{"id":35248,"date":"2019-01-27T09:36:06","date_gmt":"2019-01-27T17:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=35248"},"modified":"2019-01-27T09:36:06","modified_gmt":"2019-01-27T17:36:06","slug":"defence-first-japan-intend-to-follow-same-plan-against-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2019\/01\/27\/defence-first-japan-intend-to-follow-same-plan-against-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"Defence-first Japan intend to follow same plan against Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

News18 – AL AIN, A succession of one-goal wins — including a victory over Saudi Arabia in which Japan controlled just 23 percent of possession — has evoked memories of Euro 2004, when Greece owed their surprising victory to a similar approach.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Japan’s conservative tactics have won games if not admirers at the Asian Cup, but coach Hajime Moriyasu said on Sunday the Blue Samurai will stick to their blueprint in the semi-finals against attack-minded Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A succession of one-goal wins — including a victory over Saudi Arabia in which Japan controlled just 23 percent of possession — has evoked memories of Euro 2004, when Greece owed their surprising victory to a similar approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Moriyasu, who took charge in July after Japan’s last-16 exit at the World Cup, made no apologies, saying his young team were getting results and still learning along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When we came to the tournament we knew every match would be difficult,” Moriyasu said in Al Ain on Sunday, as the four-time winners prepare to take on Asia’s top-ranked team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’re not a perfect team, and we’re not an experienced team so we’re developing each game we play.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Japan trailed against Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan before fighting back to win 3-2 and 2-1 in Group F, where they also needed Genki Haraguchi’s penalty to beat Oman 1-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A headed goal from a corner, against the run of play, beat Saudi Arabia in the last 16, while Ritsu Doan’s VAR-assisted penalty gave Japan a 1-0 win over Vietnam in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In every match, the players are learning as well as getting the result and moving to the next stage, winning by small margins,” Moriyasu said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Winning is very important because no matter how we play, we’re playing with consistency. And also I think at the same time our players are trying to express our team concept. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I want them to do the same tomorrow — play aggressively, and hopefully get the result.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Japan have moved quietly to the semi-finals, Iran are the form team, scoring 12 unanswered goals with a direct, physical approach as they eye their first Asian Cup title in 43 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moriyasu played in their epochal meeting in 1992 when Japan, not yet an established force in Asian football, ousted the regional giants 1-0 at the group stage en route to their first title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said certain traits remained in the Japanese team — although expectations were now much higher after Japan’s four Asian Cup titles surpassed the three won by Iran and Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think the nature of the team, they play as a unit and help each other, that has stayed the same for many years,” Moriyasu said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“And also the motivation of the team is the same. But now, winning is normal and players have to play with big pressure, that’s what’s different.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News18 – AL AIN, A succession of one-goal wins — including a victory over Saudi…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":35249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,175,84,92,86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions","category-asian-cup","category-c47-featured-news","category-c21-international-football-news","category-c13-team-melli-news"],"views":789,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35250,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35248\/revisions\/35250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}