I hope players like Rei Hirakawa, Keito Nakamura, Yuki Kobayashi, Aoh Tanaka and Wakahara get to play there if possible.
Still, i expect some bulldozing display even when Kubo and european co. couldn't play at AFC U22, IF they targetting gold at Olympic.
SK will play with that LKI dude nope? Anyway I hope Tomiyasu stay in Italy. If he leave he will lose his spot for sure.
Well, he's good, but not that good to carry the team by himself. Except God has a plan like at U20 World Cup.
2022FIFAワールドカップカタール アジア2次予選の組み合わせが決定🏆✨#SAMURAIBLUE は、グループＦ‼️【グループＦ】🇯🇵日本🇰🇬キルギス🇹🇯タジキスタン🇲🇲ミャンマー🇲🇳モンゴル#daihyo #jfa https://t.co/358kheN1nw— サッカー日本代表 🇯🇵 (@jfa_samuraiblue) July 17, 2019 Easy group, no excuses for losing
Schedule: 10 September 2019 vs Myanmar (away). 10 October 2019 vs Mongolia (home). 15 October 2019 vs Tajikistan (away). 14 November 2019 vs Kyrgyzstan (away). 26 March 2020 vs Myanmar (home). 31 March 2020 vs Mongolia (away). 4 June 2020 vs Tajikistan (home). 9 June 2020 vs Kyrgyzstan (home).
Awful group in terms of opposition quality, Japan could field a university-based squad and still come on top, I hope they manage to stay motivated, each group has at least 2, maybe even 3 decent teams, except this one. Any interesting friendlies to look forward to ?
Dont ever underestimate your opponent. Myanmar is strong when playing Home. Remember game vs Turkmenistan in Asian Cup? Both Kyrgyz & Tajikistan have same gameplay like Turk. But I do believe Japan could possibly send U23 squad and still manage top of group.
Worst group ever. But it's a golden opportunity to test players and different tactics. To find our full-strength side.
What matters is that we don't screw around because of complacency. Japan almost had to go through qualification playoffs for the 2018 World Cup because they got complacent in a few qualifying matches.
Well, a direct answer would be better to keep the discussion on. Anyway thanks. Next time I'll google it by myself.
Japan will play Paraguay on 5th September: http://www.jfa.jp/samuraiblue/news/00022065/ Too many friendlies with South America/CONCACAF teams to the point of saturation, Japan already played twice against Colombia and Uruguay in 2018-2019, and would have played twice in the same period against Chile if the last September’s friendly was not cancelled, and now will play Paraguay twice in the same period with this coming friendly. Not to mention that Japan already played against each Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador once in this period, and played Brazil in late 2017. This means that Argentina and Peru are the only teams from South America (CONMEBOL) that Japan did not play against in the period from 2017 to 2019. I know it is hard to schedule a friendly against European teams especially after the introduction of the Nations League, but a friendly against an African team will be a good option to test Japan NT against different opponents and styles of play. In addition that Arab teams from North Africa are similar to Asian teams from the Middle East which Japan will play against in the WC third qualification round. The likes of Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal, Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Mali, and Ivory Coast will all be interesting options to test the Japan NT against.
Meh I don't mind so many CONMEBOL friendlies. Japan's record against them at FWC is easily the worst and previously we've rarely played them enough to get a grip on their style.
Many? He is the top scorer among the Japanese players in the league, despite playing for a small team.
You'd have to say that Onaiwu has at least played himself into consideration, and perhaps merits a look in an upcoming friendly. I think his touch is too sloppy to make him into a real asset, but his holdup play along with the goal production this year makes his development intriguing.
I know what you mean but that never meant anything if we talk about the NT. So many different topscorers have been tried out last 10 years, no one really made an impact we could've wished for. Maeda, Sato, Tamada, Havenaar, Tadanari, Toyoda, Koroki, Okubo (always liked him alot though), they even tried Nagai recently as a last minute solution, and he stepped up and scored but is as far as I know already out of the picture again.