By the way Costa Rica draw 0-0 against Brazil at the Copa America today. Like I said in the past, in the WC 2022 quali, they beat/draw USA, Mexico and Canada. Its a total normal, solid Team which can cause trouble to every team. Of course it was a dissapointment that Japan lose against them, especially in the way Moriyasu plays but that can happen and nothing to shame about.
It's not like Japan played and lost against the excellent Costa Rica team of 2014 for instance. The 2022 team was very average and definitely quite beatable.
Yeah thats right but again they win/draw against USA/Mexico and Canada some of their WC quali 2002 games. Thats not for nothing and more than average. But also average is good enough to beat teams. Its not like average is bad and I would say they are more than that which the game against Brasil today shows. Of course Japan should have won that but other games are showing that Costa Rica regulary beat decent teams in that timeline.
By the way, I forgot that Ryoichi Maeda is Co-Coach of the JNT since 1 year. Has he any influence on the team? Is he a good coach. He was a great striker with a huge amount of goals and I really liked him for Japan. He has his up and downs but overall Maeda has his remarkable moments for the JNT in 2011-2012.
It's Australia and KSA again for the 3rd time in a row in the WC Asian qualifiers. So sick of playing against them
Boring to have the same teams over and over, but good to have the toughtest group. Although Qatar-Uzbekistan might be as difficult...
In the UEFA zone (Europe), it's a similar issue made even worse by the introduction of the Nations League. You now have teams that have played against each other 4 to 6 times in a 2-3 year span.
What happened to Takuhiro Nakai? I just read he is about to be loaned to 3rd division side SD amarobieta? I read that last season he was mostly a substitute for another third division team? What the hell? How can you go to major star of the future at Real Madrid to not able to get a game in the third division? I had huge hopes for him but it doesn't look good.
He's just not that good of a player to begin with, there's a reason he has yet to get a call-up in the A team.
But when Zidane was there Nakai was already train often with the first team and Zidane told, that he was very impressed and is close to the team.
Something must have gone wrong, I don't recall. The fact that he is already 20 and hasn't managed to make it pass Real Madrid B yet and was recently loaned out to a third division side tells me he is not good enough. It wouldn't be the first time a player was overhyped and ended up flopping.
He should consider a move to the J league, perhaps in 2 years or so he can consider a move to e.g STVV or Segunda Division provided that he develops well here. Niko Takahashi also moved back to Cerezo Osaka as well.
If I was in his shoes, I would move back to the J league, you aren't going to develop much in Spain's third division.
It's the fact he can't even get a game for a third division team, that blows my mind, something must have went seriously wrong with him.
By the way Keisuke Honda make a "comeback": Keisuke Honda has signed a special one match contract with the current leaders of the Bhutan Premier League, Paro FC. The former Nagoya Grampus, CSKA Moscow and AC Milan midfielder’s last match was nearly 1,000 days ago.