Taiwan’s coaches might have to juggle the lineup and improve the tactics for tomorrow’s international friendly against Japan after the hosts were unable to find the net, falling to the visitors 2-0 at the Taipei Municipal Stadium on Monday.
Taiwan coach Satoshi Imai experimented with an unorthodox 4-6-0 formation on Monday, in which both sides fielded college-level players who are eligible for next year’s Universiade in Taipei.
However, Imai’s tactic of packing six midfielders in the center of the pitch in a bid to win possession and push attacks from deep failed to create the intended result.
Photo: Lin Cheng-king, Taipei Times
In that first game of the Taiwan-Japan friendly series, co-organized with the Japan University Football Association, Japan captain Takuya Shigehiro opened the account with a long-range effort in the 38th minute.
Taiwan almost got an equalizer three minutes from the break, when midfielder Chen Chia-chun fed a cross to Lo Chih-hsien in the box, but Lo headed the ball just wide of the post.
Japan grabbed their second goal in the 63rd minute, with Yasuto Wakizaka finding the net through a deflected shot, and from there the visitors coasted to victory.
Some fans and critics were not impressed with Imai’s overly defensive approach, saying the 4-6-0 formation was too conservative and was playing “not to lose.”
The outcome speaks for itself, as better-organized Japan broke down Taiwan’s midfield and defensive walls to launch attacks.
They said that Imai — the Japanese head coach, in his second stint at the helm of Taiwan’s national team — should employ more offensive tactics to have better opportunities to score goals.
They should be “playing to win,” rather than putting on a Taiwanese version of “parking the bus,” as some British teams do when confronted with superior attacking opponents, they said.
“We fielded the 4-6-0 formation because our Taiwanese players are not as skilled nor experienced inone-on-one defense against other players,” Imai said after the game. “So the idea was to pack the midfield and strengthen our defense by taking on opponents in two-on-one situations.”
“It was a shame that we did not score for our fans,” he said. “We will make adjustments for Thursday’s match and will employ a more attacking style to get some goals.”
Japan head coach Junichi Miyazaki said he was impressed with Taiwan, but added that his own team had underperformed.
“Overall, our team had several good opportunities and did not capitalize on them,” Miyazaki said. “I thought we should have had a few more goals.”
Officials said that tomorrow’s game is to kick off at 7pm, with tickets of NT$300 per adult and NT$150 for children.
Nottingham Forest FC are to go into the Europa League play-off round after a 4-0 win over Ferencvaros TC on Thursday, while Celtic FC secured their place in the knockout phase with a victory over FC Utrecht. Aston Villa FC finished second in the league phase after recovering from two goals down to beat FC Red Bull Salzburg 3-2 with their spot in the last 16 already assured. Forest stood an outside chance of climbing into the top eight going into the final round of matches, but needed to beat Robbie Keane’s Ferencvaros and rely on other results going their way. Sean Dyche’s
HEATED RIVALRY: The pair had met 14 times previously, with Sabalenka winning eight of the encounters and entering the final as the favorite to take the title Elena Rybakina took revenge over world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka to win a nail-biting Australian Open final yesterday and clinch her second Grand Slam title. The big-serving Kazakh fifth seed held her nerve to pull through 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne in 2 hours, 18 minutes. It was payback after the Belarusian Sabalenka won the 2023 final between two of the hardest hitters in women’s tennis. The ice-cool Rybakina, 26, who was born in Moscow, adds her Melbourne triumph to her Wimbledon win in 2022. It was more disappointment in a major final for Sabalenka, who won the US Open
Denver superstar Nikola Jokic returned from a 16-game injury absence to post a 31-point, 12-rebound double-double on Friday and propel the Nuggets to a 122-109 NBA victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. Three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Jokic had not played since suffering a bone bruise in the left knee he hyperextended in a game against Miami on Dec. 29 last year. The Serbian big man did not miss a beat. He led all scorers, connecting on eight of 11 shots from the field, and also handed out five assists with three steals while playing just 24 minutes, 32 seconds as the
BATTERED AND BRUISED: Alcaraz suffered a cramp in the third set, but was allowed treatment despite Zverev’s protests, and continued on to win in five-and-a-half hours An ailing Carlos Alcaraz battled past Alexander Zverev yesterday in five epic sets to reach his first Australian Open final and move within a match of becoming the youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam. The world No. 1 outlasted the German third seed 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (3/7), 6-7 (4/7), 7-5 over a titanic 5 hours, 27 minutes in hot conditions to head to tomorrow’s title match. He only narrowly avoided crashing out after a huge fright at 4-4 in the third set when he pulled up in pain with what appeared to be cramp. He was allowed to have treatment
RSS