Should be easy for Japan ? Probably meet India at home on Feb 22 , then supposed to play away against Saudi Arabia on March 1. This match will probably be postponed to September 1 ?
I thought Japan was supposed to make a 2nd national team to play the qualifiers. Is Kawabuchi going through with this? If so then they shouldn't have to postpone the Saudi game, unless Saudi needs it to be postponed. Or perhaps because the game can be postponed, the plan has changed and the 2nd NT won't be created yet.
AGHHH! , I missed the fact that Suadi are in our group, but i'm assuming two teams go through. hahaha Australia will be destroyed 1 Bahrain 2 Kuwait 3 Lebanon 4 Australia
i'm so offended that the defending champion must qualify. why do japan have to play against three weak sides before the world cup?
omg omg omg Japan keen to go ahead with Saudi clash KUALA LUMPUR - Despite being given the option by the Asian Football Confederation to play a warm-up friendly on March 1, the attraction of a competitive fixture against Saudi Arabia could convince Japan to go ahead with their AFC Asian Cup qualifier as scheduled. The AFC announced on Tuesday that the Asian representatives at the 2006 FIFA World Cup – Australia, Iran, Japan, Korea Republic and Saudi Arabia – would be allowed to reschedule their games on that FIFA matchdate to September 1 in order to allow the sides to play a friendly match with other opposition in preparation for their World Cup campaigns. However, Wednesday’s AFC Asian Cup 2007 Qualifying Draw saw the Japanese and Saudis placed together in Group A, throwing up a mouth-watering clash between the two sides in the Middle East on Matchday Two. For Japan Football Association technical director Kohzo Tashima, the opportunity for the defending Asian Cup champions to play against strong opponents in the build-up to the World Cup could be too good to pass up. “We have been given the option to rearrange the match to a later date by the AFC but a competitive game against Saudi Arabia will be a good test in our preparations for the World Cup in June,” said Tashima, who attended the draw at AFC House in Kuala Lumpur. “As the game is on an official FIFA matchdate, we can also call up our European-based players and get a strong team together for the game so there is a strong motivation to go ahead with the scheduled game. “However, we will discuss the matter with the Saudi Arabia Football Federation, the AFC and our head coach Zico before making our decision.” As three-time winners of the Asian Cup, Japan and Saudi Arabia will be favoured to occupy the top two spots in Group A, which also includes Yemen and India, and advance to the final competition in 2007, which will be co-hosted by Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. While confident that his side can safely negotiate the qualification stage, Tashima is not taking Japan’s opponents lightly. “Saudi Arabia are strong opponents but at this stage, it is more important to qualify so we must be first or second in the group. “It will not be easy though and we will show plenty of respect to Yemen and India. Yemen have some good young players who proved themselves by finishing second at the AFC U-17 Championship (in 2002) and qualifying for the FIFA U-17 World Championship, while India gave us a couple of tough matches during the World Cup 2006 qualifiers.” Japan claimed the Asian Cup in 2004 with a 3-1 win over hosts China but the AFC’s decision not to give the defending champions an automatic berth in the 2007 tournament means that they must go through the qualification process.
All time record against our opponents Against KSA Win 5 Draw 1 Lose 1 Asian Games 1990 BEIJING CHINA PR - 28.09.1990 KSA 2-0 Japan Asian Nations Cup 1992 HIROSHIMA JAPAN - 08.11.1992 Japan 1-0 KSA FIFA WC 1994 Prel. Comp. AFC DOHA QATAR - 15.10.1993 KSA 0-0 Japan Friendly 1995 TOKYO JAPAN - 24.10.1995 Japan 2-1 KSA Friendly 1995 MATSUYAMA JAPAN - 28.10.1995 Japan 2-1 KSA Asian Nations Cup 2000 SAIDA LEBANON - 14.10.2000 KSA 1-4 Japan Asian Nations Cup 2000 BEIRUT LEBANON - 29.10.2000 KSA 0-1 Japan ------------------------------------------------------------------ Against Yemen Japan will play against them for the first time ------------------------------------------------------------------ Against India Win 3 Draw 0 Lose 0 Asian Games 1998 TRANG THAILAND - 03.12.1998 Japan 1-0 India FIFA WC 2006 Prel. Comp. Asian Zone SAITAMA JAPAN - 09.06.2004 Japan 7-0 India FIFA WC 2006 Prel. Comp. Asian Zone CALCUTTA INDIA - 08.09.2004 India 0-4 Japan
i really love to see australia face these teams in arab world. they tend to suck big time outside arabia but they cause lots of pain within their territory.
According to FIFA website, KSA has a friendly with Serbia & Montenegro on the same day. Now what? Our game has been cancelled then? If that's the case, we have no game to play on the international match day! ３・１アジア杯「サウジＶｓ日本」消滅？
So Saudi refuse to play with Japan in March, and they will play with Serbia & Montenegro . Serbia & Montenegro will be similar wiht Croatia NT, and JFA has good relation with Serbia & Montenegro. So I thought if we don't play with Saudi in March we should play with Serbia & Montenegro, it would be good preparation. But now we even can not arrange friendly with Serbia & Montenegro in March.
To be honest I don't think Japan can beat sebia-mon's neighbour Croatia who you will meet in the world cup, Japan possibly can finish 3rd place in the group ahead of Australia.
i don't think so. we are world class and saying “byebye asia” with our full squad Japan (A) 1-0 Tunisia Japan (A) 1-0 Czech Japan (A) 1-1 England Japan (H) 1-0 Serbia&Montenegro Japan (N) 1-0 Greece Japan (N) 2-2 Brasil plus Japan B team won the asian cup in 2004
http://www.fcjapan.co.jp/mail_magazine/news/feature_view.php3?id=601&m=1 an english journalist in japan criticized AFC
Yeh, its pretty pathetic how they said that if BOTH teams agree to move the match, then they can move it. Then they go and move the match before Japan even agrees to it.