National Football Team 1-3 Japan: Ivan's tactical formulation has an effect & the fatal shortcomings are exposed

In the last official match of the national football team in 2024, in the 6th round of Group C of the round of 18, the home team lost 1-3 to Japan, but Lin Liangming also broke through the goal of the Japanese team, the ceiling of Asia. Although the national football team is still defeated, the remaining 4 matches of the top 18 next year are the life and death battles of the national football team, the last 4 tough battles to qualify for the 2026 US-Canada-Mexico World Cup, and the game that must score points.

The national football team 1-3 Japan, the tactics customized by Ivankovic for the national football team in this game were completely successful. The starting value of the national football team is only 4.7 million euros, while the starting value of Japan is as high as 142 million euros, and the gap between the hard power of the two teams is huge. Ivankovic knows this very well, he made a special arrangement for this, in the case of the national football team suffering from a wave of forward injuries, he discharged a small fast midfield combination, Wei Shihao and Lin Liangming form a double striker, both players have speed, but also have the ability to dribble the ball, behind him is Cao Yongjing, also speed + can dribble the ball, Xu Haoyang, Wang Shangyuan, Xie Wenneng are all small fast ling. The front six of the national football team against Japan are all speed and technical flow. Ivankovic allowed them to make defensive tackles and interceptions in the front court, which also limited Japan's Kokuailing pass-and-control play well. The world's martial arts are only fast and unbreakable, and the speed of the national football team also limits the speed of Japan.

The match data speaks even more about the success of Ivankovic's tactics,The national football team had 33% possession, but also had 8 shots on goal, only 3 fewer than the mighty Japan, which had 3 shots on target, 2 fewer than Japan。 In terms of shooting data, the gap between the national football team and Japan is not large. But this campaign once again exposed the fatal shortcoming, that is, the defense of set-pieces. In the past, we used to use headers to play Japan, and the three goals conceded by the national football team in this game all came from headers scored by Japanese players (2 goals were conceded from corner kicks). According to statistics,The national football team has scored from set-pieces seven times in six last-18 matches。

Ivankovic's next step is how to improve the national football team's offensive and defensive capabilities in set-pieces, especially the defense of set-pieces, which is crucial, and next year's four round of 18 matches are life-and-death battles, and the national football team must reduce the number of goals conceded from set-pieces.