Ok. We will remember this for the whole year since you are the OP now. Let's hope USMNT and JNT will join togheter in Russia.
Until a few years ago this declaration would have been considered crazy. Sad story that now is the wisest thing to do.
Honda has a good chance of not being called up, but the reality is that he's injured. He was out of the bench in Milan's last match too.
Squad members for the March WCQ matches: GK: Nishikawa, Kawashima, Akihiro Hayashi DF: Hiroki Sakai, Gotoku Sakai, Nagatomo, Makino, Yoshida, Morishige, Shoji, Ueda MF: Hasebe, Yamaguchi, Konno, Takahagi, Kurata, Kagawa, Kiyotake FW: Honda, Asano, Haraguchi, Usami, Osako, Okazaki, Kubo
This is ludacris. I hope Halilhodzic will leave after Summer 2018, because he's badly managing rotations. What's the point of calling Honda, KAWASHIMA, Usami and Konno? Really! There are young players ready to shine.
He's trying to win, not to develop youngsters. Your point might still stand but not on the names you listed. What's the point of calling Honda? The fact that most of the time he still delivers, even though his form is a big concern.
He played just 16 minutes in the last 4 months. C'mon! Plus, YES, he has to develop players: otherwise we'll be at square one in Summer 2018. Still no new CBs (Ueda and Shoji have two caps COMBINED), no new GK (you would have expected Hayashi to be the one to start, but it won't be like that), no new faces (Nakamura is still waiting to debut).
Honda always delivers off the pitch at least. But what the hell Usami is doing there? Yamaguchi? Kiyotake?
I think Konno is selected for his experience in such situations especially with the away match against UAE.
Two of the best players of the last matches. There still needs to be a bit of continuity in a National Team, names can't all change every single time. I think Konno deserves his call up in terms of performances but I wouldn't have done it. Takahagi sucks and there's too many CBs. Wow he didn't bring Kobayashi...