Holy ********... I totally missed the draw. Italy, South Africa, Uruguay. In South Korea too. Can't miss this. They will stream all the matches on YouTube or FIFA.com?
http://www.jfa.jp/national_team/u20_2017/news/00013232/ Training camp ahead of next month's U20WC. A couple of HS graduates (Hara, Sugioka and Takahashi) have been playing a lot of first team football this season. Tagawa could be the bolter though I believe he's eligible for the next WC as well. I fear Daisuke Sakai will be retained (and as captain) despite not making even the Oita bench once.
The U20WC squad will be announced here at 1400 JST, in about 5 hours from now. http://www.jfa.jp/news/00013385/
Japan squad for FIFA U-20 World Cup Korea Republic 2017 Goalkeepers 1 Ryosuke Kojima (Waseda University) 12 Go Hatano (FC Tokyo) 21 Rui Yamaguchi (FC Lorient/FRA) Defenders 4 Ko Itakura (Kawasaki Frontale) 3 Yuta Nakayama (Kashiwa Reysol) 6 Ryo Hatsuse (Gamba Osaka) 2 So Fujitani (Vissel Kobe) 19 Kakeru Funaki (Cerezo Osaka) 15 Daiki Hashioka (Shonan Bellmare) 5 Takehiro Tomiyasu (Avispa Fukuoka) Midfielders 10 Daisuke Sakai (Oita Trinita) 8 Koji Miyoshi (Kawasaki Frontale) 18 Tsukasa Morishima (Sanfrecce Hiroshima) 17 Mizuki Ichimaru (Gamba Osaka) 11 Keita Endo (Yokohama F. Marinos) 7 Ritsu Doan (Gamba Osaka) 16 Teruki Hara (Albirex Niigata) Forwards 9 Koki Ogawa (Jubilo Iwata) 13 Yuto Iwasaki (Kyoto Sanga FC) 14 Kyosuke Tagawa (Sagan Tosu) 20 Takefusa Kubo (FC Tokyo U-18) Training Members DF Riku Tanaka (Kashiwa Reysol U-18) MF Hiroki Ito (Jubilo Iwata U-18)
Yeah, no Nakamura Shunta. Sad. Kubo is set to make his debut for the first team tommorow in the Nabisco Cup.
hahaha Daisuke Sakai forever in our hearts. And, probably in the coach's wallet btw there's no Daiki Hashioka in Shonan Bellmare, it's Sugioka
Hmm he's the captain. It is what it is. He's always gotten a massive amount of respect at every age level, go figure. The team's a bit weak in midfield, butMoriyama has coached them well so far. However, he's taking a risk by omitting a few veterans for new faces like Sugioka or Kubo, the biggest snub being Hirosue (it's honestly cruel !). Also, Ichimaru hasn't played a single minute so far this season, and yet he's there over Kamiya or Takumi Sasaki. who aren't even in the reserve list. Could that be because their clubs asked for them not to be released ? Ito and Tanaka bypassed a lot of 1997 and 1998 to get there, I can't think it's solely based on merit. Also, I would have liked to see Daizen Maeda, he deserved the spot over Kubo or Tagawa.
Maybe Nakayama can be tried as a DM imo seeing that the squad is a bit lacking of tall DMs expect for Itakura. Could be worth exploring as an option for the NT in the future as it is the position the JNT is lacking most currently. Not sure if he could play there well though.
It is - it is sad and stupid. Agree on Ichimaru, I would've put in Issei Takahashi who's been excellent. I don't think Ito and Tanaka are in the reserve list, I think they're just for training
I think they'd naturally slot in if there was an injury at their position. I watched the training session about a month ago and Ito was pretty confident in this team.
So the JFA's favourite son Daisuke Sakai is ultimately picked despite playing only 10 minutes at Oita, very disappointing. Like others have already said, I honestly thought Issei Takahashi would make the team with Daizen Maeda and Yuya Nakasaka as potential wild cards. I was hoping Takefusa Kubo (and Tagawa) wouldn't make it, he hasn't exactly been dominating in his J3 appearances. Nice to see Daiki Sugioka, looking quite solid at the back. With Ogawa and Doan gaining some confidence recently, I'm cautiously optimistic.
Some of the names in there aren't exactly performing fantastic either. Was just thinking that he is worth a try cuz of he has potential imo.
I'm also unsure about Tagawa but Kubo... 久保くん早くバルサ戻ってくれ pic.twitter.com/XFjkRFL4U0— ベトン (@Beton_Muk) May 6, 2017 I would've left him out only to take it slowly for him. He has the U17 WC. It's not gonna be easy physically for him in this one. Yes but the names you're referring to (Ichimaru, etc) have been part of the team for a while. I don't know what have you seen in Abe, not saying you are necessarily wrong but I haven't seen anything interesting. Was it the ACL match?
Exactly, the U17WC is the perfect tournament. Feels like he is being fast tracked way too early and this generation isn't exactly short of talented young players.