to close in the defence, and pray them not to score many goals from passes or head shoots -and practically forget about attacking ourselves- :(

Next match vs Moldova seems a less desperate one. Maybe our NT will have more chances to get a good result, but anyway it will be better not to bet in advance. Let's see if our players can somewhat avenge these unfortunate last results (at least I'll try) :S
(edited)

Well, a tie 1-1 versus Moldova. It is not a bad result seeing their player's level, but I think our NT could have played a little better and got a better result, as they have possibilities. Let's see what happens in the return match... :)

I guess next, New Zealand, will be thougher, like Canada and Hvratska's matches, as its team seems to be at similar level to theirs. I'll try to put our players in good order, and we'll see what can they do ;)
(edited)

:'(

I am a bit sad about the results. It seems our team has no possibilities of doing a competitive match vs these teams. If at least the difference in goals was not so big, it would be moralizing. I'm not sure about if it is my fault with the tactics and positions of players, or the team in effect can do no more.

Well, I will try to do the best I can the matches which remain. Unfortunately, with three strong teams as we have in our group, I think it will be impossible to get a place to the WC finals (though I'll try don't despair yet) :S

yes... but with Moldova ... hmm japan could win :) fourth place is good :) You can't play for better place.. Canada, Hrvastka and New Zeland are very strong... good matches:) but Japan must win with Moldova :)

brokus is right. we're satisfied with fourth place and I believe you've been doing a very good job.

I know it's early to talk about it, but I hope you try to re-elect for the position in the next elections. 2 seasons at least :)