Japanese soccer player “Tomoaki Makino”, his career and style of play

This time, I introduce the career, play style and position of Japanese defender “Tomoaki Makino” who is a member of Japan national football team.

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日本代表vsブラジル代表、1-3。究極のドヤ顔が撮れました、リールにて。コラとかに使えそうw槙野選手ナイスゴール⚽ #日本代表 #daihyo #槙野智章 pic.twitter.com/Uclk06TKY3

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Name：Tomoaki Makino (槙野智章)

Nickname ： Maki, Makky or Tonji

Date of birth：May 11, 1987

Place of birth： Hiroshima(広島市), Hiroshima(広島県), Japan(日本)

Height：182 cm、Weight：77 kg

Dominant foot： Right foot

Position： Centre-back and right-back

Current club： Urawa Red Diamonds (J1 League)

Early career

Since two older brothers were playing soccer, Makino also started football from elementary school first grade. He was playing in FW until elementary school sixth grade.

In 2000 Makino joined the Junior Youth Team of Sanfrecce Hiroshima F.C. Initially, he played as FW with Masato Morishige, who will be Japan’s national team’s center-back later. After that, Makino played in the positions of attacking midfileder, defensive midfilder and side midfilder, but started to play center-back at the time of junior high school third grader.

In 2003 he was promoted to a youth team. This team has a colleague Yosuke Kasiwagi at Urawa Red Diamonds. Sanfrecce Hiroshima’s youth team during Makino’s affiliation advanced to the final in all major tournaments and won twice.

Club carrer

Sanfrecce Hiroshima F.C.

In 2006, Makino was promoted to the senior team, and in 2007 he became a starting member. But during that season the team was relegated to J2 league. Makino remained on the team and Makino took over the Uniform number “5” he had attached, as Yuichi Komano, the Japanese representative’s right-back, moved.

In the 2008 season he played in almost all games and the team was promoted to J1 League. In 2009 season, he got eight goals while defender. The 2010 season competed in all league matches and was elected the league’s best eleven. In addition, in this season Makino did not receive yellow card and red card.

1. FC Köln

In December 2011, Makino participated in the practice of Borussia Dortmund and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim in Germany, but there were no offers from both clubs. However, Volker Finke, director of the Urawa Reds Diamonds from 2009 to 2010, served as the sports director of FC Köln and he made Makino join 1. FC Köln. But this season, he just played in five league games. But this season, he just played in five league matches. The situation did not change in the 2011 – 2012 season, he only participated in the league game of only three matches.

Urawa Red Diamonds

In January 2012, Makino, who could hardly enter the match in FC Köln, transferred to Urawa Red Diamonds for loan. The coach of Urawa was Mihailo Petrović who was the coach when he was playing in Sanfrecce Hiroshima. In this season, Makino participated in almost all the matches of the league game, taking 6 goals while playing DF.

Due to this success, Makino moved from Cologne to Urawa. In the 2013 season he played in all the matches of the league game, and again scored 6 goals.

Until now, he enrolled in Urawa Reds, the result was 216 matches and was 26 goals. (Total of League Games and Emperor’s Cup from 2012 to 2017)

International career

Makino was elected Japan representative of the AFC Youth Championship held in 2006 and contributed to the team’s advance to the finals. In the following year, he was elected Japan representative of FIFA U – 20 World Cup held in Canada and contributed to the team ‘s entry into the Knockout stage. In addition, the goal performance that Japanese players showed at this tournament was played centered on Makino. On this team, there were Shinji Kagawa and Atsuto Uchida, which later became the center players of the senior team.

The debut on the senior team was Yemen against the 2011 AFC Asian Cup qualification held on January 6, 2010. In this match, Japan won 3-2 by Sota Hirayama’s hat trick.

However, Makino was not elected as a member of 2010 FIFA World Cup and 2011 AFC Asian Cup was not elected because of the last injured.

Despite his success in Urawa Reds, Makino was not elected a Japanese member of 2014 FIFA World Cup.

The situation changed when Vahid Halilhodžić became the coach of Japan. Halilhodžić thoroughly polished Makino’s skills as a defender. Makino so far had a weak point such as playing sloppy or playing an unnecessary foul due to high physical ability. So, Halilhodžić taught Makino thoroughly the skills of defenders such as how to get to the opponent, how to cover the friend, how to position it, how to position, how to use the hands when competing with the opponent and how to use the back line.

Makino was elected Japan representative to participate in 2018 FIFA World Cup. He could not play in the group stage against Colombia and Senegal. Gen Shoji was a player who played as centre back instead of Makino in the two games.

style of play

First of all, please watch this video.

[ Belgian VS Japan’s friendly match held on 14th November 2017 ]

[ In ACL’s semi-finals held on October 18, 2017 – Urawa Reds Diamonds v.s. Shanghai SIPG Football Club – makino defense against Hulk ]

[ After stopping the breakthrough of opponent, Makino raised the clenched fist. ]

Makino’s style of play is summarized below.

・Makino can catch up with the path behind himself because he runs fast.

・Makino often expressed emotions until then, but graduated with Halilhodžić ‘s guidance, he began playing with a sense of stability.

Position

Makino’s position is the most popular centre-back in formation 4-2-3-1, 4-1-4-1 and 4-3-3.In addition, he sometimes plays with right-back and left-back.

Same-year players

The players of the same age of Makino are as follows.

Name	Nationality	Date of birth
Loïc Rémy	France	1987/1/2
Lucas Leiva	Brazil	1987/1/9
Jamie Vardy	England	1987/1/11
Salvatore Sirigu	Italy	1987/1/12
Luis Suárez	Uruguay	1987/1/24
Wayne Hennessey	Wales	1987/1/24
Sebastian Giovinco	Italy	1987/1/26
Arda Turan	Turkey	1987/1/30
Giuseppe Rossi	Italy	1987/2/1
Gerard Piqué	Spain	1987/2/2
Eljero Elia	Netherlands	1987/2/13
Edinson Cavani	Uruguay	1987/2/14
Sergio Romero	Argentina	1987/2/22
Kevin-Prince Boateng	Ghana	1987/3/6
Ben Arfa	France	1987/3/7
Federico Fazio	Argentina	1987/3/17
Jô	Brazil	1987/3/20
Arturo Vidal	Chile	1987/3/22
Sami Khedira	Germany	1987/4/4
Royston Drenthe	Netherlands	1987/4/8
Aaron Lennon	England	1987/4/16
Joe Hart	England	1987/4/19
David Luiz	Brazil	1987/4/22
John Obi Mikel	Nigeria	1987/4/22
Serdar Tasci	Germany	1987/4/24
Jan Vertonghen	Belgium	1987/4/24
Leonardo Bonucci	Italy	1987/5/1
Cesc Fàbregas	Spain	1987/5/4
Jérémy Ménez	France	1987/5/7
Gervinho	Ivory Coast	1987/5/27
Asmir Begović	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1987/6/20
Lionel Messi	Argentina	1987/6/24
Samir Nasri	France	1987/6/26
Esteban Granero	Spain	1987/7/2
Adam Johnson	England	1987/7/14
Marek Hamšík	Slovakia	1987/7/27
Pedro	Spain	1987/7/28
Michael Bradley	United States	1987/7/31
Alex Song	Cameroon	1987/9/9
Aly Cissokho	France	1987/9/15
Marouane Fellaini	Belgium	1987/11/22
Gonzalo Higuaín	Argentina	1987/12/10
Mame Biram Diouf	Senegal	1987/12/16
Karim Benzema	France	1987/12/19
Michihiro Yasuda	Japan	1987/12/20
Seydou Doumbia	Ivory Coast	1987/12/31

Summary

Previously Makino had high physical ability and ability to run fast, but because it was not mentally stable, it was not a starting member of Japan. However, when Halilhodžić became a Japanese coach, he enthusiastically directed Makino. As a result, Makino became mentally stable, and the mild play declined. Mikino is now becoming a starting member of the Japanese team by further adding the physical ability that it had originally with them.

Yours sincerely,