What is the Death Group afraid of? Japan's match against Brazil and Argentina: they are going to reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup!

Some time ago, the Qatar World Cup draw group was officially released, and the focus of the big guys' hot discussion undoubtedly focused on the group of death.

Looking at the results of the lottery grouping, the name of the death group rightfully fell to group E. Group E teams include Germany, Spain, Japan and the winners of the play-offs (costa Rica and New Zealand).

At first glance, the Japanese team is divided into the death group, Germany and Spain seem to have securely locked the top two qualifying places in the group, so is the Japanese team really no chance?

This issue is the fifteenth issue of "Starting Japanese Football", and we continue to focus on Japan. Will Japan, which is in the death group, still achieve what they said before - to reach the quarterfinals of the World Cup in Qatar?

Note: The column "Starting from the Bottom of Japanese Football" will start from the Meiji era of Japan more than 150 years ago, trace back to the roots of Japanese football, and dig deep into the development process of Japanese football in the past 150 years. Each issue involves campus football, professional paths, naturalization, etc., and I believe it can give you different inspirations for those who love football.

01

World Cup Quarterfinals,

Is it still possible for idiots to dream?

Before the draw, Japanese coach Morihoichi had made a big statement that Japan's goal in this World Cup was to reach the quarterfinals.

When the results of the Japanese team's group came out, MoriHoichi's expression was interesting. With a solemn expression, he knew that Japan, which was in the death group, could be said to be more difficult to grab points from Germany and Spain.

However, we can see from Mori's remarks after the interview that he is full of confidence and bluntly said: "No matter who the opponent is, our goal is the World Cup quarterfinals, and it will not change." Soon, the Japanese media also announced that the Japanese team had played a warm-up match against Brazil, Argentina and other strong teams in June, just for the test of the Death Group of the World Cup.

Is this a fool's dream, or is it really possible? Can Japan break through from the encirclement and suppression of Germany and Spain, we can analyze it.

The four teams in the group, Spain (no. 7 in the world); Germany (no. 12 in the world); Japan (no. 23 in the world); and costa Rica (no. 31 in the world) and New Zealand (no. 101 in the world) are the two teams that are likely to qualify for Costa Rica.

Looking at it this way, in fact, the four teams are very close from the world ranking, although Spain and Germany have a large advantage in hard power, but the football is round, who can think of the knockout match of the last World Cup, Japan almost defeated the world's first Belgium?

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Mori also quipped, "Iniesta is our 'spy,' and I'll ask him to help us beat Spain."

02

West German hard power crushed,

Out of the line needs a "spoiler"

When looking at this group of deaths, the Spanish and German qualifications seem to be a foregone conclusion. But how many people remember the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, when Italy and England were in Group D, and their final qualifying situation was like this:

Italy and England were out at the bottom, with Costa Rica as spoilers, and they managed to break through in this group of deaths, and they finished first in the group.

Is this grouping very similar to the death group of this World Cup in Qatar?

First, let's justimate that Costa Rica (FIFA 31st) has a high probability of beating New Zealand (FIFA 101st) in the play-offs, so Costa Rica is once again in the death group.

How is it similar to the group that died that year? They are two traditional European strong teams (British and Italian, this time West Germany), plus a non-European team (Uruguay that year, this year Is Japan), and finally Costa Rica.

This has the factor of upsetting, the West German two teams lost points on the Two Teams of Japan and Costa Rica, and they will face a very difficult situation.

Looking at the previous World Cups of the Japanese team, there are not many games in the group stage where they have won weakly, such as the last World Cup. In the match against Colombia, Japan won 2-1 and drew with Senegal, mane's African powerhouse, but only lost to Poland and finally qualified as the second in the group. At that time, not many people could imagine that Japan could break through in Poland with Levan, Senegal in Mane, and Colombia where J Ronaldo was located.

Moreover, the technical and tactical execution of the Japanese team and the ability of the players have the factor of upsetting. We must remember the match against Belgium, with a 2-0 lead, the Japanese team did not choose to die. Perhaps conservatively, the Japanese team was really able to eliminate Belgium, which was the world's number one at the time.

03

Group qualification is more difficult,

The quarterfinals need a miracle

Judging from the style of play, West Germany is not counted as a Japanese team. On the contrary, the Japanese team may be more afraid of Costa Rica's tough style of play. Spain has always been the endorsement of the transmission control play; and the German team has also formed its own set of control under the tutelage of Loew, and now the manager has been replaced by Frick, and the playing style is still the transmission control flow as the team.

The contest between the transmission control streams is not easy to say.

Between Spain and Germany, although the strength is close, it can also play a huge difference of 6-0.

I have to mention the 2018 World Cup Belgium and Japan team, belgium at that time wanted to play with Japan to play pass control, but did not expect that the Japanese team was not afraid at all. Belgium was scored twice by the Japanese team after a long attack, and then switched to high-altitude bombing to finally win Japan.

Japan and West Germany have played each other very few times, and it was almost 20 years ago, and the strength of the team has changed.

Assuming the Japanese can break through from the death squad, there is only one game left before their quarter-final goal. They have fallen to the top 8 in the World Cup several times: losing to Turkey in 2002, losing to Paraguay on penalties in 2010, losing to Belgium in 2018...

This time, if the Japanese team qualifies from the group, then their opponents will be the top two in Group F, and most likely Belgium and Croatia. These two teams were the third and second runners-up of the last World Cup. However, football is always round, and we can't know in advance how far the Japanese team can go in the Qatar World Cup.

But what is certain is that for the three hard battles in the group stage, Japan has asked Brazil and Argentina to play warm-up matches, and they are ready to play hard battles.

(To be continued)...