Japanese Players in Europe

Shinji Okazaki scored for the third league match in a row, as Stuttgart beat Freiburg 4-1. Okazaki got on the end of an excellent cross from Martin Harnik in the 21st minute to make give Die Schwaben a 2-0 lead. It was his 7th goal of the season. Gotoku Sakai, on loan from Albirex Niigata, retained his place as the starting rightback, playing the full 90 minutes. The win lifted Stuttgart into 8th place as they aim for the European places. Highlights.

Robert Cullen scored his second goal of the season, as Venlo beat Heracles 3-1. Cullen came on in the 75th minute and scored in the 90th to secure the points for Venlo. Maya Yoshida played the entire match. The win brings Venlo to within 2 points of safety. The goal.

Shinji Kagawa returned earlier than expected for Dortmund, as the reigning Bundesliga champions beat Hannover 3-1 to extend their lead at the top of the table to 3 points over Bayern. He started the match and was subbed off in the 87th minute for Ivan Perisic, who promptly scored.

Speaking of Monchengladbach, Yuki Otsu made just his 3rd league appearance for the Foals, who drew 1-1 to Hamburg and dropped to third place. Otsu came on for Igor De Camargo in the 79th minute.

Ryo Miyaichi played the full 90 minutes as Bolton were smacked 3-0 away at Chelsea. The Wanderers were torn apart by a second-half onslaught from the unpredictable Blues.

Finally, Yuto Nagatomo played the full 90 minutes for Inter as they lost to Napoli. It was the 5th straight match in all competitions that the Nerazzurri have failed to score. Since the return of Wesley Sneijder, they have been in terrible form.

(Note: The picture at the top is not from the Freiburg match, but it’s just such a great picture of Sakai and Okazaki together that I had to use it.)

Look forward to the Uzbekistan match tomorrow, or later today depending on where you are!

Japanese Squad to Face Uzbekistan

The team to play Uzbekistan on Wednesday has been announced. Unlike the Iceland friendly, this match is on a FIFA date so most of the overseas players have been included. No place for Honda or Kagawa though….

Goalkeepers (rookies in bold): Eiji Kawashima, Kaito Yamamoto, and Shusaku Nishikawa.

Defenders: Yuichi Komano, Yasuyuki Konno, Yuzo Kurihara, Yuto Nagatomo, Masahiko Inoha, Tomoaki Makino, Maya Yoshida, and Atsuto Uchida.

Midfielders: Yasuhito Endo, Kengo Nakamura, Chikashi Masuda, Yosuke Kashiwagi, Makoto Hasebe, and Hajime Hosogai.

Forwards: Ryo Miyaichi, Tadanari Lee, Mike Havenaar, Shinji Okazaki, Jungo Fujimoto, and Takashi Inui.

Obviously I’m excited to see Miyaichi. He probably will start on the bench, but hopefully he’ll get some time. He’s been playing well at Bolton, and together with Nagatomo, could cause real havoc down the wings.

I am disappointed that Junya Tanaka was not retained from the friendly–he played well when he came on against Iceland. However he will get plenty of opportunities in the future.

Kagawa’s omission is definitely because of injury. He wasn’t expected to return for Dortmund until next week, but played in today’s 3-1 win over Hannover. He was likely still thought unavailable when the selections were made. I’m guessing it’s similar with Honda, though he played in the midweek against Real Madrid. I think that CSKA weren’t too keen about having their playmaker fly all the way to Japan after just making his way back to fitness, and made the JFA aware of this concern.

Despite these two absences, Zaccheroni will be able to put forward a very strong team. He will probably go with his favored 4-2-3-1. Mike will probably be the lone striker, with Okazaki-Lee-Hosogai behind him. Endo and Hasebe are near locks in the midfield. I would bet on Nagatomo-Konno-Yoshida-Uchida and obviously Kawashima in goal.

With a win, Japan would secure first place in Group C on head-to-head. The seeding for groups in the next round is done by FIFA ranking so the result from this match won’t get Japan a more favorable group, but it would still be good to finish the round with a win.

The European update will come later this week. Sorry for the delay, here’s a Shinji Kagawa highlight video to make up for it.

Japan 3-1 Iceland

A good win to start off the 2012 international calendar. Japan dominated throughout and went up 3-0 before Iceland pulled one back at the death with a penalty. The scorers were Ryoichi Maeda, Jungo Fujimoto, and Tomoaki Makino.

Makino set up the first goal in the 2nd minute with a perfect cross onto the head of Maeda, after a good run down the right and embarrassing the Icelandic rightback with a cutback.

Japan created a number of other chances in the first half, led forward menacingly by the excellent Fujimoto. However, they were unable to capitalize on any of these and entered the break up 1-0.

In the second half, Japan picked up right where they left off. Debutant Junya Tanaka came on at the start of the half for Yasuhito Endo.

Fujimoto scored a deserved goal in the 53rd, latching onto a wonderful ball from Kengo Nakamura and chipping cooly over the Icelandic keeper.

A minute later, Fujimoto was at again. This time provider, the Nagoya Grampus playmaker played a great ball to Tanaka who shot inches wide from his first senior goal.

It became 3-0 in the 79th when Makino scored from a sitting position in the middle of a scramble in the Icelandic box after a freekick by Nakamura. It was his first goal f0r the national team.

Makino’s only mistake was conceding a penalty in added time, which Arnor Smarason cooly placed by the otherwise untroubled Shusaku Nishikawa. Final score 3-1.

It was another great time performance from Japan, who dominated possession, and carved open the Icelandic defense at will with quick passing. Makino was excellent coming out of defense, and Fujimoto showed that he can play the number ten role well filling in for Honda and Kagawa. Tanaka also played well in his first appearance. It was a good first match of the year.

Some points: The Icelandic number 7 Steinthor Thorsteinsson wowed the Osaka crowd with a number of ‘front flip’ throws. Technically, they are illegal, but the crowd loved them and it was a friendly.

Japan continues to show that its best form of defense is never letting the other team have the ball. They continued to dominate possession and never game Iceland a moment on the ball. Nishikawa was hardly troubled.

Next: The final World Cup qualifier of the third round, at home against Uzbekistan on Wednesday.

Here are the highlights.

Japan Plays Iceland

Apparently Japan has a friendly with Iceland this Friday. Since it’s not a FIFA international day, the team will be comprised entirely of domestic players who won’t miss any club matches or have to travel halfway across the world both ways. The Iceland team will also be made up of players from their domestic league (except for a couple in Norway and one in Greece). Unsurprisingly, the Icelandic league plays during the summer because of frigid arctic winters.

The Japan team…

Goalkeepers (rookies in bold): Takuto Hayashi, Kaito Yamamato, and Shusaku Nishikawa.

Defenders: Yuichi Komano, Daiki Iwamasa, Yasuyuki Konno, Yuzo Kurihara, Naoya Kondo, Masahiko Inoha, Ryota Moriwaki, and Tomoaki Makino.

Midfielders: Yasuhito Endo, Kengo Nakamura, Yuki Abe, Chikashi Masuda, Yosuke Kashiwagi, Ryota Isomura, and Gaku Shibasaki.

Forwards: Naohiro Ishikawa, Ryoichi Maeda, Yoshito Okubo, Jungo Fujimoto, Junya Tanaka, Hidetaka Kanazono(injured), and Yuya Kubo.

In all, nine debutants, including three who are 20 or younger. In particular, I’m looking forward to seeing Junya Tanaka (the Japan Footblog J. League Player of the Year!). He had a great Club World Cup, and hopefully he can play well and solidify his place in the national team. After leading Kashiwa to promotion and then the championship, Tanaka finally gets his chance with the national team. There is no place for Marcus Tulio Tanaka, who can’t seem to get a game under Zaccheroni.

Zaccheroni will probably be experimental in this game, so it’s difficult to predict who will be in the starting xi. I would say Tanaka, Fujimoto, Maeda, Nakamura, and Endo are all pretty certain starters among the front six. In back, Komano and Konno are locks. I don’t have a clue who will start in goal.

The experts (message boards) seem to think that youngsters like Shibasaki and Kubo are being brought along just to experience the senior team and are unlikely to play. That’s kind of disappointing, but I’m sure they’ll get their chance in the future.

Overall, experimental or not, I don’t think Japan will have too much trouble in this friendly. After this, World Cup qualifiers start up again.

Other news: Keisuke Honda played for CSKA in the Champions League against Real Madrid. Honda came on as a sub in the 68th minute and played well. The match ended 1-1, a good result for a team in the middle of its winter break, against an opponent that has been redefining ‘steamrolling’ in its domestic league.

Japanese Players in Europe

Despite Shinji Kagawa’s injury, this was a very good weekend for Japanese footballers in Europe. The star was Ryo Miyaichi who scored his first goal in English football in a 2-0 Bolton win away at Millwall. Ryo ran past the Millwall defense and curled into the back of the net to give Bolton a 1-0 lead in three minutes in. After the match, he said that the finish was inspired by Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie: “When I was at Arsenal, I saw many times Henry score same way during training. [Robin] Van Persie also did it, from the right flank. They showed very good example for me. That’s why I could score today.” (Guardian) This was Ryo’s second appearance for Bolton, and they have both been good performances.

Mike Havenaar scored his second Eredivisie in a 4-1 defeat to Twente. Mike came on as a substitute in the 73rd minute, and scored in the 88th, with the score at 4-0. The loss leaves Vitesse in 7th place, but on the bright side Mike continues to play well! Michihiro Yasuda also played in this game

Shinji Okazaki scored an outrageous overhead kick in Stuttgart’s 4-2 defeat at the hands of Hannover. Stuttgart slipped to ninth with the loss. Still, a great goal, and the proper celebration given the score.

Maya Yoshida scored as Venlo smacked fellow strugglers De Graafschap 4-1. Robert Cullen came on for the second half. The win brings Venlo to within two points of safety.

Tadanari Lee scored his first goal for Southampton in a 4-0 win over Derby County. Lee came on in the second half and scored in the 75th. It was a great goal.

Nagatomo played well again, however Inter lost again 3-0 to Bologna. It was Inter’s third straight loss, and third straight game in which they failed to score. They are now in seventh place.

Finally, Kagawa will miss Dortmund’s next few games as he injured his ankle during midweek training. He had been in great form, which makes the injury all the more disappointing.

Japanese Players in Europe

Borussia Dortmund maintained its two-point lead atop the Bundesliga with a 1-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen. The match was settled by a brilliant individual goal by Shinji Kagawa. After a poor start to the season, he has really hit form and, with Robert Lewandowski, has been Dortmund’s best player in the absence of Mario Gotze. He has now scored four times in 2012, leading Dortmund to top of the table and an undefeated record on the year.

Ryo Miyaichi made his English debut, playing the entire second half of Bolton’s 2-1 home defeat to Wigan. He was brilliant throughout and almost salvaged a point for the Wanderers, forcing a great save from Ali Al-Habsi. Manager Owen Coyle singled Ryo out for praise in his post-match interview.

Mike Havenaar played the entire match, as Vitesse lost 3-1 away to Feyenoord. Red-hot Man City loanee John Guidetti had yet another hattrick for Feyenoord who moved up to fourth with the win. Michihiro Yasuda was an unused substitute.

Shinji Okazaki scored once as Stuttgart smacked Hertha Berlin 5-0. The win lifts Stuttgart to 9th in the table. Makoto Hasebe and Wolfsburg are one spot ahead in the standings, winning 3-2 over Freiburg. Captain Hasebe played the entire second half. Meanwhile, Takashi Usami was an unused substitute as Bayern beat relegation-bound Kaiserslautern 2-0.

Both Maya Yoshida and Robert Cullen played as VVV beat Groningen 2-0, to climb further from automatic relegation. Yoshida played the entire match, while Cullen came on as a late substitute. Meanwhile, Yoshiaki Takagi maintained his place in the first team as Utrecht drew 1-1 Ado Den Haag.

Sorry for the long absence readers, I will be posting more regularly now.