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.