the mighty japan consists of hundreds of thousands of quality players so unlike the 2nd tiers except france in the confed cup missing five or six doesn't downgrade us to a "B" team. we haven't announced the squad yet but it should be similar to the one in upcoming kirin cup and it is one (out of 1000) of our "A" team.
another quality Premium post! (lol) I think it includes all players from Europe, and will probably include the U-22 for the S. Korea game, granted they don't embarrass themselves.
Dont think so. Id be EXTREMELY surprised if Zico takes either Toda or Kawaguchi (to say nothing of Hiroyama, who also plays in Europe in case your forgot). I would guess that it will include the core of players from the Korea match, plus Takahara, Nakata, Ono and Nakamura. The U-22 players probably will NOT go, unless they do something incredible in the Korea, Argentina or Paraguay matches. The only one who might have a chance would be Okubo, because of the lack of other top quality forwards. Threres just no way that Matsui or Ishikawa are good enough to push someone like Ogasawara or Koji Nakata out of the squad, and considering that Zico will have to cut about 7 players from the current squad before the start of the Confederations Cup, its pretty clear that they will be two of the first in line.
Anyone know what happened to Hiroyama? There were newspaper articles on him during the beginning of the season...but now I rarely see anything on him...Does anyone have info on him? Is he still at Braga does he play?
He is still at Braga and apparently he is a regular on the substitute bench, averaging about 15-20 minutes a match. I always thought that he might be too one-dimensional to win a starting spot, but apparently Braga like his speed on the wing and crossing ability. He is useful to add some "width" to the offense. Probably he will remain at Braga again in 2003-04. I dont think there is much chance for him to become a starter, though.
Here's the squad: GK: 1 Seigo Narazaki (Nagoya Grampus Eight) 12 Jun Sogahata (Kashima Antlers) 23 Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi (Portsmouth) DF 2 Akira Narahashi (Kashima Antlers) 3 Yutaka Akita (Kashima Antlers) 4 Ryuzo Morioka (Shimizu S-Pulse) 6 Toshiaki Hattori (Jubilo Iwata) 17 Tsuneyoshi Miyamoto (Gamba Osaka) 21 Keisuke Tsuboi (Urawa Reds) 22 Nobuhisa Yamada (Urawa Reds) MF 5 Junichi Inamoto (Fulham) 7 Hidetoshi Nakata (Parma) 8 Mitsuo Ogasawara (Kashima Antlers) 10 Shunsuke Nakamura (Reggina) 13 Daisuke Oku (Yokohama Marinos) 14 Allesandro (Alex) Santos (Shimizu S-Pulse) 15 Takashi Fukunishi (Jubilo Iwata) 16 Koji Nakata (Kashima Antlers) 19 Yasuhito Endo (Gamba Osaka) FW 9 Masahi Nakayama (Jubilo Iwata) 11 Takayuki Suzuki (Kashima Antlers) 18 Yuichiro Nagai (Urawa Reds) 20 NaohiroTakahara (Hamburger SV) 6 from Kashima, 3 each from Iwata and Urawa, 2 each from Shimizu and Gamba, no Okubo or Matsui....
okubo's exclusion was a disappointment. he scored against parma and also has been hot during the practice sessions. probably from the very beginning zico wasn't counting the U-23 trio no matter how they performed. but couldn't he really think more rather than just carrying over the same squad + alpha from the korea match?? i thought he was going to announce a different squad after the kirin cup. btw, that's hitoshi sogahata. i know at a first glance i would have read it jun too.
I hate it when I do that, but I was too lazy to check. The worst is when they write Korean and Chinese names in Kanji but don't tell you how to pronounce them. I guess we won't see the U-23s until at least the end of the year. It's nice to see Takahara in the squad, but the forward line still sucks. And Kawaguchi is still in the squad? I just hope we don't get embarassed at the Confed Cup like Copa America in 1999.
we should give kawaguchi and suzuki more time. suzuki might have been bad against korea but as the time goes by he will be at better shape. he wasn't that bad against uruguay as far as i've seen. kawaguchi did horrible last time but everyone can do horrible once in a while. let's not one game criticize a player to death. we can do so alex and nakayama (probably hattori, morioka, and akita can honorably join) who have been doing the same ************ all the time but give kawaguchi and suzuki another chance.
I'm not basing my critique of Suzuki on one game though. I just don't think he has the quality to be a full time starter for the national team. He's a nice guy to bring off the bench because of his energy, but you can't rely on him game after game. I think Takahara is better as a set up forward to partner with a pure striker - and Suzuki isn't a pure striker. Kawaguchi... well, I think he needs to go to a club where he's playing every week before he can be considered for the NT.
Eh, Kawaguchi WAS given another chance... in the God damn Uruguay game, where he cost them a WIN. It's extremely disappointing that NO U-23s were selected for the team. He should have let their performances in these 2 upcoming friendlies dictate whether or not they'd be put on. Let's say Okubo runs wild in the next 2 games? Then what? It would look totally stupid to leave a guy like that off the team.
that's the only one he's got since he's gone from the national team last year before the world cup while the donkey nakayama and the rest of the folks in my honorable list such as alex got more than they deserved.
Nakayama sucks. That sitter in the game against Korea - even I can score that one. But he put it to row Z....Why does Zico love him so much?
Gon Nakayama has been dropped from the Confederations Cup squad because of a tear in his left hamstring. Okubo will take his place, thank goodness. I love Nakayama's attitude and I appreciate what he's done for the national team, but he had no business starting matches, imho. Also, Doi (FC Tokyo?) replaces Sogahata.
Okubo looks slated to start the match against Paraguay. If he does good, expect him to start in the Confed alongside Takahara. Yeah, Doi is in the squad now.
Hello friends. Just a word of advice. Stop worrying. I mean, it's irrelevant who's on Japan's team anyway, seriously, in fact....it's kind of stupid. Any person of even average intelligence could tell you that regardless of who is on the pitch for Japan, they will destroy their opponents with ease and win the "Cup of Kings". The Kirin Cup was a fluke, pay it no attention. The mighty Japan will toss Colombia and New Zealand to the Dogs, and then have a good game with France. Unsure about the finals though, only thing I know for certain is that I predict Brazil will not be in them. Sebastian
And they keep dropping like flies. Takayuki Suzuki and Takashi Fukunishi are out, Daisuke Matsui (Kyoto) and Tomokazu Myojin (Kashiwa) are in. Inamoto and Yamada are also carrying injuries.
WOW! They actually called Myojin back to the NT? I thought for sure he wouldn't be back under Zico. Good thing Matsui is there, after Nakata and Nakamura, he is the only really creative mid, since Santos got pushed to the back line, and he & Okubo play really well together. He can also play FW if needed.
yes my mighty japan will win le confed cup. although if we take our best shot we can handle la france too but since they are le host and it's our second game and due to la extremely tight schedule, we will challenge them with about 30% strength. this france match will only be a skirmish before we meet again in the final. meantime, however, we will demolish new zealand and colombia and teach them how to kick a ball. once we passed the first round, it is a piece of cake for us to get to the final as no one in the other group, which i don't even recall who are participating, will cause us trouble in the semi-final. the final will be the toughest of all where 100% strengthened japan's almighty will have blood steaming and flesh scattering battle with another god's power la france under a night of saint denis when a bunch of lunatics from all over le world fiercely scream in thirst for chaos. but we will prevail eventually and deprive the cup from the host. the sweet revenge of '01 will be inevitably acomplished le kirin cup wasn't a fluke. it was all intentional from le very beginning. le world will soon know it.