Japan vs. Spain at the Tokyo Olympics (men's soccer)

According to ESPN, Spain had 69% of the possession in the game.
https://www.espn.com/soccer/matchstats?gameId=601588

According to the official site of the Tokyo Olympics, it is 61%.
https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/olympic-games/en/results/football/results-men-sfnl-000200-.htm

That's why I don't trust the numbers, but the 60% figure is the same as the feeling that the ball was held for quite a long time.

According to this site, Spain's pass success rate was 87%, and Japan's 74%. Incidentally, according to the same site, Spain's possession rate was 66%.
https://soccer.yahoo.co.jp/japan/game/score/2021080303/on

The pass success rate did not seem to be as different as I felt, but the total number of passes was more than double, 933 for Spain and 416 for Japan according to the same site.
I wanted to derive the number of successes per 10 passes, but I'm not very good at math, so I got confused while using a calculator to divide the number of passes by the success rate or the success rate by the number of passes.
However, 87% after attempting more than twice as many passes on the other hand, if Japan had attempted the same number of passes, the success rate would have been even lower.

Anyway, if both teams were basically doing high press (and I have a feeling that Spain basically kept pressing high, but I have yet to review the match in detail), then I think Japan's success rate would have been even lower. But I don't know because I haven't watched the game in detail yet), Spain had a much higher possession rate and twice as many passes, which means that Japan could hardly even get the ball into the enemy's territory properly, which is also close to what I felt when I watched the game.
I remember thinking, "Oh, they are attacking for the first time in a long time," when Japan occasionally carried the ball deep into the enemy territory.

That's why I analyze the first few plays after we get the ball.
I think that is the crucial difference between us and Spain.
We play a similar style of soccer to Spain, and I believe that if we can carry the ball, if we can play deep into the enemy territory, our players have enough abilities and experiences to attack creatively, and even if we lose the ball, we are still good enough to win it back quickly with a quick and clever press. I believe so. Our priority is to carry the ball deep without needless risk.

The play that seems to be symbolic of this unfolds immediately around 0:40. This is our first attack of the game.
Why don't we analyze this attack first?

This is the starting lineup at the start of the game.
There will be no substitutions until the start of the second half.
Attaches are formation diagrams for both teams, but for clarity, I've entered the numbers, names and the positions of the starting players here.

Japan:

12 Tani -Goal Keeper

2 Sakai -Left Back
3 Nakayama -Right Back
4 Itakura -Left Center Back
5 Yoshida -Right Center Back (C)

6 Endo -Defensive Midfielder
17 Tanaka -Defensive Midfielder

10 Doan -Right Midfielder
7 Kubo -Center Midfielder
13 Hatate -Left Midfielder

19 Hayashi -Forward

--

Spain:

1 Simon -Goal Keeper

18 Gil -Left Back
12 Garcia -Center Back
4 Torres -Center Back
3 Cucurella -Right Back

6 Zubimendi -Midfielder
8 Merino -Midfielder
16 Pedri -Midfielder

11 Oyarzabal -Right Wing
9 Mir -Center Forward
19 Olmo -Left Wing

1 to nil. Uggh. So close. Japanese players should have faked a few injuries, they would have won.

J + number (e.g. J-19) refers to a player of the Japanese team, S + number (e.g. S-19) refers to a player of the Spanish team.

At about 0:40 of the first half, S-9 misses a pass and the ball goes over the touchline, leading to a Japanese throw-in.
J-2 throws the ball to J-19, but J-19 is tightly marked by S-6 and is putting S-6 on his back.
There is more space on the path from J-19 to J-6 than to J-10, but J-19 looks like he is thinking of passing the ball to J-10 from the start.
The accuracy of the pass to J-10 is quite poor while J-19 is out of position with three opponents around him, and J-10 seems to be able to only pass to the front space vaguely as if what he can do is only that.
J-7 is blocked by S-12, and Spain got the ball easily.

From the point of view of increasing pass success rate and possession rate, my question is why didn't J-2 throw in behind J-5 (or at least to J-6) where they can easily secure the ball?
There are only S-9 around J-5 and J-6; they could have easily passed the ball from J-5 to J-4 or to J-12 (GK).
Given Spain's fighting style, it seems likely that S-9 and S-11 will start to press on J-5 and J-4 if J-2 threw the ball to J-5.
J-5 or J-4 could have been able to pass the ball easily to the defensive-midfielder duo of J-6 and J-17 can look forward easily.
The space is quite tight with three opponents around J-19 who in fact received the throw-in.
On the other hand, J-5 has the quite large space.

Why not throw it to J-5?

It may be a small detail, but according to Miyamoto's book (https://trisquel.info/en/forum/tokyo-olympics-2021?page=1#comment-159581), throw-ins at low positions are disgusting for defense players. It sounds obvious, but because it is so close to the goal, the enemy thinks that if they can get the ball on a throw-in, they could have a good chance relatively easily.
He writes that it is not so difficult to mark all the players at throw-in because throwing with hands is less powerful than with feet.

I don't know why you would do a throw-in into a relatively dangerous area where the enemy is crowded, instead of into a safer area.
It seems to me that they are even deliberately playing in a way that reduces their own possession and pass success rate, since the possibility of being taken the ball out is relatively high.
It might be a play worth attempting if you know that S-12 is a pretty dumb player, and if you know you're going to be able to free Kubo (J-7) in this situation in a high possibility. There might be a chance that Doan will pass into a wide open space and Kubo can use his speed and dribbling to shoot.
But it's hard to imagine a Spanish center back setting free a player who doesn't need to be set free.
It doesn't make sense. Why did that guy (or rather, they as they are a team. It seems that no one complains about that kind of throw-ins) do a throw-in into the tight area? I don't understand. Would someone tell me why he chose the dangerous tight area??

By the way, Spain failed to attack before this Japanese attack, and the way Japan defended at that time was also questionable.
Surely the ball is hitting Doan (J-10).
Both teams want the hopped ball, and I understand that J-2 and J-6 think that they might be able to take the ball away from S-19 in a quite high possibility.
But neither J-2 nor J-6 seem to think about the free player on the side when they realized they cannot get the ball. I think one of them should at least eliminate the passing track. If possible, as soon as S-19 passed, one of them should run towards the free side player as fast as he can. But they seems to be so-called ball watchers.
But if I start writing about even defense like this, I would have to use quite a lot of time, so I'll limit my analysis to a few first plays of an attack here.

Anyway, they seem to be taking risks that they don't need to take in this attack.
Is that wrong?
What is the reason for throwing the ball into the tight space on a throw-in?
You have a safer choice. Why did you take the risk? What is the advantage of it?

This is the start of our second attack in this game. It is 1:33.
A Spain's attack failed.
In the words of Ryu Murakami, almost all attacks fail in soccer.
But we have to be determined to succeed in each and every one of our attacks.

Spain is clearly trying to set up a high press.
After a few seconds, the keeper tells the other players to move forward.
Then he kicks a very long pass, but the ball goes straight off the touchline around the halfway line.
No one was able to touch the ball.
And the J-13 player who seemed to be the target was only 170cm tall. As I have written in another thread, the keeper's (J-12 Tani) long feed accuracy is terrible. I am going to show the accuracy rate later after I counted it.

Personally, I basically don't like long feeds from keepers. This is because I have a feeling that the probability of being able to keep the ball is less than 50 percent. It often becomes the fast attack of the enemy. Especially, generally our attackers are small as a target man.
But I understand that as a keeper, it would be mentally easier to blow the ball far away than to have some teammate misses nearby. The keeper would have to stop a powerful shoot caused by the careless miss of someone.
So it might be able to say that the keeper does not trust our backs' abilities so much.
Tani's decision may have been the right one, given that we could hardly attack in this game.
But please remember that you also lost quite a few attacking opportunities with your own lots passing mistakes in this game.

But mostly, long feeds cause confusion in a crowded area, so if you're lucky, the excuse that a free player might be able to penetrate behind Spain's high line might sound reasonable.
But I still think it's a more passive and gambling play than carefully building up from the bottom. I believe that our boys can carry the ball over the halfway-line in more than 50% probability. what do you guys think about long feeds of keepers?

Interestingly, in both the first and second attacks of the game, they kinda forced the ball forward and lost it easily.

I feel like he is scared of his opponent and it shows in his play.

As you can see, from Tani's miss at 1:40 to the perfect assist of J-4's to a Spain forward at 5:05, the Japanese players touched the ball only 4 or 5 times. In that time, Spain has probably made more than 40 successful passes.
In contrast, in the five minutes, Japan has made only two successful passes.
The Spain possession ratio is probably about 95%. It could be worse (for us).

About those four or five times Japan touched the ball in this 5 minutes:

3:08 J-6's foot hits an enemy pass, resulting in a corner kick.

3:38 In a two-on-two on the deep left side, Spain's somewhat inaccurate pass to the back was kicked to the touchline by J-13. So-called clearing.

4:03 Spain's pass hits the foot of J-17. Nakayama pushes his opponent on the line of our penalty area to get the ball, and J-17 kicks the loose ball far forward. So-called clearing. Of course there are no Japs at the destination of the clear.

5:05 Itakura (J-4) deflects a Spain cross from the deep side. I don't know why he deflected it back. The ball became a highly accurate assist pass to S-9. It's a perfect assist, but S-9 misses a rather easy header and it went over the goal line. We got a goal kick luckily.

Spain had been in possession almost constantly during this three-and-a-half minute period, and almost half of Spain play was done in the deep bottom of our own half.
After that, we have our third attack, but as you can see, it ends with a throw-in by S-2 to the opposition. Nice pass! I will analyze this third attack in next post.

I can feel the anger welling up in me now. At the same time, I feel a kind of resignation that nothing I can say will make a difference.

About our third attack.
Because of a replay of the J-4's assist, I cannot see what happened, but it seems that J-12 (GK) passed a short grounder to J-2. It seems that there are more Spain players in our right area than our left area, though.
Anyway, J-2's pass hits an opponent's foot, and the ball went over the touchline. Throw-in. Throw-in...
Then as you see, J-2 throws the ball to an opponent.
Our third attack ended like this.
What should we analyze in this attack of ours?

If you watch these five minutes with the above in mind, I think you'll have so-so good time, so try using a Japanese VPN and typing "NHK 見逃し サッカー" into your browser's search box. You will be able to find the video of this match without commentator's voice. You can even listen to what Japs and Spanish players are speaking on the ground.

Edit: Note: It seems that NHK doesn't accept Tor traffic. And it seems that NHK does not accept even foreign traffic either. So please set your VPN Japan instead.

After watching Japan's play in the five minutes, after thinkng about it calmly, isn't it natural to think that the Japanese team is trying to lose on purpose?

Is it a rigged game? If so, this analysis (and my time) is almost meaningless.
But... can professional soccer players show that low level of performance on a big stage like the semi-finals of the Olympics when they are playing seriously?

J-2's two throw-ins, J-12's long pass that went straight over the touchline, J-4's perfect assist to the enemy forward... Those plays were done within only 5 minutes.

J-2 threw the second throw-in into where only the enemy was present, and J-13, who was the target man, showed a thumb-up to J-12 when J-12's long pass went over the touchline. Itakura (J-4) must have been surprised to see the enemy missed his heading shot. "Hey hey, I don't know if I can make such a perfect assist anymore, man.".

By the way, who was responsible for the loss of the goal occurred at the end of this match, of course, should be everyone's responsibility, but if I may say so, Itakura seemed to have lost his concentration for a moment. On top of that, right after the goal was scored, Itakura showed a performance that seemed to blame someone. However, the direction of his blame performance was half-hearted, so it is hard to tell who he was blaming.

6:07
I had questions about this throw-in too, and I humbly asked myself why, and I thought about it a lot, but I don't know.
Why doesn't S-3 throw the throw-in into the space behind S-19? S-19 could have quite various shot courses, it seems.
So far, I think that he thought J-2 would track S-19, but J-2 didn't, but he couldn't fix it in his mind, so he threw it to S-9.
Why didn't he throw it to the large space? Why... I can't understand... Isn't that a quite dangerous space? At least I think if I was a defense player, I would not want to be thrown it into there. S-19 would be able to at least shoot. Is that wrong? I am getting tired. And no one is going to answer my questions. I might quit this analysis halfway through.

I suddenly had a craving for chocolate brownies, probably due to stress, and I wanted to eat a lot of them, not just like the small one that costs 300 yen or so, so I looked for a recipe. I heard that you can make it with just flour, cocoa powder, sugar, oil, and water, so I'm going to go buy some cocoa powder tomorrow. I used to have a rather cheap cocoa powder before, but it's gone now. Cocoa powder is quite expensive, isn't it? The Van Houten cocoa powder that you can find even in supermarkets is 700 yen for 200 grams on amazon.com. Alisan's organic cocoa powder is 591 yen for 150 grams. That's enough. That's enough!

Japan's fourth attack of the game starts around 6:55.
Japan's 5th attack starts at around 7:32, and their 6th attack starts at around 8:10, when S-9 fouled J-5 (C).

By the way, as the possession ratio is shown on the screen as Spain-70 and Japan-30 after 15 minutes, Japan is getting better at possession.

It seems that Spain started bit dicey attacks, after S-9 missed the shot assisted by J-4 Itakura.
They seem to be in a bit hurry to attack instead of being cautious as before. There are more and more mistakes, so it seems that Japan is becoming more and more able to get attacking opportunities.

However, there is still a big difference in possession after 15 minutes, and I think the number of passes is also quite different.
Most importantly, Spain started to shoot in the flow of the game, despite the increasing number of passing errors.

Apparently, Japan basically wants to run J-19 in the back of Spain and use a lot of long passes in the attack.
This is in contrast to Spain, which steadly attacks with mainly accurate short passes.
I've always thought that Japan's offensive strategy is to carry the ball to the front line with mostly short passes like Spain does, but I don't know if I was an idiot or if this is the basic strategy they're using only in this game (so far).

However, J-19, the one-top player, did a poor job of positioning himself near the enemy line, and committed two offside fouls in the 15 minutes. He is waiting for his teammates to pass the timing of his dash in offside, so of course when his teammate passes, he is (almost) always in offside.
It might be hard to see if there are defenders behind him, but there is no Spain defender behind him, and there are two defenders only in front of him, and he can see them, yet he is in offside and waiting for the right moment to pass.
I honestly don't think he is a professional soccer player. When I was watching the game live too, I remember thinking something like, "How many times is he going to commit offside in this game?".

He's obviously not a good runner, and with a forward like that as one-top, I don't know why they're supplying long balls to the Spain's back instead of connecting pass to pass steadly. Indeed, I found that in the 15 minutes our backs Yoshida (J-5), Nakayama (J-3), and Tanaka (J-17) can supply very accurate lobs to the forward, I forget his name.
So regrettably, as you can see, he doesn't look like a player who can run into the off-side very well.

As a result, until at least the 15th minute, Spain had 70% possession, probably 10 times as many passes, and four shots, one of which was a dangerous shot that would normally have been scored, and two of which Yoshida blocked, but they were powerful shots. The rest one was kind of unexpected but also might have been dangerous.

In contrast, most of the passes to the back were offside, meaning that the whistle blew for the foul so Spain got the ball.
Even the passes that weren't offside, J-19 couldn't keep the ball almost at all and easily lost it to the opponent after missed the second touches.
His first touch is very good, his body balance is good for his size, and maybe he has a bit good sense of shooting. So if he can run into the off-side well, he would be a scary forward for the opponents.
However, if you look at the video, you will see that he is not a player who can be used in a fast attack to the enemy's back. Because he is not good at running (so far).
Again, he is trying to run into the offside in the offside, so even if his timing is right, he will be offside, right?

Anyway, that's why our possession rate was 30% in the 15 minutes. Because every our attack ended soon. We haven't shot in these 15 minutes yet.

I don't know, I've only played soccer twice, but for example, one day I go surfing.
If you go into the ocean and can't catch a single wave for 20 or 30 minutes, it's not good for your mental health. So sometimes I catch a wave in the inside, even if it's soup.
I used to play basketball, but I don't know, I used to shoot right away in basketball,
so I don't know, but I think it's not good for your mental health if you can't take a shot for several minutes after the start of the game. So when I'm watching soccer, I really want you to take the first shot as soon as possible.
The main reason is that Japanese soccer players in particular tend to forget the purpose of scoring a goal, if they don't take a shot.

I remembered Kubo (J-7) here.
He was probably the most watched player in this U23 team in Japan, both by Japanese and foreigners who like soccer.

I'll re-count it later, but he touched the ball only once or twice in the ten minutes. But since Japan always lost the ball quickly, so Japan didn't have many touches even in the whole team, though.
Looking at what kind of attack they've been doing so far, it looks like Japan is basically aiming for a lobbed long pass to the top (J-19), even when the ball is won in the midfield and the pressure is tight, or when the pressure is a little looser at the back and there's more time to spare.

In other words, perhaps the ball often goes over Kubo's head. Incidentally, Kubo seems to be posted under the top.

I'm going to watch all the group stage games again and the New Zealand game. IIRC, the formation at the start was always the same in all the games, always J-19 was posted at the top, and Kubo was posted at under the top.

Aiming for long passes to the back many times might be the strategy only in the beginning of this game.
I'll have to watch the game again to see how this team plays other than this game, as I didn't understand it when I was watching those games live.
But even if it is just a strategy only for this time of the game, J-19 clearly does not look like a good player to run into the offside. Indeed, they have good lobs from the backs and the defensive midfielders. Indeed, Kubo has scored three goals in the group [edit: in the group stages]. But I don't know the reasons why the coach posts Kubo (J-7) at under the top.

I am not sure how they are going to utilize Kubo's ability.

If you want to feed a lot of long passes to the back, wouldn't it be better to post Kubo (number 7) at the top?
I don't know which is better at this moment.

Anyway, we lost to Spain, though.
I have to understand what happened, how did they try to win. As we cannot argue with our players on the website.

To be honest, I've never thought Kubo was particularly good.
He hadn't scored in nearly 10 games for Japan.
When he scored for the first time in a friendly match, I was impressed by the look of relief on his face.

I heard that he averaged two goals in the FC Barcelona children's team, that he was the top scorer in something called the Mediterranean Cup, and that the Barcelona supporters called him Messi II - I don't know much about this kind of information- but, so I was expecting him to score.

He had only scored one goal for the Japanese national team and I had heard rumors that one goal in the Spanish league.

In this Olympics, he scored three goals. I guess I should be happy about that.
I thought that he was finally starting to function well in the team recently. I was honestly happy to see that.
We've never had such a special player on the team before, and I think there are a lot of unknowns. How should we do?
In the end, we can only judge by the results, and anyway, he scored three goals.

In the game against Spain, Spain could have scored more goals considering their possesion rate, but they were a strong European country, and losing by one goal is something that we, as supporters of a weak country, can be proud of.
I know I don't think it's anything to be ashamed of. But...

Should we be happy that Kubo scored three goals and that we were able to play well against Spain in the semifinal?
I think it's the first time for Japan to beat a strong team like France by four goals in an official match. Mexico also is a strong team.
We didn't win the gold medal, but should we be satisfied?

I'm thinking about such （’ З ’）。

B2B...

Mezzala...

This is a funny pose.

The last photo can be a good painting. I like the composition, the balance of those objects. They express various emotions individually, especially the Spanish coach's one is funny. I am going to palm off the work on Merino boy.

I'm afraid but I will edit this post later but please post this plot now. For some reasons. Thank you for your patienxce ;)

We have three overage slots for two backs and a defensive midfielder, and the two backs will most likely retire right after the World Cup in Qatar because of their age.
There always seems to be a debate about overage.
You can have an Olympic team with all U23 players and let the youngsters gain experience on the big stage, but the decision to use overage players is to prioritize using high-level players to increase the probability of victory over letting the youngsters gain experience.
So, this time, they sacrificed the experience of their young players in favor of the gold medal, and they were only one point behind Spain.
They have only conceded two goals in five games, which proves that their defense is rather strong.
But you didn't fight to prove the strength of Japan's defense, you fought to win the gold medal, didn't you?
Even against Spain, they held them to one goal. Before the overtime, they had held Spain to zero goals.
They couldn't score, but in the group stage, they scored 7 goals.

What I'm trying to say is that if you look at the way they played against Spain, they seem to be using the long ball from the back directly to the forwards as their basic attacking style.
This time, Hayashi was the forward. Hayashi was called up to the Olympic team for the first time in March or April of this year, I believe.
Ueda, on the other hand, has been called up to this age group team for quite some time.
I don't know why they would use Ueda, but I think at least he has been part of this Tokyo Olympic generation team for a long time and probably knows the other basic members and each other very well, for example, the number 3.
At least Ueda and the defender, who has actually been on the Olympic team for the past five years, have a deeper experience of fighting together than Yoshida and Hayashi.
It's not that I'm trying to clarify what's wrong with the coach, but when he decided to use three overage defenders with a lot of experience in Europe and high ability at all times, he threw away the experience of the forwards and defenders on that team.
So I ended up using Hayashi as the top player in all five games. I think Hayashi is a pretty good player. But first of all, from what I have seen, he is not good at jumping out from the back.
Secondly, the basic attacking style is to pass long balls from the back to the forwards, so of course defenders and forwards should know each other well.
The coach and the players have a lot more information than I do, so I'm sure they've thought about these things much more deeply than I have. With far more information than I have, they decided on the basic starting lineup and basic tactics, and that's how the results of each and every game at the Olympics came out.
We made it to the semifinals, and I can say that we did much better than expected, because I thought before the Olympics that there was a very good chance that we would be eliminated in the group league.
With all the information we had, we thought and practiced to do this and that, and as a result of our accumulated efforts, we were able to achieve results that exceeded the normal expectations of our supporters.
The opponents were South Africa, Mexico, and France, and I think the most likely outcome for Japanese supporters was that we might be able to win against South Africa but probably lose against France and Mexico.
Considering that Kubo had only scored one goal up until then, it was a miracle that he scored three goals.

But in the end, he didn't achieve his goal, did he?

If we play Spain again in the semifinals, I think we'll win two or three times out of ten.

If we played Mexico in the group league, I think we would lose five times out of ten.

Everything is decided in one game, and that one game will reflect the time since we started building the team for the Tokyo Olympics.

What were we lacking?
The media and players often say that the issue is decisiveness, but is the lack of decisiveness the reason why we didn't win the gold medal?
That team scored two goals from Mexico and four goals from France.
There is no way they lacked decisiveness.
Then why did they lose to Spain?
Of course, luck would be involved. But personally, I think luck is something inevitable that is reflected in something.
Why did we lose to Spain? Why did we not win the gold medal? We didn't think about something enough, we didn't do something enough, and the person who has the most amount of information should be the coach of that team, or in fact the coach of that team.

The person who has the most information should be the coach of that team, in fact, the coach of that team. He probably has the best understanding of the complex, complicated and time-consuming reasons why they didn't win the gold medal.

彼らはオーバーエイジ枠の3人をバック2人、ディフェンシブミッドフィールダー1人に充てて、バックの2人は年齢的に多分カタールのワールドカップの直後に代表引退する可能性が高いんです。
オーバーエイジについてはいつも議論があるようです。
全員U23の選手でオリンピックチームを構成して若手に大舞台での経験を積ませる事も出来るんだけど、オーバーエイジを使うという決断は、若手に経験を積ませるよりもレベルの高いプレーヤーを使って勝利の確率をあげるという事を優先させるという事らしいんです。
で、今回若手の経験値を犠牲にして金メダルを優先させて、スペインに1点差で済んだと。
五試合で2点しか失点していないので、確かに守備がわりと強い事は証明しました。
でも日本の守備の強さを証明するために戦ったのではなくて、金メダルを獲るために戦った訳ですよね？
スペイン戦でも一点で抑えている訳です。延長戦の前までは彼らはスペインの得点を0に抑えていた。
得点出来なかった訳ですけど、グループステージでは7点スコアしている。

何が言いたいかというと、スペイン戦の戦い方を見ると、バックからのロングボールを直接フォワードに通すのを基本の攻撃の型にしているようです。
今回は林がフォワードでした。林は確か今年の3月か4月にオリンピックチームに初招集されたらしい。
一方上田はこの年代のチームでかなり昔から招集されてるらしい。
私は上田を起用する理由が分からないが、少なくとも彼はこの東京オリンピック世代のチームに長く参加していて、おそらく他の基本メンバーと、例えば3番のような選手と、お互いをよく理解していると思うんです。
少なくとも吉田と林よりは、実際にオリンピックチームで5年前から戦ってきたディフェンダーと上田の方が、一緒に戦ったという経験値が深い。
別にあの監督のダメな所を明確にしようとしている訳でもないんですけど、オーバーエイジで欧州での経験が豊富で能力の高いディフェンダーを三人常時起用すると決めた時点で、それまでのフォワードとディフェンダーのそのチームでの経験値というのを捨てたわけじゃないですか。
で、結局林を全5戦でワントップで起用しています。林はそこそこいいプレーヤーだと思う。けどまず、私がみた限り裏への飛び出しが下手だというのがある。
次に、基本の攻撃の型が、バックからロングボールをフォワードに通す、ですからもちろんディフェンダーとフォワードはお互いをよく理解していた方がいい。
あの監督も選手も私より情報量が多いからそういうことは私より遥かに深く考えてきただろう。私より遥かに多い情報量を持った上で、基本のスターティングメンバーと基本の戦術を決めて、オリンピックでの一試合一試合の結果が出た訳です。
準決勝に進んだ訳ですが、グループリーグで敗退する可能性がかなり高いと私はオリンピック前に思っていましたから、予想よりかなり良くやったと言えます。
そういう全ての情報を持って、ああしよう、こうしようと考えて、練習して、蓄積したものの結果、一般サポーターの普通の予想を超えた結果を出した。
相手は南アフリカとメキシコとフランスだった訳で、南アフリカには勝てるかもしれないがフランスとメキシコには多分負けるたろうというのが日本のサポーターがまず普通に考えて最もあり得る結果だったと思うんです。
それまで久保が一点しか取れていなかった事を考えれば、彼が3点獲ったのも奇跡と言えるかもしれない。

ただ結局目的は達成できなかったじゃないですか。

スペインとまたあの準決勝の試合をしたら、十回に2,3回は勝つと思うんです。

メキシコとあのグループリーグの試合をしたら、十回に5回は負けると思う。

一回の試合で全てが決まってしまって、その一回の試合に東京オリンピックのチーム作りを始めた時からの時間が結果として反映される。

何が足りなかったのか。
課題は決定力とかよくメディアとか選手も言いますけど、じゃあ金メダルを取れなかった理由は決定力不足なんでしょうか？
あのチームはメキシコから2点取ってフランスから4点取った。
決定力がないわけがない。
じゃあなぜスペインに負けたのか？
運ももちろん絡むだろう。でも個人的には運というのは何かが反映されている必然的なものだと思う。
なぜスペインに負けたのか？なぜ金メダルを取れなかったのか？何か考えなければいけないことを考え足りなかったのであり、しなければいけないことをし足りなかったのであり、その情報量を一番多く持っているのは、あのチームの監督であるべきだり、実際あのチームの監督なんです。

金メダルを獲れなかった複合的で複雑で時間的な理由をあの監督が一番よく理解できるはずなんです。

簡単に言えば、グループリーグで7点取った、全試合で失点は2点、準決勝で負けたが、久保は3点取った。何か文句あんのかってのがあの監督のressentimentだと思うんです。それが4位という結果と金メダルの差そのものだと思うんです。このフォーラムでも書きましたが、7才か8才からバルセロナで世界最高のサッカーを学びながら生きてきてしかも抜群の結果を出し続けてきた男が、Jリーグで監督をして2位になったことがあると言われても木梨憲武の言葉を借りれば、へえ、としか言えないってのが、ねえ？
このフォーラムでjealousとenvyは違う、envyは消せないとかいう誰かのポストを読んだ事がありますけど、それがほんとなら、ねえ。地元のオリンピックにあんたは金メダルの格じゃないよ、三格下のさらにその一個下、と言われたんじゃねえのかなとか考えちまうよな。自然と。
根底にあった問題が分かりやすい4位で表現された訳ですけど、サッカーはチームスポーツですからあの監督にも金メダルを取れるやり方はあったと思うけどな。
すると問題はそもそも監督を決めた連中にあったんじゃないかという事になる。誰？オレ知らないけど決めた時サポーターと話し合って納得させたの？おい。

2010年のワールドカップで岡田武史さんは自国開催以外のワールドカップではじめてベスト16入りを成し遂げました。サッカー昔から熱い人はカズと北澤を帰したとか言っていい印象は持っていない人も多いのかもしれませんがオレはそんなの知んないし、岡田監督には敬意を払います。
ラウンド16に進むにはどうしたらいいのかって考えてやってきた事が正しくて実になったという感じだった。交代に出るんですよね。ここで稲本を投入するっていうのは完璧に道理的で自然で、まるで良い芸術作品のような交代なんです。村上龍の言葉をまた借りれば、よい作品というのは必要なものを必要なだけどっかから持ってくる、みたいな作品なんです。無理がないというか... ここで稲本というのは納得できる、ここで中村憲剛を投入というのは納得できるんです [追記: 中村憲剛自身が、(この展開では)出番が必ず来ると思ってゲーム(ベンチからパラグアイ戦を)を見ていたみたいに後で語っている]。あのチームは勝つべくして勝った。ラウンド16でのパラグアイ戦はノックアウトステージでの戦い方は分からないけど今までやってきたとおりに戦おう、みたいな感じだった。ただ最悪PKでもいい、PKなら勝てる、と思ったのが間違いだったみたいですね。分からなかったのだから仕方がないが間違っていた。
宮本恒靖くんは例の戦術の本でザッケローニさんに対してやや批判的ですが、私は敬愛していて、セリエAで優勝した監督が来るとの事でサポーターは多分みんな興奮していて彼は大人気でした。とくに女性に。彼は日本人は私をチヤホヤしすぎると笑顔で語った。ザックちゃんは就任して最初のアルゼンチン戦で、コーチとしてピッチにいたのは原さんですが、ホームで1-0で勝ちます。メッシを日本に来させることをアルゼンチンに確約してもらったようです。次戦の韓国戦でピッチに立ち、引き分けます。アジアカップでの采配は岡田さんと一緒で勝つべくして勝ったという実感がある。考えることを考え、するべきことをし損なわなかったのでしょう。交代選手が次々と結果を出して、優勝するのですが、ダメな監督ってのは大舞台で交代直後に失点する。しません？
岡田さんにしろザックちゃんにしろ交代直後に失点することもしたことももちろんあるでしょうけど、ここぞという大会で2人とも成功していますし、なにより彼らのチームは良い雰囲気があった。岡田さんもザックちゃんも選手としては多分超一流じゃないんですけど、バルセロナで育成されてきたようなエリートでも、単純にああこの人いい人だなって思ってこだわりを見て勝ちそうだと思っちゃうと思うんですけどね。少なくとも岡田さんやザックちゃんは久保を投入する時になんか醜いオーラを抑えきれずに噴出させてしまったりは絶対しない。と思う。はあ疲れた。

簡単に言えばあの監督は何かポジティブなものではなく、なんか文句あんのかというためにあの死後とをしていたと思う。なんか文句あんのかと言えるだけの材料が出た時点で酒井から板倉に受け継がれたと思われる強いオウンゴールっ気が板倉のアシストにつながってしまった。板倉はオレが数えただけで三回あの試合でスペインにアシストを提供している。富安はイタリアでいい監督がついていてくれているのか彼の表情だけからは分かりづらいところだが、今のチームの監督が好きでもきらいでも例え弱目のチームでもいいから自分が気に入った監督のチームでプレイしてほしい。

板倉に関してはマンチェスター・シティに移籍するみたいだが、マンチェスター・シティはそういうことをつまりは君の自殺っ気を分かっていて日本の層の薄いセンターバックに穴を作って、つまり欧州の強いチームでやってるセンターバック使うでしょっていうので、日本戦に備えて穴を作ろうとしていると思うので、ただ寛容な事に大成するチャンスもくれた訳ですから、彼らにとっては楽しいリスクですが、センターバックとしてレギュラーに定着してほしいものです。ボランチで起用とか控えだったら無理だよ完璧にワールドカップでの日本戦に備えているだけとしか思えねえ。ボランチはけっこう層厚いからさウチは。スペインとバルセロナを見てオレはワンボランチがやりたくなったよ。ワンボランチハイリスク押し込みグラスホッパー殺法！

スコーピオンピンボール...?ぷぷダサ。ゲーム用？

なんか悠にしても空閑にしてもオレの好きだったキャラは人気投票で2位なんだけど今は宏海が一位を取った理由が分かるのだが確かに冗談じゃねえ。

今また少し寝て起きた。なんか今このスレッドか他のオレがTroll Loungeにたてたスレッドかわかんねえけどそこのケツに枠がライトグリーンのポストがみっつ連続して投稿されてんの見つけてユーザー名が微妙に違うのよみっつとも。エスパーダかよとかまあ思った後ピリッとしたけどエスパーダとエスパーニャって似てるよなと思って目が覚めた。ちなみになんかキャバクラの女たちと男もいたかなあいたなあ、たちと協力して仁義知らねえガキ共と戦うんだけど、ああそうだ最初検問かなんかが高速であって無事スルーした直後の交差点でなんかアクセル戻んねえかなんかキキーッとかちょっとターン気味に派手に横断歩道過ぎちゃってすぐ後ろの検問からいっぱいすぐおまわり来ちゃってちょっとこっち来てね？だろ？ハイそうですみたいな。246の渋谷手前みたいな雰囲気高速上に走っててさ、夜でピカピカしててさ、その後なんか条件出されてそういうとこあんじゃんやっと解放みたいになってガキどもと揉め出したのかなあ。揉めるっつっても... オレうまくやんだけどミスして助手席から女に呆れられんだよなあ。このディテールじゃ後で思い出すのは無理だな。というかこの独特の色を持った感覚を思い出すのは無理だな。その色が作品の魅力だよなあ特にマンガの。アップルシードなんか今の若い頭の切れるやつテープレコーダーかよってバカにすっかもしんないけど最高にカッコよかったぜ？色があったよ。味とかいうのかなあ。味とは違うよな。感覚で色だよな。そういうインテンシティの高い若え漫画家なんかいんの？今。笑
ペラペラだぜどいつもこいつも。あーつまんねー。

なんかカンヌで5分間スタンディングオベーションとかいって気になってた映画があるんだけど観ようかなあってでも昨日村上春樹原作って先輩の家でテレビ見ててチラッと見えてもうまず100パーみないな。村上春樹がどうこうとかじゃなくて他人の作品映画化しようとする連中ってうんざり。庵野さんみたいにエヴァンゲリオン作ってその後ラブ&ポップとかならわかるんだけど。まあそうだったはそのうちどっかで知って観るかもしんないけど。黒澤明しかライトうまく使える映画ディレクターって日本にいなくない？小津とか溝口とかたけしさんとかオレ好きだけどライト使えてねえよ。羅生門やべえよ。インテンシティなんだよ。あれライトだけじゃねえのかなあ。まあ役者がペラペラじゃダメかもな。

と、起きて喉がカラカラで冷蔵庫の中にあるコップに入ったアイスコーヒー飲みたくてたまんねえのに色忘れたくねえからできるだけ色再現できるように覚えてるうちに、すぐ忘れちまうじゃん夢って、書こうと思ってカラカラの喉でいくつかポストをガーッと書いた。オレこうやってなんか足の姿勢が気に入んないとかションベンしたいとか我慢してガーッとポスト書く事が多い。ログイン画面でpanties、password、とか打ってる時もミスるギリギリの速度でタップするからこのiPhoneで投稿するときはね、たまにやっぱタップミスするけど、文章書いてるときも結構ミスるなあ。Trisquelで投稿するときは変換との相性の悪さと格闘しながら書いてるよなあんまミスはしないと思うけどこちらは。

45くらいでオレも一本映画撮りてえなあ。60で撮った方が味は出ると思うけど、羅生門や8 1/2なのって中期だよね。ああいう生々しいインテンシティの作品って。村上龍なら絶対メランコリアだな。

Le Mepisもそうだな。ギラギラしてるもんが枯渇するんだな。ある程度やった感と諦念とか時間のせいで枯渇せざるを得ないからやっぱ45がリミットだな。プロット書くかあ。メイドインジャパンの楽器でキューバ音楽みたいの作曲したかったけどあれってギラギラするってよりは楽しく踊ろうぜだから年食っても作れるから優先順位は後と。オレそん時まで生きてんのかなあ。

大体キューバ人五分間スタンディングオベーションなんてしねえよきっと。そういう規則的じゃなもんじゃなくてなんか手頃なみんなが知ってるその作品にふさわしい歌でもみんなで歌ってくれんじゃねえか。その手拍子をフランスで聴いた訳じゃねえからなんとも言えないがダサ、ぷぷ。まあでもイタリアワールドカップのラウンド16だか8だかでなんか民謡みたいなの敵味方関係ねえサポーターの大合唱って素晴らしいよね。人間の、人生の、世界の美しさですよ。鳥とか虫とかスタジアムで見て聞いて何を思ったんだろう。

オレは満員のスタジアムを愛する。空席のあるスタジアムは刺身のツマとしてだけ意味があってあんな寂しいものはあまりないが日本中のドドドドど田舎の3万人規模のスタジアムとかでも毎週チケット入手困難とかになったらにしゅうかんに一度はお祭りだね。中村憲剛がワールドカップを獲るのと同じくらいサッカーがヨーロッパみたいに根付いている国にするのは重要だと思うみたいに言ってたけどそうだと思う。本当にそうだと思う。そんくらいはみんなサッカー好きだと思うんだけどあれはベルマーレとかアントラーズとかそれが嫌なんじゃねえのみんな。そういう大衆的センスで最初はヴェルデのチケット入手困難ってなったけど、誰か有名なたぶん大昔の外国人が言ってたけど、新しいものは大衆に受け入れられない、それが段々と受け入れられて大衆に愛されて、陳腐になれば大衆に笑われる。あれは最初から大衆に受け入れられて笑われたんだよ速攻。ダセエって。君たちのそのセンスが。そして20年経った今でもそれを変えられずにダサいチーム名だけがどこどこ銀座商店街の錆びた看板みたいに残ってやがる。罪だねもう。罪。東京FCとかはまあ数チームはありだと思うけどやっぱ大鵠沼マンサッカ先輩本店、とかさ。日本人なんだからよ。永遠に笑えるギャグをつければ飽きられねえよ。愛されるよきっと。名前変えなくても。レッズとかアルジャジーダとかなんとかとかダッセえ。ダサ！そのセンス。

まあFCみやぎバルセロナとかは面白いといえば面白いけど一発ギャグだよな。いやでもFCみやぎバルセロナは永遠にアリかもしれない。あれギャグなの本気なのなんなの？

空閑魅力なくなったよな。あんなカッコよかったのにもう今じゃなんか分かっちゃいけない分かったような事分かり続けてしまって言い続け過ぎてもうただの凡キャラ以下。つまり設定が連載の長さをカバーできていないいつものでもドラゴンボールだってそうじゃないスかの異世界系漫画のいつもの錆びた展開。まあなんかそういうの好きな人は多いみたいだから食ってけんだろうけどオレは退屈。

確かに自分の事書いてるみたいだな。オレも気をつけよう飽きられないように。この世で最も怖いことだよそれは。きっと死ぬよりも。がんばるしかねえよ... がんばろう。ガンバ。まあオレの先輩たちはいまでも女性に面白いと言われているのでオレもがんばってれば大丈夫だろう。ガンバ... ガンバはいいよな。語呂がいい。大阪人えらい。流石。大阪人がつけたのか知んないけど。流石流川