It will depend on who's available at the time as it's played during 2014 WC qualifiers. Smart move from French FA before the game against Spain.
Japan won't be able to play another European team most likely in the October tour, unless they arrange a match against Finland. Because France v Japan is on a qualifying matchday, and France are the bye team obviously. But their group is the only one with a bye team each round. So it'd have to be another nation either not in qualifying that day (October 16 it looks like), or is going to play Japan on the 8th or something, before their WCQ game which is also unlikely. Best bet would to play an African team or South American team somehow (and ask them to travel to europe to play us lol). Options would be Colombia who have a bye on the 16th, Finland, or any African team (most likely the best bet). Kudos to JFA for getting this game. Very exciting.
Some of the African teams have already played friendlies against non-European nations in Europe, considering most of them are already playing at clubs all over the continent. I think those games were Australia vs Nigeria and Brazil vs Ghana? Anyway, can't wait for the France game!
Well we played Ghana in the Netherlands in 2009 (though that was a 3-nation thing sort of). Best bet is to find a good african side to play. Get the best one that doesn't win ACN2012 (cause we may meet winner at Confed Cup anyway).
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ASWLVaUy-g&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ASWLVaUy-g&feature=related[/ame]
Just looked it up, but it will be the winner of next year's ACN who will be at the Confed Cup. Anyway, interesting article by J Duerden: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/column...den:-asia-should-follow-africa's-lead?cc=5739
It won't be, sorry. They've got another engagement on the 16th (Denmark WCQ). Like I said, it'll have to be an African team, Colombia, or Finland/Armenia/Malta. So chances are if the JFA are negotiating anywhere, they'll be negotiating with an African team. Colombia would be a good game though.
I too would love to see Japan v Italy however like Akitod said, it wont happen sadly. However i do agree the Colombia game could be very good. I wouldnt mind seeing that.
I don't think Africa does anything valuable to sell the CAN, there's just a bigger african community in Europe, especially in France, and the names are more recognizables. The Asia Cup could be all over the media in France, nobody would watch it because nobody care about it.
The effects of the ANC-call-ups on European clubs are also stronger, so it creates more awareness with non-Africans... But I thought this article is a lot about how the AFC and national associations are not promoting its own football throughout its own regions enough though, so a lot of criticism between the lines.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/sports/news/20120128p2g00m0sp067000c.html Well Italy are playing Denmark, Spain are playing france, England are playing Poland. On top of that Netherlands are playing Romania, Germany are playing Sweden, and Portugal are playing Northern Ireland. So a european powerhouse is probably out of the question.
Wow, just a heads up, the JNT will go down 11 places in the FIFA rankings lol. So we'll be 30th, losing 107 points in the process. As you can see, this is what we call justice after going unbeaten for 19 games LOL.
Problem is that Japan mostly plays official matches against "weaker" teams in the FIFA standings. Friendly games dont count much also. So bigger tournaments especially World Cup. Are the only decent chance you have at going loads of places up. In comparison in Europe loads of teams are ranked high so any points gained in the qualifying matches here count a lot. Dont worry about it. As long as you are kicking asses right and left it should not matter what the stupid FIFA rankings say about your power, in fact perhaps even better as the strongest teams will still have that underestimation about it
dw I've never worried about it, it's just I wanted to check because the February rankings determine the seedings for the 2014 FWC draw. We only are a little bit above S.Korea. Thankfully. So we will be one of the top 2 seeds.
Just out of interest, Elo rankings has Japan at 18th (down 4 places after the loss to PRK), while ROK are 26th after they dropped 7 places by losing to Lebanon.
The upcoming games against Iceland and Uzbekistan have now become important. Depending on results of these two games (and South Korea's games wt Uzbeks & Kuwait)...... we may get overtaken by South Korea in the 1st pot. Which would mean we would have to play either Australia or S.Korea as the no.2 seed. This just would mean that Japan can't play Iran, but may play Australia. Part of me would like that to happen, just cause then i could see them play in Melbourne. But if anyone wants to avoid Australia over Iran, then we need to win these two matches (even though it's a dead-rubber)
Yeah, even though we beat them last time, Australia are the last team Japan should look to play against. I would definitely hope for Iran.
That's terrible. He is a key player for the U-23 Olympics hopeful as well as a distinguished player for the senior team. Did he get injured during the U-23s 3-0 win over Iraq in the friendly?
Sponichi's guesses for the Iceland match : Iikura, Komiyama, Morishige, N.Kondo, Uemoto, Ota, S.Yamamoto, Hyodo, Ogura, Taniguchi, Y.Kobayashi, H.Yamada, T.Aoyama, Yamase, Isomura, Ishikawa, Kakuda, K.Watanabe, H.Sato, Hirai, Kanazono.
Guessing this is Sanfrecce's T Aoyama? Glad he's getting some recognition if so, even if he doesn't make the actual squad. Seems like Lee is missing his vision at Southampton.
Yohei Toyoda might get called up against Iceland. http://www.sanspo.com/smp/soccer/news/120215/scc1202150502004-s.htm