The Japanese football thread

The fantastic addition of @Far East Footballer made me think that it's strange that we have no thread about Japanese football / players, so here ye go !

 

Haha

 

I don't want to "contaminate" this beautiful Celtic forum by posting Japan-related things too much, though

 

I think most of us appreciate you're posts! Very interesting

Any decent goalkeepers in the J-League?

 

FIFA U20 World Cup is held this May, and before that, AFC U20 Asian Cup is held next month (March). Top 4 teams of U20 Asia Cup are qualified to U20 World Cup. Some of my favorite young Japanese footballers are playing for the national team next month and reportedly, some European clubs are interested in some of U20 Japanese footballers. This week, someone made Kuryu Matsuki thread, and he will also play for U20 next month.
https://www.talkceltic.net/forums/threads/kuryu-matsuki.155350/#post-7378710

 

What was the general opinion of the Japanese people that Hatate and Kyogo wasn't picked for the national team for the world cups?

 

Many were thinking Hatate and Kyogo were worth playing for the national team, at the same time, many were thinking it was actually a very difficult decision.


Speaking of Hatate,
Japan keep producing a lot of good midfielders in recent years and almost all midfielders in the national team are playing important roles in European top leagues (England, Spain, Germany, etc). However, I do believe Hatate is better than many of those midfielders. In my opinion, the manager (Moriyasu) almost chose the members about a year before the world cup already, and didn't want to choose new players. A year before world cup means Hatate had played for Celtic for only a few months and Moriyasu didn't see how good Hatate was playing for Celtic.

Speaking of Kyogo,
Japanese national team tend to have a lot of attacking midfielders (who can play as forward too) and only a few strikers. Japan was going to play against Germany and Spain, so center forward (striker) would be required to run hard for defense. For the defensive role, Maeda would be better than Kyogo (I guess Moriyasu thought so). Moriyasu chose Ayase Ueda as forward, but I were him, I would have chosen Kyogo instead of Ayase Ueda.

 

By the way, I feel Japanese national team and Celtic have the very same problem.

Japan have been qualified to seven consecutive FIFA World Cups from 1998 to 2022. In the recent two of them (2018 and 2022), Japan reached the knockout stages. In the knockout stage in 2018, Japan v Belgium was 2-3, and Belgium won the third place of the World Cup 2018. In 2022, Japan defeated Germany and Spain. In the knock out stage, Japan v Croatia was 1-1 draw (Japan lost in the penalty shootout) and Croatia won the third place. So, Japanese football has improved a lot and Japan can "sometimes" defeat top European national teams.

However, about 50 football associations belong to Asia Football Association and only several national teams (such as Japan, Australia, South Korea, etc) are competitive enough. Hence, international matches when Japan play in Asia, most opponent teams are a lot weaker than Japan. As a result, how Japan play in Asia qualification and how Japan play in World Cup have to be very different.

I feel it is very similar to Celtic in Scottish league and Celtic in the Champions League. For example, Celtic beating a club like Aberdeen by 4-0, then several days later, clubs like Real Madrid, Man City, Bayern and PSG are waiting in the mid week. How Celtic play against Aberdeen and how Celtic play against those European mega clubs has to be very different.

 

すごい (Sugoi)!

https://cotoacademy.com/20-ways-to-use-the-japanese-word-すごい-sugoi/

 

Don't worry about that - I'm already on that! Lol - welcome!

 

Haha, すごい = Sugoi is a very useful word!

Haha.

By the way, I assume your name Nakamura Tastic was from Shunsuke Nakamura, right?. "Another" Nakamura is showing his quality this season. Keito Nakamura, 22 year old Japanese forward has scored 13 goals and 6 assists so far in Austria this season. Reportedly, some European clubs are interested in getting him. His family name is Nakamura, and the family name should be for Celtic





News on Keito Nakamura
https://www.google.com/search?q=kei...hUKEwiZ1cSYkq79AhVHIIgKHWenDCsQ_AUoAXoECAEQAQ


He was playing for U17 and U20 national teams.

 

He looks a player! Sign him up Ange

 

Good thread

 

そうです！若い中村面白いね！ごめん - bad Japanese!

 

Good thread. Plenty of games will be available on Youtube this season I think due to tv rights issues or something so good if folk fancy watching games back...or fancy watching live football at 7am.

Stuck him on player suggestions but Koki Ogawa might worth watching this season. Tall striker who banged in goals in J2 last season. If he does the same this year after stepping up then he could have a few teams from Europe looking at him.

 

2023 season of J1 and J2 started last week(not J3 yet). I noticed a few teenaged forwards were given some playing time, which is very rare for J-League. The most impressive was Keisuke Goto. He is 17 years old and his height is 191cm, very tall as a Japanese footballer. He scored 2 goals in 5 mins. I always love to see young talents showing their goal scoring abilities.


Here is the video : https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ugHw1s2HVWY

 

Looks a talent.

 

deleted

 

As I wrote above, several teenaged forwards were given playing time last week. Yutaka Michiwaki, and he is even younger, 16 years old. In J-League, 16 year old playing for the top team is veeeeeery rare. The image below was taken when he was playing for U16 national team, so he is wearing the Samurai Blue uniform. He is 186cm 70kg now. Considering he is 16, he might become slightly taller (I don't think strikers have to be tall, though).



This video is U16 Japan v U16 Uruguay. He scored a goal in the game and Japan won by 4-0. He is the number 9 boy.

 

It's like having a free football scout in your own home!