With goals from Ōki and Junya Ito, Japan won 2-0 against the national football team. However, the performance of the two centre-backs of the Japanese team has received more attention, and the editor-in-chief of World Football Digest even believes that they have not been tested in any way.
Maya Yoshida and Kenhiro Fuan both missed the match due to injury, including Maya Yoshida alone making 113 appearances for Japan, while the two centre-backs who started this campaign only made 12 appearances for Japan.
However, they still helped the Japanese team keep a clean sheet for the national football team, which only had 2 shots on goal. "The performance of the two of them proves that there are still many outstanding players in Japan. They did a great job in training, which gave me confidence and I decided to partner them. They play for the same club and I think there's a lot of rapport between them. ”
However, Yahoo Sports commented that "their true strength will be tested against Saudi Arabia on February 1." ”
The editor-in-chief of World Football Digest wrote an analysis, "From the perspective of the team, is the performance of the Japanese team stronger than the Chinese team? The Japanese team held the ball longer, and some set-pieces were threatening, but the impression that the Chinese team was weaker was stronger. ”
"Therefore, it is difficult to evaluate the performance of Akigo Taniguchi and Itakura, two centre-backs, who replaced the injured Maya Yoshida and Kenhiro Fuan respectively. Judging from the performance of the Chinese team, the loopholes missed by the two main centre-backs have been filled, but whether their ability can be compared with the two main players is another matter. ”