At 18:00 Beijing time on January 27, the second match between China and Japan in the Round of 12 will be played at the Saitama 2002 World Cup Stadium. Let's briefly say a few things before the game that I think are worth paying attention to.
1. Who will be the Japanese center-back combination?
Since the Asian Cup in January 2019, the main center-back partner of the Japanese team is the combination of captain Maya Yoshida and Kenyo Fuan, and now both the Japanese and Japanese-Saudis are absent due to injuries at the same time, which is indeed quite rare in the past three years.
The Japanese team currently has four full-time centre-backs: Naotori Ueda of Ligue 2 Nimes, Itakura Tsukishi of TheDesserie Schalke 04, Akigo Taniguchi, Kawasaki Striker, and Jinnosuke Nakatani, vice captain of Nagoya Whales. In addition, Yuta Nakayama, who is currently more used in the left-back position, from the Dutch Zwolle, actually played at center-back before Ryuyo, and was paired with Shinnosuke Nakatani, when they formed the youngest center-back combination in the J League.
The existing 4 center-backs list a set of data given by the Japanese media.
Since the World Preliminary Round of 40 in September 2019, the Japanese national team has played 24 international A-class matches, of which Ueda Hasong played 9 games for a total of 632 minutes, Nakatani Shinnosuke played 3 games for a total of 206 minutes, Itakura Played 2 games for a total of 180 minutes, and Shogo Taniguchi played 2 games for a total of 161 minutes.
Among the combinations of these 4 people, Taniguchi and Ueda, who are the most optimistic and come from the current high school runner-up Otsu High School, have partnered for a total of 161 minutes in 2 games, which means that Taniguchi has played in the national team in the past two years, he has partnered with his junior Ueda in the national team; Ueta and Itakura have only partnered for 1 game for a total of 45 minutes; Taniguchi and Itakura, both from Kawasaki, have not partnered in the national team; and Taniguchi and Nakagu have only partnered for 45 minutes in the warm-up match of the 7-0 victory over the University of Circulation Economics on the 21st of this month.
At a glance, although Ueda is the most experienced of the 4 in international competitions, while Akigo Taniguchi is the best performer and Itakura is the strongest upward momentum, any group of mid-backs lack enough tacit understanding. At present, the Japanese media is also divided on which pair Morihoichi will send, and I do not need to make a judgment here, I personally think that Otsu's group should be more secure.
2. Will the 433, which worked well in the first few games, change?
The Japanese team began from the fourth round of the round of 12 against Australia, began to change from 4231 to 433, and the result was good to win 3 consecutive wins, and the ranking also came to the second place in the group. Midfielder Tanaka Bi took the position, he and Hidemasa Morita, Endo Hang composed of three midfielders, all three of them are more attackable and defensively balanced, Tanaka Bi also won his first goal of the national team in the match with Australia.
However, compared with the previous game against the strong team Australia, as well as the consecutive away games against Vietnam and Oman, this time at home against China, the Japanese team is obviously going to score 3 points. In fact, in the first leg of the two sides against the Chinese team led by Li Tie, MoriHoichi was on the back of Shibasaki and Endo, the Japanese team although besieged but the effect was not good, especially Shibasaki Tsukiji passed too much, rarely forward direct pass also received a lot of criticism, so later he became a substitute.
However, this time, Kubo, who had been absent from the previous game, returned, and Kubo had not been selected since his injury in September. In anticipation, Li Xiaopeng's new national football team is probably not very risky, after all, Peng Zhi has already said before the game that the goal is to retain hope, so taking 1 point away is the biggest goal.
Therefore, after the comeback of Kubo and Don Yasu, two players who can pass the game, the Japanese team can completely take one of these two to replace Tanaka Bi or Hidemasa Morita, and it is possible to do more articles in the middle. At present, the Japanese media basically predicts that Kubo will start, after all, he has performed well in La Liga and cup matches after his comeback. In an interview before the game, Kubo himself said that he was very accustomed to playing 433 at La Masia that year, and seemed to be foreshadowing.
In this way, coupled with Junya Ito on the right and Takumi Minamino on the left, the three pure attacking midfielders around the single striker Ōkiyo Mayuya may have more diverse attack routines. Although it is nominally 433, it is possible that the original 4231 will be returned in the game.
3. The new captain, Hang Endo, and Yu Nagatomo are ignored?
Maya Yoshida's absence was a matter of early certainty, so many people predicted that the elder-level Elder Yuto, or Daiki And even Hiroki Sakai, might be the captain of this issue. But at the pre-match press conference, Mori Hoichi confirmed that Endo would be the captain.
Endo is also currently the captain of Stuttgart, and it is absolutely no problem to let the captain of the Bundesliga team as the captain of the national team, after all, Endo hang is rated as an intercontinental back in the Bundesliga. But in the Japanese team, which has always been ranked according to seniority, the 29-year-old Endo Hang has actually been sitting in the main force in the past two years, and this time he can really give a thumbs up to Mori Baoichi's decision.
At the same time, this is actually the embarrassment of Nagatomo Yudo, the 35-year-old has only played the whole game once in this round of 12, that is, he was killed by Oman in the first round of home, and the goal lost was derived from Nagatomo Yudo's left defense in the final position. In the next 5 matches, Nagatomo was all replaced halfway through, and in the last two consecutive away wins over Vietnam and Oman, Mori Hoichi chose to replace him with Yuta Nakayama around 60 minutes.
Japan is also very controversial about Nagatomo Yudo, most people think that he basically only relies on fame and experience to play, even in the return to FC Tokyo in the J League, the performance is not eye-catching, resulting in the then coach Hasegawa Kenta's 0-8 game, there is a "credit" from Nagatomo Yuto.
So this time, many Japanese media directly predicted the start, left-back filled Inaka Yuta, will it come true?
4, the Japanese team is also afraid of tactical leakage
From Gao Hongbo to Li Tie, who had just left class, our domestic coaches would always try everything to keep secrets when training, remembering a training camp in Wuhan that year, the national football training ground in Tazi Lake was completely surrounded by mantle cloth, and even some reporters ran to the roof of the dormitory to watch the training from a distance. This time, the Japanese team's two home games are related to qualifying, and they are also cautious in terms of confidentiality.
The Japanese team's 23 members can train together on the 25th, but on the 24th, they have begun technical and tactical training, that is, from this day on, they have changed the training venue. It is said that the previous training ground can clearly confirm the situation in the surrounding high-rise buildings, but for reasons of confidentiality, MoriHoichi temporarily decided to change to another training ground in Chiba Prefecture, and it was equipped with more security personnel.
Before the first match of the round of 12, Mori Baoichi had complained that most of the Japanese players played overseas, so the player's game video could be seen by people all over the world as long as they wanted to study, but if they wanted to study the techniques and tactics of Oman and the Chinese team, the video data was very limited. And this time, it is clear that Mori Hoichi also has his own small calculations.
5. The commentators are infected with the new crown
Broadcaster DAZN has obtained the right to broadcast all of the World Preliminary Tournaments of the Japanese team, and the away matches are the exclusive interests of the Japanese TV station and the AFC because there is no broadcast agreement between the Japanese TV station and the AFC. In the past year, the top five of DAZN's live ratings have all been Japan's World Preliminary Tournament matches.
This time, although it is the home stadium, the TV station also broadcasts, but DAZN also made great efforts, not only continued to invite big-name celebrities as guests, but also opened up a new post-game column "THE REVIEW", by the guests who explained on the spot directly after the game began to use imaging, slow play, touch and other technologies for instant interpretation.
The commentary combination of the Japan-China War is Nakamura Kentsune and the newly retired Okubo Yoshito, the two once partnered at Kawasaki Striker, during which time Okubo won the J League top scorer for three consecutive years, thus establishing the status of the historical top scorer king. This is also Okubo's first appearance as a guest commentator on the national team game after retiring.
However, just the day before the game, on the evening of the 26th, Okubo announced on social media that he was infected with the new crown, and his debut of commentary could only be postponed. On the evening of the 26th, DAZN officially announced that Okubo Yoshihito was replaced by another legendary shooter, Sato Shoujin, who was also the captain and first scorer when Moriho led Hiroshima to win the J-League championship in 5 years and 3 times. Sato's original task was to play Japan against Saudi Arabia with former Japanese coach Takeshi Okada, but he didn't know if Okubo would return in that match...