How Japan lost to Croatia
"Hajime" in Japanese means "the beginning". If we talk about achievements, it is hard to say that the 2022 World Cup is a milestone that opens something up for Japanese football. Because, once again, they stopped in the 1/8 round, exactly the fourth time in history.
But as Japan's captain, Hajime Moriyasu himself, said after the game against Croatia, his players proved that "they can play on a world-class playground and can win on the pitch. world-class play". So it is "a new era of football", even if it is not possible to get to the quarterfinals for the first time.
After four matches at Qatar 2022, Japan lost to Costa Rica, but won against the biggest names, Germany and Spain - things that were once just dreams drawn in manga comics.
Against runners-up Croatia, they even took the lead, from their first shot on target in the first half. Moriyasu said that if it was the previous Japanese teams, they would have conceded a goal against Croatia soon and could not hold the score 1-1 for so long.
In the end, Japan fell in the penalty shootout, where Croatia clearly has plenty of experience. Since Euro 2008, the European team has had seven of the eight knockout rounds go to extra time or penalty shootouts. And Japan needs more time to get used to such situations (the last time was the 2010 World Cup against Paraguay), as well as to be better prepared instead of letting the students volunteer for the penalty shootout order. .
But no matter what, Japanese pride is more than just a feeling!
Before a Croatia deployed a 4-3-3 system, Japan chose the 3-4-3 structure that helped them turn the tide against Germany in the second half and win against Spain in the last match of the group stage. . Takefusa Kubo was injured, so the strategic reserve Ritsu Doan was given the opportunity to start.
Going back to the past, before Germany and Spain, Japan chose the time to accelerate and organize to put pressure, namely the beginning of the second half. For example, in the last round of the group stage, even though only organizing high pressure (within a distance of 40 m on the opponent's goal) Spain lost the ball six times in the whole match, Japan got two shots. from those situations, and one of them is the equalizer table. In both these matches, Japan controlled the ball only 26% and 18% respectively.
However, facing Croatia, Japan's attitude, way of entry and ability to maintain the game are completely different. They did not accept the match and react, as evidenced by the possession rate of nearly 42% in the official 120 minutes and extra time. Against an opponent built on the basis of the midfield trio of Marcelo Brozovic – Luka Modric – Mateo Kovacic, that number is very respectable.
Even so, there was one thing that was preserved in the organization of Japan's defense system. Similar to Spain, the Asian team always maintains a 5-4-1 block without the ball, with a tendency to defend mid-range.
The key in this 5-4-1 block lies in the position and role of the spearhead Daizen Maeda and the four players behind (from left to right are Daichi Kamada – Hidemasa Morita – Wataru Endo – Doan). Maeda's job is to keep the distance to block the passing direction to Croatia's lowest regular midfielder, Brozovic. At the same time, he chose to position himself to separate Croatia's central defenders Dejan Lovren and Josko Gvardiol, often looking to put pressure on Gvardiol.
Behind Maeda, central midfielder Morita was sent along with Brozovic himself, the other central midfielder Endo was accompanied by Kovacic. Left-winger Kamada holds a position to both block the pass to Modric in the inner corridor, and is ready to rise to put pressure on central defender Lovren. While right-wing striker Doan has just blocked the corridor in this wing, while waiting to approach Croatia's left-back Borna Barisic.
Whenever Gvardiol holds the ball forward, his potential matchup point is just full-back Barisic. But if the ball goes out, Barisic will be approached by Doan. Similarly, if the ball is rotated to central defender Lovren, Kamada will receive the signal to apply pressure. At that time, Croatia's downline had to use the long ball.
When the Brozovic ball circulation chain is often locked or difficult to rotate to coordinate the ball upward, Modric will have to step back to play near the central defenders and make the ball go deep. Statistics from FIFA show that Modric had 23 successful breakthroughs in the whole match, the highest in the match. Breaking through the opponent's lines can be by using a pass or dribbling the ball on your own, bypassing the opponent's strikers, midfielders or defenders. Modric's deep drop, plus his skill set that is both good at passing and pulling the ball, helps him to have more phases to penetrate the opponent's lines.
Another Croatian solution was to bring Kovacic, who is strong in his ability to pull the ball, back to bring the ball over the Japanese half.
Croatia always had a way, because their midfield was too quality, but for most of the first half, Japan really made the trio of Modric - Brozovic - Kovacic not have a seamless connection with each other and with the front line.
The formation block is only one part, the individuals in the collective association must always be aggressive with defensive actions. This, Japan has never lacked in their matches. Before Croatia, also according to FIFA statistics, Japan made a total of 405 actions to put pressure on the opponent (compared to 308 times for Croatia). By comparison, Japan has carried out 487 and 637 acts of pressure on Germany and Spain, respectively.
In all three matches listed, the Japanese individuals are always at the top in the number of pressure actions. Maeda with 56 times against Croatia, Ao Tanaka with 87 times against Spain, and Kamada with 72 times against Germany.
If when there is no ball, it is to restrain the Croatian midfield trio, and when there is a ball to attack, Japan's way is to put the ball away from these three players. Usually, Moriyasu's students will make diagonal passes to the two sides, especially the right side. There, Japan has two extremely powerful drills, Junya Ito and Doan. While, on the other side of the front line, Borna Sosa's injury caused coach Zlatko Dalic to use Barisic. It's understandable that Barisic had a hard day at work.
Separate statistics in the first half showed that Japan attacked the ball mainly through the right wing, accounting for 44.9% (compared to the middle 23.8% and the left wing 31.3%). For the whole game, this trend did not change significantly (right wing 43%, center 25% and left wing 32%).
In parallel with the passing of the ball across the field, the Japanese players confidently went to the ball along the vertical axis in the middle by coordinating triangles. The remarkable point in these types of deployments is that the best Kamada and Maeda are Doan who always actively moves to stand in the space between the defenders and midfield to receive the ball, turn and smash. Once again, statistics from FIFA show that Doan is the player with the most number of ball receptions in these spaces (17 times) in the match.
One way or another, when the soccer ball is within the last third of the opponent's field, Japan's most dangerous weapon is the cross. In the first half, no player on the pitch crossed as many as Junjo Ito, with four.
Japan crosses the ball in different ways on either wing, from set-ball to live, or turns the fixed-ball into a live ball before crossing. The warning for Croatia was given from the very beginning.
Depending on the situation (the ball is live or fixed), depending on the dominant foot of the throwers, crosses from the inside out (ouswinger) or from the outside in (inswinger) are used by the players. Japan took turns to perform continuously in the first half, opening a series of opportunities in front of Livakovic's goal.
At the time of 42 minutes, Ritsu Doan on the right wing with a cross from the outside to the inside with his left foot, forcing the Croatian player to clear the ball out. Japan is awarded a corner and instead of a free kick straight into the 16m50 area, the ball is coordinated on the periphery. The ball finally reached Ritsu Doan's feet and once again, he still crossed in a circle from the outside to the inside. This time, the cutoff was created with Maya Yoshida providing the assist for Maeda to score the opener.
If Japan threatens Croatia with crosses, it is also Croatia's own weapon. Japan scored from a cross from outside to inside, while Croatia scored from a cross from inside to outside, after Lovren's cross for Ivan Perisic.
That header of Perisic is almost something that the stature of Asian players in general or Japan in particular can hardly reproduce. That goal is definitely in the group of the best headers in the 2022 World Cup.
As for Perisic personally, his influence and role on the international team level for nearly a decade continues to be imprinted. So far, through 14 World Cup matches, Perisic has contributed to 11 goals for Croatia (six goals and four assists). And since appearing at the World Cup in 2014, only Lionel Messi (eight goals and four assists) has contributed to more goals than a current Tottenham player. That goal also helped Perisic get his 10th goal in the big arenas (Euro and World Cup) for Croatia, surpassing Davor Suker (nine goals).
All 10 goals mentioned above of Perisic were scored in the left range of the 16m50 area. Attacking the restricted area from the left corridor has always been a feature of Perisic's movement from time immemorial, and his teammates have clearly understood that.
For the rest of the game, Croatia continued to exploit their cross-over advantage, even when Perisic was no longer on the field in extra time. In fact, during the 90 minutes of official play, Croatia made 45 cross attempts, with only two matches in the current 2022 World Cup that have witnessed more crosses.
What was remarkable in Croatia's crosses in the first half and the rest of the game was the position of the shot. In the first half, there were only four crosses by Croatia in zones 13 and 15 of the pitch, the spaces where crosses are called early crosses. In the second half and two extra periods, Croatia crossed the ball in zone 13 and zone 15 about 12 times.
This change reflects that the game in the second half was different from the first, as Japan chose to maintain a lower formation, from which it was difficult for Croatia to send the ball deep to the bottom. But again and again, Croatia in the second half also took control better, holding down the Japanese squad.
The reason is not only in the better alignment of the midfield trio Modric - Brozovic - Kovacic (which is reflected in the range of movement and coordination of these players in the scoring situation). but also in the decline in the intensity of Japanese pressure. As evidenced by the first half, Japan successfully made all eight tackles to recover the ball; but in the second half, Moriyasu's students only succeeded once.
The game struggled with somewhat of a support, and Japan's resilience was maintained after Perisic's equalizer until the end of two extra time. What followed, all was clear.
When Hajime Moriyasu bowed to the Japanese fans present at Al Janoub Stadium, he apologized to all the team's fans after the defeat to Croatia on penalties. But it will only be a culturally rich act between the Japanese themselves, and in front of the world, they have the right to proudly raise their heads to say goodbye to Qatar.
