27 players for Kirin Challenge Cup: Kawashima, Higashiguchi, Nakamura Nagatomo, Makino, Yoshida, H. Sakai, G. Sakai, Shoji, Endo, Ueda Hasebe, Aoyama, Honda, Inui, Kagawa, Yamaguchi, Haraguchi, Usami, Shibasaki, Oshima, Misao, Ideguchi Okazaki, Osako, Muto, Asano
No Nakajima, Kubo, Morioka and Doan (the best 4 Japanese players in Europe in terms of goal-scoring, and they are in-form). Not to mention Tatsuya Ito, too. I wonder if players like Honda and Kagawa might influence the ommision of these players? Ideguchi and Asano are in despite almost not having any playing time since January. Usami's inclusion is unjustified. Let's wait and see how his last 23 will look like.
absolutely pathetic. this team needs to be called adidas japan or kirin japan. wtf asano. he scored one goal all season. not one minute on the pitch since january. no doan. no nakajima. no morioka. no x-factor. oshima is just gonna break down with another injury if he plays. kagawa hasn't played a decent match for japan for four years. no progress since 2014. same team. same mistakes.
Nakajima is the only player in the Portuguese league who recorded double-digit totals in both goals and assists this season. He is expected to join a club like Porto but he has been ruled out. Morioka scored 13 goals and 15 assists in a top 10 European league (Belgium) but he has been ruled out. I know Eredivisie isn't what they used to be but still Doan's performance was impressive for a teenager and is getting attention from clubs like City, Ajax and PSV. He deserves to get called up for the future instead of old guys like Honda and Kagawa but he has been ruled out. Unfortunately, the JFA is a slave of sponsors and their marketing tools like Kagawa and Honda. Don't think Nishino has the power to manage this team. He is just a puppet. Halilhodzic got fired because he ignored requests from the sponsors. The JFA is really corrupt.
How f$$$ing stupid is that if this is the case. I remember the same thing happened to the Chinese national team where the sponsors dictated what players got called up. Looks like the JFA is corrupt too.
ironically the more times Honda and Kagawa are called up the more the general public will lose interest in this world cup. the build up to this tournament has been depressing. at least there is ohtani.
Holy crap, now that's a terrible callup.Asano, Haraguchi, Usami... lmao. Doan is out of both Toulon and the NT, wtf??? Glad to see Inui and Muto though, at very last Asano is sponsored by Nike so I wouldn't go down that road tbh Nah, I think the sponsors aren't the issue here but more the influence of individuals (both players and inside the JFA). Honda for instance is a Mizuno player, not Adidas. @naopon can you post any bits from the press conference, if you happen to have the time to listen to it?
Wow this sucks. Many of these players are just there for good old days. They havent done shite for so long. Boring. So there is no chance for Nakajima for WC now? Those 27 players will be 23 soon?
No, Nishino said "this is the squad for the Ghana match". It remains to be seen of course if he's just saying it to save his ass for the moment or not.
jnt has always had a massive sponsorship income for a national football team. adidas, kirin, family mart, asahi shinbun, mizuho... the list goes on. hard for the jfa to ignore all these guys if they feel the team lacks "star" names.
which so accurately represents the problem with the national team for so many years. the jfa treat the jnt matches as a safe haven for their horribly out of form players to get match fitness away from their clubs. win against b-grade opposition in front of a big crowd at home and all is well. repeat. it makes me sick to think guys like asano could potentially have one decent friendly and suddenly they're in the wc over doan and nakajima who have been brilliant over a much longer time. nishino really has no idea or control over what he's doing.
Yes. Which is why I suppose Kagawa will be in anyway. I was just pointing out that Asano isn't a star name nor a player which is is sponsored by Adidas.
One might think here that the exclusion of Nakajima, Kubo, Morioka and Doan has something to do with the leagues they are playing in. In addition to the fact that both Morioka and Nakajima has been just called-up recently to the squad and there is no harmony between them and the "old guards", and the most important thing at this point is team harmony before the WC. The reason behind Kubo's exclusion might be the same too, in addition of being the one who was favoured by Vahid to start over Honda (I guess there is an unrest in the locker rooms between Honda and Kubo, who knows?). As for Doan, he was not called-up earlier, so a call-up in the very last moment was not expectable to begin with. Anyhow, the future looks bright for the NT, with young players like Nakajima, Doan and Ito having promising first season in Europe, as I think the hopes of most of us are evaporated after this announcement. All what I hope for is that Nishino will be able to motivate this squad to bond together and bring their best in Russia (hopefully).
He said that Nakajima was not selected because of lack of versatility. As for Kubo, he said he was left out due to his club's play-off game in Belgium, and he and other names might not be completely ruled out of the final 23. He also emphasised that every player in this squad, apart from the goalkeepers, shall not be considered in a certain position right now, as he is looking to test players in different positions and he is yet to be setteled at a particular formation.
I think only Kubo have chances to be on the list. The other players including Nakajima no. Ito Junya should have been called anyways. Naopon said that Kobayashi Yu is currently injured. Another good player missing out.
The future looked bright for the JNT in 2010, 2014, 2018 ... etc. Unfortunately the present is cruel everytime. This is an empty formula.
Almost just a month to the first game. Who do you wanna see as the CB pair? Yoshida-Makino? Yoshida-Shoji? Other?
I thunk Nishino can try giving Makino the liberty to bomb forward like he does for Urawa. He is also pretty good at man-marking, maybe he can be a 3rd CB/Dm role. He tends to go forward more than a CB does. As for Cb pair, I rather Ueda than Shoji. Ueda is not as complete as Shoji but he is better in the air and more physically imposing imo.