Forget Barcelona - Should We Copy Japan?

Goto espn3.com and watch the replay where Japan's U17 WNT team DESTROYED Brazil in the U17 World Cup. Granted Brazil looked slow and plump, but Japan's style of play, first touch and movement was the best I've EVER seen from any women's soccer match...and the majority of men's matches too. Their style was clearly possession, but it wasn't a tiki-taka snoozefest. If they had dominant finishers Japan's U17 team could probably give our women's national team a run for their money.

Japan can't be throwing the resources at soccer that Spain is, so what are they doing different and should we be paying more attention? The technical quality of their entire team was astonishing. I watched a few of the other U17's, and while others have stand out individual players, no one else in the world is anywhere close to Japan's sophistication. Thoughts?

4-4-2-Diamond wrote:Goto espn3.com and watch the replay where Japan's U17 WNT team DESTROYED Brazil in the U17 World Cup. Granted Brazil looked slow and plump, but Japan's style of play, first touch and movement was the best I've EVER seen from any women's soccer match...and the majority of men's matches too. Their style was clearly possession, but it wasn't a tiki-taka snoozefest. If they had dominant finishers Japan's U17 team could probably give our women's national team a run for their money.

Japan can't be throwing the resources at soccer that Spain is, so what are they doing different and should we be paying more attention? The technical quality of their entire team was astonishing. I watched a few of the other U17's, and while others have stand out individual players, no one else in the world is anywhere close to Japan's sophistication. Thoughts?

My understanding is they pull these players out of their homes at a very young age to start development. It's like the IMG soccer academy in Bradenton Florida for the boys.

totalsoccer wrote:

4-4-2-Diamond wrote:Goto espn3.com and watch the replay where Japan's U17 WNT team DESTROYED Brazil in the U17 World Cup. Granted Brazil looked slow and plump, but Japan's style of play, first touch and movement was the best I've EVER seen from any women's soccer match...and the majority of men's matches too. Their style was clearly possession, but it wasn't a tiki-taka snoozefest. If they had dominant finishers Japan's U17 team could probably give our women's national team a run for their money.

Japan can't be throwing the resources at soccer that Spain is, so what are they doing different and should we be paying more attention? The technical quality of their entire team was astonishing. I watched a few of the other U17's, and while others have stand out individual players, no one else in the world is anywhere close to Japan's sophistication. Thoughts?

My understanding is they pull these players out of their homes at a very young age to start development. It's like the IMG soccer academy in Bradenton Florida for the boys.

Japan 9 : Mexico 0

Would be very interested to read about their training methods. Bradenton hasn't turned out any teams that play like these girls. They play more like Real Madrid or Swansea than a women's team.

the understanding is only partly correct and mostly wrong. I believe the residential program starts at 13 in Japan. However the entire system of development in Japan was put together by Zico and is used nationally from a very young age. By the age of 13 those players are already developed as individuals adept to playing the teams style