Last weekend's JPL fixtures took a backseat to the international week, while the Japanese national team completed all of their matches in the WC Asian Qualifiers Group of Twelve. The Blue Samurai have 22 points after 10 matches in Group A, one point behind top-ranked Saudi Arabia, who finished second in the group to secure a place in the final week of the 2022 World Cup. Although the Blue Knights have achieved their goal, their performance has been a mixed bag, so let's take a look at Japan's last two matches.
March 24, 2022 Australia 0:2 Japan
This is a crucial battle for the hosts, Australia, who are in third place with three points behind Japan before the match, and must get all three points to keep their hopes of going through to the final. On the other hand, if Japan succeeds in defeating their rivals, they will reach the goal of going through to the final, and at the same time, Saudi Arabia will be going through to the final, so this is a very important match.
Japanese team supervisor Hiromichi Mori will use most of his regular players in this match, including Maya Yoshida, Takumi Minamino and Ko Itakura. However, scorers Isao Osako and Daizo Maeda were injured before the match, so Takuma Asano will be the only one to be used as the main arrow, which will inevitably affect the attacking power.
As a win is very important for both sides, both teams are playing aggressively in order to gain an early advantage, making the first half of the game open. Effectiveness
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The Blue Samurai's Takumi Minamino scored with a header and a kick in the first half, but unfortunately they both bounced out of the net and failed to give the Blue Samurai the lead. The hosts, who were relatively weak in attack, also had a chance to open the scoring. In the 26th minute, Australia created confusion with a corner kick, causing Japan's goalkeeper Yamane Sirai to mistakenly set up a goal, but the referee ruled that the goal was disallowed due to an infringement by Australian midfielder Shane Bailly against Japan's goalkeeper Gwon Tatsuoichi. The two sides exchanged a scoreless draw at half-time.
However, the second half of the match was a different story, as both teams became conservative in their approach, with only a handful of threats on goal. Although the host team Australia had the advantage in possession, they didn't create any real offense. Coach Arnott even sent the Uruguayan scorer Konaroli, who was representing the national team for the first time after he became a citizen of Australia, to play for the team, but unfortunately, it didn't have any effect; Japan, who had the dominant power to win the game, of course, adopted a steady and sudden attacking style in the second half, which indirectly made the game stalemate. However, the situation was changed when Sanabi Okinawa came on as a substitute in the 84th minute. The 24-year-old attacking midfielder broke the deadlock in the 89th minute by scoring from a teammate's pass, and then in the stoppage time, he scored a personal goal for the Blue Knights to seal the victory, and Japan beat Australia 2-0 to get a direct place in the final of the World Cup.
It is worth mentioning that this is the first time that Sanfelt Makoto scored a goal for a Japanese national football team, and it is definitely a good thing to be congratulated. I believe that this game can be a good opportunity for this midfielder, who is playing for St. Kitts United, the top ranked team in the Bundesliga, to become one of the main players in the national team.
March 29, 2022 Japan 1:1 Vietnam
The Blue Samurai return home to the Saitama 2002 World Cup Stadium to play their curtain raiser for the tournament, while their rivals, Vietnam, were already out of the tournament before the match, so it's definitely a routine game for both sides.
Japan's team supervisor, Mr. Mori, is practicing for this match, so that the reserves can have more chances to play for the national team. The four new attacking players, Ei Kukai, Reio Hatate, Mitaka Okinawa and Eisei Ueda, are also given the chance to play for the national team, but the tacit understanding of the attacking team has been doubted by the fans.
Facing a much weaker Vietnam team, and with two big brothers in the midfield, Yue Shibasaki and Genki Haraguchi, Japan dominated the possession in the early part of the match as expected, but did not create many threatening shots on goal. On the contrary, Vietnam struck in the 19th minute from a corner kick, with Japan's captain Maya Yoshida walking away from Nguyen Thanh Binh to score a header. Japan lost the first goal in the rest of the first half, but the attacking performance was seriously disappointing. Although the Blue Knights recorded 12 shots in the first half, only one of them hit the target, leaving Japan with a 0-1 deficit at halftime.
In the second half, Japan replaced Reio Ito with Junya Ito to adjust the lineup, and the performance began to improve, and the attack also became flesh. After the restart of the half, only ten minutes, Vietnam goalkeeper Tran Won Meng saved a shot from Genki Haraguchi's side of the penalty area, and assisted by the captain of the team, Maya Yoshida, who took the opportunity to make up for the Japanese 1-1. Japan then continued to attack Vietnam for the rest of the game, trying to get a win, and even replaced Takumi Minamino, Hidemasa Mamorita, and Bea Tanaka in order to enhance the attacking force, but unfortunately, they failed to get the job done, and the result was only the match with Vietnam, and was defeated by Saudi Arabia on the same day. The result was a draw with Vietnam, and Saudi Arabia, who beat Australia on the same day, won the first place in the group.
The Blue Samurai didn't perform well in this match. Coach Morihiro Ichi said after the match that the team still has a lot of room for improvement, and they will work hard to prepare for the final week of the World Cup in the rest of the year. Although the team did not perform well, Morihoichi is still full of confidence in the team, and even set the goal of reaching the final eight of the World Cup, so the ambition is not small.
The Japanese national team has successfully entered the Qatar World Cup 2022, making it the seventh consecutive final week of the World Cup. However, the team lost two matches in a row at the beginning of the final twelve and was in a crisis at one time. In the last match, the team failed to win at home against the weak team Vietnam, so their performance can be said to have no dominance, and it is no wonder that the coach, Mori Bao-ichi, is under great pressure. However, with nearly eight months to go before the final week, I hope Mori can take this opportunity to reorganize and live up to the expectations of the Japanese fans!
This week's JLF live streaming schedule:
April 1, 6:00pm Fukuoka Hornets vs Tosu Sandstone Cable 601/661
April 2, 1:00 p.m. Osaka Hikaru vs. Nagoya Whale Cable TV 601/661
April 2, 2:00 PM Kawasaki Striker vs Sakura Osaka Cable 602/662
April 2, 6:00 p.m. Sapporo Gonzaga vs. Urawa Red Diamonds Cable 601/661
This week's Sunday B live streaming schedule:
April 3, 12:00 p.m. Kumamoto Royals vs. Niigata Swans Cable 601/661
April 3, 4:00 p.m. Tokyo Green vs. Oita Mikami Cable TV 601/661
