If you google search Okazaki, one of the first search results will be on Okazaki fragments. As a former Biology student, I know a little bit about Okazaki fragments and can tell you that an Okazaki fragment is the "slower replicating" or "lagging" half of a DNA strand during DNA replication.Well, there was nothing lagging about a different Okazaki earlier today. Shinji Okazaki, striker for team Japan, came through with a hat trick against outgunned opponent Hong Kong. Okazaki's hat trick was his first for the national squad, and the 23 year old now has 11 goals in 17 caps, the best strike rate on the current team with 65% goal efficiency. Okazaki has been a breath of fresh air for a team that has notoriously struggled with finishing, and he put on a clinic today.
Shinji started off the scoring with a cooly taken shot from just inside the box into the bottom left corner of the net at the 17th minute. He would later score the last two goals in the 75th and 78th on a header and one touch deflection to complete the other half of the book end. The other 3 goals for Japan came from 3 different defenders: side-back Yuto Nagatomo with a whizzing bullet in the 28th, a header by CB Yuji Nakazawa in 51, and a goal off a corner kick by CB Tulio Tanaka in 67. The 3 goals by defenders attests to Japan's attacking style of football, and shows how effective the game plan can be when executed well against weaker opponents. In the past, the style of play has back fired when the defenders push up too much and expose gaps in defense.
If you didn't see this match, and just saw the score sheet, you could go ahead and assume that it was a class ass whooping; it was, but it also could have been much worse for Hong Kong. I don't know if Japan has ever beaten another national squad by a 6 goal margin, I'll have to check on that, but there were so many missed opportunities for easy goals, including a missed shot by Okubo from a meter away, that suggest Japan could still use some work. If everyone on the team could finish like Shinji Okazaki did today, we could have beaten HK by the mercy rule and gone home at half time. Yes, it was that bad.
The biggest disappointment in the match was not seeing a giant bald head running around the pitch. Today's match was supposed to be the unveiling of Takayuki Morimoto, but he was not even to be found on the bench. Also, Honda never entered the match and thus never took a pass from Shunsuke Nakamura and vice versa. What I'm trying to say here, is that everything that I told you to look for in my earlier post was a flat out lie. I'll admit my mistake there, but will continue to make predictions because its fun to write and hopefully fun to read.
Its tough getting into Takeshi Okada's head, but if I had to guess why there was an absence of a few of his key players, I would say that he planned on playing 1/2 of his regulars today, and the other half against the Scotland friendly in two days. This strategy allows for Okada to experiment with fringe players, while still being able to play strong sides on both days without sending out an entirely depleted starting eleven against Scotland.
All in all, great game for Japan today; it was really good to see Japan's game plan in full effect, but again I don't think we can use this game as a measure for success in the World Cup as every team will clearly be
No comments:
Post a Comment