Tactical Analysis: Japan v. Mexico

At one point in Stuttgart’s 4-1 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt, there were 2 Japanese and 3 Mexican players on the pitch. This interesting fact leads to the face off the two nations in the tactical analysis of the game, because Eintracht deployed the Japanese Junichi Inamoto as a holding midfield; whereas, Stuttgart used the Mexican Pavel Pardo. Watching the difference between the two was like watching night and day, and there effort in the role and the game can alone account for the disparity of the result. But I must add that it was a microcosm of both teams, where Stuttgart was vastly superior in all areas.

Inamoto set up shop between his own 18 and the center circle. I counted two times that he made any penetration past the midway point, throughout the entirety of his time on the pitch. On offense, Inamoto camped out in the center circle and seemed intent on squatting in the area to purchase land at a later date. He was flat footed on any offensive maneuver and provided no outlet to Frankfurt’s occasional trips into Stuttgart territory. Repeatedly Frankfurt were playing back when on the attack because a player was forced to keep the ball at his feet due to Inamoto’s reluctance to move forward into space.

On defense, he was playing directly in front of the center half pairing of Cris and Kyrgiakos, giving them 3-4 meters at best. He was able to get stuck in deep in his own half on occasion, but he left meters of space completely unguarded in the middle of the pitch. It didn’t take long for Cacau, Pardo, Hitzlsperger and even Miera to exploit this fact. Stuttgart didn’t dominate the middle of the pitch as much as they were gifted it in this game. And make no mistake about it: it was a well appreciated gift as they played beautiful attacking football right through the heart of Eintracht. And mostly, it has to be put down to Inamoto’s positioning and lack of lung power.

Both Ochs and Spycher spent time with him in the central midfield. Both could be seen, occasionally, getting a foot in before it was in dangerous territory or providing an options going forward. This can be best seen in the Eagles opening goal of the game, when Ochs tackled the ball away from Hitzlsperger in Stuttgart territory and played the ball to Köhler who scored. Ochs had the only decent game by any Frankfurt player, but Inamoto had one of the laziest performances I have ever seen. Had he worked at even a fraction of Ochs’ rate this game could have been different.

As for Stuttgart, Pavel Pardo was terrific in this game. His passing was sublime, such as when he fed Roberto Hilbert’s perfectly timed run for the equalizer. He played his defensive midfield role perfectly, forcing Frankfurt to use the touch line for any attacking. He worked seamlessly to cover Fernando Miera, who launched into attack often. (It was nice to see Miera paired back with the reliable Matthieu Delpierre after a long injury in what is one of the best center-half combos in the Bundesliga.) And he was a threat going forward, such as when he took a shot from nearly 10 meters that hit the post and almost ricocheted off the keepers back for the second goal soon after the restart.

Mostly his work-rate was phenomenal, covering on defense, moving throughout the width of midfield and thrusting forward. And it stood in stark contrast to the motionless effort put in by his counterpart for the home side. He was easily man of the match.