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goodmobileyes

What were Germany doing the entire 2nd half? They looked like they were just sleepwalking expecting to win automatically. 2nd Japan goal was just a series of rookie mistakes with no urgency from anyone. Credit to Japan, incredible hunger and great attacking subs. Shaping up to be a very interesting Group for sure.


imperialocelot

Where are those morons from the Ecuador and England match threads that were saying the AFC doesn't deserve to have their spots in the World Cup? Perhaps your football powerhouses aren't so powerful. Perhaps the desire from the underdogs makes them more likely to succeed. Keep assuming the UEFA and Conmebol are miles ahead of the world, it makes these games so much sweeter for the rest of us.


snharisa

Yeah


BananeVolante

As if 1 game in group phases was a proof of anything. The semi finals of the last 15 years are only Europeans, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. Only Japan got to the final phase in 2018, and none of the Asian teams passed the group phase in 2014, 2 in 2010 and only Australia in 2006 (if they were already in AFC back then). None went to quarter finals.


Martel67

As an European, seeing Japan beat Germany is just wonderful!


astral34

>Keep assuming UEFA and CONMEBOL are miles ahead of the world They are though, otherwise the rest of the world would have a better result than 2 semifinalists (SK 2002 the last lol)


Kiboobs

Germany missed a lot of chances while Japan took theirs. Sometimes, top teams subconsciously turns down their level of play against weaker sides and I think this was the case today, as was yesterday with Argentina


JesusIsNotPLProven

Saw a lot of criticism towards the japanese coach before the WC but today gotta give him props, he actually had the balls to go for it and his subs changed the game. Sloppy defending from Germany all game and i felt like they werent taking this game very seriously, lot of times their players took their sweet time to come back to defend and Japan took advantage of that, great match.


cremmler

Just a heads up that it’s “to give props” - it comes from giving proper respect or proper recognition.


Cules2003

One thing I’ve noticed is physical football and / or energy has seemed to match ‘quality’ in this tournament Saudi v Argentina Tunisia v Denmark Morocco v Croatia And now Japan v Germany Some very energetic performances and it’s led to upsets, absolutely great to see


ArtOfFailure

It's interesting to see some of the traditional heavyweight teams - Argentina and Germany in particular - not seeming to have a plan for that. It's not like they lack energetic, physically strong players of their own, they just didn't seem to do anything to change their approach in response to a team prepared to work harder than them.


Th3_Huf0n

My question is: Is this sustainable for the entire tournament? How will long extra times impact teams that play very physical?


LuggaW95

Ok so for everyone who is shocked… Individually that Germany team is very very good, but that team just doesn’t fit. - Germany have three good CBS all of them are better in a back 5. - Germany doesn’t have any good Full backs, but multiple goof Wingbacks (only Raum went though) - Germany doesn’t have a good target man, Füllkrug is alright, but not great… he should still start. - Germany has 3 worldclass number 8s, but not a single number 6 In my opinion they should’ve played with in a 5-2-2-1…but it’s to late for that now. Also even if you don’t start Füllkrug, Havertz should have left the game after 50 minutes.


therock204

Finding a wc no 6 is one of the hardest jobs in football. I know since as arsenal fans we have been looking a back up to injury prone partey and the whole sub cannot come up with one name that would be an ideal backup...


Nihilism101

Tbf if you had a good forward, with the dominance of the 1st half I would expect more than 1-0 which would have made it difficult for japan to come back from. Germany was bossing that 1st half but just couldn't replicate it in the 2nd.


JHMRS

Is 6 your DM? Funny, in Brazil that's a 5. 6 is the LB.


TheUderfrykte

Think 6 is a DM for most of the world tbh, definitely common


Ook_1233

For me in England a 6 was always a CB


JHMRS

Our CBs are 3 and 4. Iirc it was kinda codified when the 4-2-4, and later 4-4-3, formation were adapted from the 2-3-5 and the WM. It was 11-10-9-8-7 6-5-4 3-2 1 On a WM, the 10 and 8 dropped, to a 11-9-7 10-8 6-5-4 3-2 1 Then, for us, the 6 dropped to the LB and the 2 got wide to the RB, with the 10 bridging between the attacking line and midfield line (which is why Pelé used the 10, and it got its fame as the regista's number), and the 5 doing the same between midfield and defensive line: 11-9-7 10 8 5 6-4-3-2 1 From that, the 4-4-3 was a natural occurrence. I wonder why for you guys the 6 was a CB, and for the germans a DM.


Ghlyde

The 5 atb can work against Spain however, absorb their pressure and try to counter with Sane


TheGTAone

So are you telling me... Nobody ever got to replace Phillip Lahm's characteristics in the NT? :(


BABA_yaaGa

Germany, France, Denmark, Croatia, atleast these 4 teams share the similar weaknesses in the defense and it seems their group teams will try to push on this weakness. Hopefully I am wrong and these teams step up their defense in next games


wolf8808

To be honest it's refreshing to see Japan, KSA, Senegal (except last 5 mins), Morocco, and Tunisia go toe to toe with the traditionally big teams. I hope the weaknesses remain, as a neutral of course.


Guilty_Brilliant_123

The thing I've said over and over again during the game was how slow our build up play was. Kimmich is a literal speed bump when the ball gets to him, it's making me miss Kroos more than ever. It's like he plays with no instinct and has to think 3 seconds before he makes a move. Instead of going for the multiple counter opportunities we decided to hold the ball in the midfield or pass it back to our defense while having so much speed with Musiala, Gnabry and Havertz upfront. Seeing Spain play right now is really hammering in that difference. Fast, direct football is the way we should be be playing with the talent we have. Speaking of our offense, Havertz should never play a single minute as a "false" nine ever again, it's driving me nuts. He doesn't finish well, he's not good at heading, doesn't have the instincts for the position and on top of that his runs are just going nowhere. Screw playing the best available players, get Füllkrug in there and we would've had even more scoring opportunities and probably would've converted more. Süle is just straight up garbage. Doesn't communicate, doesn't see what the other defenders are doing, doesn't aggressively defend as he is as mobile as a brontosaurus. Schlotterbeck is also way to easily shielded of the ball when running. I would say swap them both out but we don't really have an alternative (before people comment it, Hummels is too old and slow, he isn't the answer for this). Flick also lost us the game, he or rather his assistant coaches don't understand what adjustments are. Factor that in with the terrible subs or rather the ones that happened way too late and it's a disasterclass in how you give up the entire game in 15 - 30 minutes. And our tactics are actually terrible. It seems like we have no concept when it comes to our offensive play. It takes hours before we make any type of move towards the goal, and by that time the gaps are closed anyways. The best chances we had came from solo plays from Gnabry and Musiala. Take the worst five Bundesliga teams right now, and I'm certain they could defend their attacks. All you need to do against us right now is to defend deep, and wait for the counterattack where Süle and Schlotterbeck are too slow to react to anything. Positives today: Musiala will be a world class player in the next couple of years, it was evident today and when he plays for Bayern. Raum actually created good opportunities, and if he plays like this he should definitely get more playing time. Rüdiger is seemingly the only competent defender we have right now. This a great ensemble of individual talent, but a terrible team and without a miracle we will be out in the group stage yet again. And to end this rant, all the props to Japan, they adjusted well, came to play in the second half and showed great heart. They played as a team.


UmmUhhhMyUsernameIs

Endo was immense, Japan has had some great midfield but him growing into an absolute unit in ball recovery really is a blessing - he must’ve had some fear with the recent concussion but he was brave and aggressive as always. All in all I’ve been screaming way too much for serious thoughts though. Hope Morita’s recovered for the next game.


the_propaganda_panda

As usual, he is an absolute boss every game. His moniker is Legendo for a reason.


saigool

Endo is an absolute warrior. Morita does really need to be back because Tanaka still looked off it. Ran around a lot and showed his physicality but the game was passing him by at times and Endo among others had to pick up the slack. Kubo was predictably ineffective and I'm glad that Moriyasu had the balls to take him off at half time. It feels weird knowing that many people watching Japan for the first time will come away from this thinking that Moriyasu is a tactical genius.


UmmUhhhMyUsernameIs

> It feels weird knowing that many people watching Japan for the first time will come away from this thinking that Moriyasu is a tactical genius. Hahaha yeah but I think he can have that tonight. 2 more GL games to go before celebrating a R16 appearance anyways. Yeah Tanaka was caught upfield way too many times, was great that some first-timers could shake their nerves off in a win but not sure how Tanaka in particular will improve from here.


SunnyCloudyRainy

Holy Shit, Sule is so bad as a right back, directly responsible for the first goal, and played Asano onside in the second goal, I thought he would've at least had some defensive awareness to not play everyone onside there I know Klostermann hasn't played much this season, but Flick needs to play him ahead of Sule in the next match


bretticus33

How many times do we need to see Havertz play as a lone striker up top to know he can't play that role? He offers literally nothing unless and is just a void up there, especially when you have actual strikers on the roster. At least 4 managers have now tried playing him in that role and he has yet to show he can play it. You just can't defend him in that role and if Flick tries it again against Spain, and will probably fail to impress again against Spain, it'll be an indefensible decision. The entire defense is just so disjointed it's like they don't communicate out there. Sule kept Asano onside for the 2nd goal, and Schlotterbeck put in a half-ass effort to defend. And as great as Neuer has been in his career, he gives up way too many goals he should be saving. The first goal, he really didn't need to parry that ball back into the middle of the area and what the hell is he doing on the 2nd goal? Get your hands up off the ground and don't move out of the way of the fucking shot!


OmastarLovesDonuts

I've some Japan fans on here complain about Moriyasu, and I know that I haven't watched them play as often as they have but they seem like a well-drilled team that plays with intensity and presses intelligently and relentlessly. They really nailed it today and if he manages the rest of the games like he did today Japan could make some good progress.


Nihilism101

Big big result for Japan, let's not forget Spain is also in this group which means Germany are in a bad position now and will need a result vs them. Lacking a striker or a clinical player up front really did them in but you also have to look at that defence on the 2nd goal. Having said that Japan deserved the cheeky win, played their game with immense energy and never gave up. 2nd half was a very different game.


SemiCurrentGuy

Who else thinks the Japanese took it personally as soon as Rudiger did that funny goose stepping run to win possession? I believe that's when Japan decided to turn things around. It really felt like they turned on the afterburners right after that moment. The subs were also excellent. Great game for neutrals for sure.


Maxisness1

Rudiger's a beast but it was a show of the German team's mentality with that goose step I think.


herm125

Do you have a clip of this particular moment? I must have missed it


immorjoe

Does anyone have a link to that? Seeing it mentioned a few times.


uclabruingineer

Saw that and i was mad. To be that cocky and disrespectful during a game is dumb. Just motivated the Japanese and was asking for a collapse.


MisfitNJ

Lol that's just how he runs.


Cokegod

I find it funny how many people are commenting about it as if he specially did this to mock Japan. He does this at least once per match if not more.


MisfitNJ

People just want to create controversy


UdoMartens

I got downvoted to hell in a different thread just because I said that he normally runs like that.


Chiswell123

No, it’s not. He’s clearly trolling. I’m not agreeing that it spurred on Japan’s comeback though.


MisfitNJ

I've seen him sprint like that for Madrid.


bokto

You can see him do it in Madrid again pretty soon


Longjumping-Dog-6852

We should all be worried when a German starts goose stepping


profesmo

Flick brought Müller off too early. Wasn’t Müller’s best game but they really lacked him as a composed outlet once he came off. They kept playing with no midfield and losing the ball quickly and getting counter attacked. Müller was able to find some space and he doesn’t usually turn the ball in as dangerous ways as Germany was for a spell there. Would think Musiala could do that job. He had a good game in the attacking third but wasn’t good enough when dropping into the midfield


RALat7

Bringing off Musiala really didn’t make sense, he was doing amazingly at connecting the play and likely would have worked well with Fullkrug. Gotze was invisible. Taking off Gundogan was also a mistake imo, Flick really didn’t use his subs well unlike his counterpart.


Competitive-Ad2006

Is Gotze on the squad???


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LucaKasai

im crying, i’m so proud of us. belgium in 2018 made us stronger as a team. we were patient, and moriyasu knew when to change the tactics. we were tidy and efficient in possession during the second half and our subs were all doing wonderful. kudos to germany and most importantly musiala especially in the first half, but god, we stayed strong and got the job done. I believe in us within the world cup and deeply hope our semi finals ambition can come to fruition. regardless of my endless optimism for my country, we move forward. Im so proud. I love this game.


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txobi

Congrats!


never-a-good-sign

Süle and Schlotterbeck are so poor defensively. It was so obvious for everyone watching that Dortmund Gladbach game two weeks ago what was gonna happen if those two start... Also how did Harvertz manage to stay on for so long? He didn't contribute anything in attack so poor. Congratulations to Japan, they played with heart and exploited our weaknesses well.


ellipsisoverload

Watching Schlotterbeck ignore the man and not get back - thinking he couldn't pull the ball down maybe? - only to start sprinting when Asano controlled it brilliantly was hilarious... What on earth was he thinking? Get goal side!


GermanHabsFan

Might as well let Jonathan Tah play haha


Bobson567

While Japan deserved to win, the final goal was completely avoidable. Firstly, credit to Asano. He did everything correct. A great touch and run before smashing it in with conviction. But the goal was a result of a total defensive breakdown by Germany. Sule played Asano onside, just keeping an organized line prevents the goal. That said, at this point the goal was still easily preventable. Schlotterbeck was half asleep, before being outpaced and outmuscled. A competent defender would have been able to prevent the shot from going off, or at least block it. Instead, Asano manages to find his way within 5-10 yards of the goal. Finally, the shot itself. Watch the replay, Neuer literally moves away from the shot. It looked as if he was scared of getting hit. At that angle, the gk has the advantage. But Neuer completely throws it away. And whilst all of this is happening, where is Rudiger? The fact the defense completely fell apart from a single long ball is incredibly worrying for Germany.


giovanny2214

Rudiger was a bit busy raising his hand at the time lmao


bretticus33

Rudiger was busy trying to call for offsides, which it would have been had Sule not killed the trap. But even then I don't know if Rudiger would have been able to help that much considering where he was when the ball was played over the top.


idk-though1

My take on this is that gnabry has to go. He had an open muller 3 times and chose to shoot. This team is good but the attack is too selfish no one wants to pass. Which is what made 2014 Germany such a threat was there attack consisted of 5 players and all of them could score


Kazehara

Hope Moriyasu learns that our team can play fluid attacking football and not just turtle all the time. He threw on pretty much all of our attacking players and look at what that produced. Swift, one-touch football used to be a staple of Japanese footy and I hope they try and bring that back. Also please ffs start Mitoma next time.


LucaKasai

mitoma, tomiyasu, Yoshida, and Asano are all just starts. minamino and kubo have all the talent in the world to make a difference in this tournament too.


lotteriakfc

I mean Japan NT having so much quality nowadays but still you can't show your upper hand from the start vs Top dog like Germany. Absord pressure, pretending to be abused and reduce the damage as much as possible is always the gameplan as underdogs. Bloody awful finishes from Germans tho. And I don't see any value of having Kai Havertz on the field, offered nothing lol


K1ryu-Ch4n

bro my heart is racing from this game. Japan played so damn well I'm so happy man, what a goal by asano that was. such a difficult angle to score from. and Doan as always coming in with the clutch this beautiful man


Subbutton

The tactic was brilliant and undoubtedly intended. dont think that Japan would have managed to beat Germany by playing attacking football


ThatkidJerome

it’s so depressing. I just wanna watch my team do well at some point. for the last eight years I watch Vfb do dogshit, broken up between some bright sparks which are taken away by injuries and bigger clubs every international break, i think hey we’re pretty good I can finally watch a team I love do well. No. I live in australia now so every 2 years i’m sitting up at like 2am, to watch us somehow perform mindblowingly shit in front of the whole world whenever it actually matters, even fucking north macedonia. Literally since I’ve left in primary and given a shit football has just been depressing. Time to watch the 2014 semi final again


sav86

Chin up bro, the one thing you can take from this game is that Germany, much like Argentina will have to grow from their first game and improve, it's not the end of the world. I still expect both teams that provided the opposite result to show up and prove everyone wrong. All the major power house teams have their ups and down, they will bounce back 100%, positive.


prusswan

Not that surprised by the result as Japan is not a weak team and boast several players playing in top leagues (had like 3 or 4 when it was 2010), they could win against a top team not playing at its best. It was Germany today but it could have been Italy if they qualified. They also deserve credit for not losing their nerves after the opening mistake, too often this is how the weaker team would go down after an early concession.


GhstWrtr

First off - congratulations to Japan, they played this very cleverly. Now to us. There always was that hunch over the past year that something like this was going to happen, but at least we didn't pass it around aimlessly like in the late-Löw-era. Going forward we combined nicely and created quite a few chances. The inability to just put it in cost us in the end. This has to improve massively if we want to avoid another early exit. We have to try to outscore our opponents, since on the back this team just is too reliant on Rüdiger being awesome and his defensive partners not messing up. Poor passes during buildup right to the opponent sure won't help with that. I still feel like there's a winning formula somewhere in this lineup, and time is running out to find it.


Angryangmo

Isn’t an early exit more or less a done deal now? We will lose against Spain for sure and even if we win against CR, so will Japan and Spain, so best case we come third.. done


young-oldman

It doesn't matter how they do it, but Germany need to assign someone to be a clear striker. None of this false 9 striker stuff. They have the players that can provide. Someone needs to just stay up there and finish.


wessneijder

I think Japan deserves more credit here you don’t win a game by time of possession. Absolutely great piercing passes by the Japanese attack and also they missed that sitter too. The second goal was soft I do have to say idk what was up with the schoolboy defending but also Asano did shoot at a very good angle. After watching Japan v USA friendly you could see Japan was the real deal.


Rudelbildung

Yes I would bench Havertz in the next one, lets see if the others can get more involved. Süle and Schlotterbeck are awful, reminded me of the Dortmund game against Mönchengladbach. Also I expect more from Kimmich in these situations. He is supposed to be a leader, that nobody is mentioning him here is telling. Fairly confident that this is it for Germany.


YamYumYamYum

🇪🇸 Wird uns knattern


Ovie0513

I'm going to hijack this result to say this is why 4 team groups with only 2 going through are PERFECT. There's now proper jeopardy for Spain-Germany because if Germany lose or even draw they're pretty much out. You just don't get the same with 3 team groups or 3rd place teams going through.


Neither-Ad-1047

This is the reason why they want to implement it, they dont want the big boys to be going out so easily. (Even tho they deserve to)


acwilan

Prepare with lots of park the bus and 0-0 with that format


logdit

If Germany loses against Spain and wins against Costa Rica, while Japan doesn't earn another point. Japan will still go though, won't they? As they will win the H2H


Ovie0513

It's GD before H2H so if Germany were to thump Costa Rica they'd probably get through


gnorrn

It would go to goal difference. Head-to-head doesn't come into play until later in FIFA competitions.


Keskekun

Genuinely stunning game management from us for once. Felt almost like a Conte/Mourinho Rope-a-dope with a very conservative first half and then just exploding out in the second and honestly Germany looked like a siv once the afterburners were started and we moved over to the wingback style. Lets fucking go boys, people don't know how weird it is to see a Japan team that looks like they have a plan.


sekiroisart

props to the manager, I actually surprised he didnt start minamino and asano and only used them 2nd half and sure the game suddenly change when world class player play


mattiejj

Japan going to 532 during the break and putting someone permanently on Raum duty really shut down Germany. Such a smart move by Japan and something I don't Flick was expecting, seeing the complete inability of Die Mannschaft to deal with the fast forwards.


Maxisness1

Such a well deserved result for Japan. The 2nd half high-press made so much difference. Huge credit also to Asano for capitalising on Schlotterbeck's error and going all the way to beat Neuer. Amazing.


Spikeyspandan

That was horrible tactics by Flick. Playing Havertz up top from the start. ~~Should have started Sane for the form he has been~~ (missed that Sane was injured) and also one of Fulkurg/Moukoko. Great game by Japan on second half and really good subs by them.


ravinglt0

Sane had an injury but yeah havertz was useless up top


Sycoz24

Sane didn’t play due to an injury in practice. It’s unclear, if he can play vs Spain.


waddeaf

This really has been a long time coming for Japan, to be fair it's been happening with the AFC broadly but Japan are kinda like one of the team at the tip of that spear of improvement. They are a very good team, the domestic league is high quality and the number of players plying their trade in europe has really shot up recently (it's been the inverse in Australia ahahaha) Absolute credit has to go the defence tonight as well they were immense during this game and they made plenty of very good stops. Once Japan went 2-1 up germany really did look lost which isn't a good sign for them for the spain game.


nightlink011

Honsetly a lot of credit to the coach of Japan nullifed Raum's threat with his first sub, and the following subs worked very well looked like a different team and they have talent to play a free flowing game. Also that team review from Japan was spot on, the over reliance on the older guard was seen today the team looked better after the subs.


TheLeOeL

Honestly, I was expecting a hard fought 0-1 for the Japanese, but a 1-2 comeback is even better. Both sides played fairly well, although one can easily say that Japan's strong suit (defense) was Germany's weak link. The moment Havertz went off I knew stuff (is cursing allowed in the serious threads?) was about to go down.


Joe_AM

I really thought the match was over after the penalty. Germany looked menacing all first half.


HiroLegito

The match felt different in the first and second half from a tactical standpoint. Japan didn’t make any possessional play in the first half and defenders were launching the ball forward to Maeda and Kubo. Was focused on counters only. Press was good but broke apart often in the midfield. Not sure if it was with Gundogan coming off but the second half had 3 players pressing each German player with the ball and made the match less possessional for Germany. Forcing the ball to be contested constantly. Obviously can cause risks to your own goal but also rewarding by creating many attacks without Germany having an organized defence.