One day before his second game since he took the helm for SAMURAI BLUE (Japan men's national team), against Uzbekistan in the 2015 JAL Challenge Cup of 30 March, Vahid Halilhodzic attended a news conference at Tokyo Stadium. The new head coach said, ''I'm satisfied with our first game. We would like another victory in the second.''

In the first game on the 27th against Tunisia in Oita, Japan posted a 2-0 win as they took the pitch with seven players who didn't compete in January's AFC Asian Cup.

For the second match, in which the team would entre with three day's rest, Halilhodzic made it clear that he would make drastic change in his starting members from in the first game. ''I want to know all the players we've called up for the training camp even deeper through this game. I'm planning to use most of our players,'' he said.

The team went through a practice that was held for about an hour and half at the game site. They worked on menus, including running, dashing to improve their reaction and ability, passing and shooting. In a mini game they played, they checked on their build ups, being conscious about how to feed cross balls.

Mirjalol Kasimov has led the Uzbekistan team since 2012 and is currently in his second term. They were grouped with North Korea, China and Saudi Arabia and qualified through the group stage before they would lose to South Korea 0-2 after extra minutes in the semifinals to finish at the final eight, which was the same as Japan. Right before their arrival in Japan, Uzbekistan played with South Korea and draw 1-1 on 27 March.

In the latest FIFA rankings, Japan is placed 53rd while Uzbekistan is 72nd. Japan have gone 5-3-1 against Uzbekistan in the past. But the two faced against each other in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers in 2011 and '12 and Japan ended with a draw and a loss.

''We faced them at home last time and lost, but we want to beat them in this challenge,'' Halilhodzic said. ''We want to play with our blocks higher up than in our Tunisia game.''

Japan have a chance to meet with Uzbekistan again in the qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which will begin in June, but midfielder SHIBASAKI Gaku (Kashima Antlers) insisted, ''Putting the World Cup qualifying aside, we want to focus on the latest game we are given.''

''It's the stadium that I personally have special feeling with, so I want to put up a good result here,'' defender OTA Kosuke, who usually players here for FC Tokyo, of Tokyo Stadium.

The SAMURAI BLUE-Uzbekistan match will kick off at 7:25 p.m.

Comments of the Head Coaches

Vahid Halilhodzic, Head Coach of SAMURAI BLUE (Japan National Team)
I'm satisfied with our first game. I've told my players to win another in the second game to maintain our dynamism of winning. I'll probably go with completely new members from the first game. Maybe there's too much risk doing it, but we want to use most of the players we called up to know them deeper through the game. We've analysed our players (in the Tunisia game), and confirmed that our national team have improved both offensively and defensively compared with the previous team. We could showcase our way of play, and I think that this team will be able to reach to another level by doing so. I'm hoping that our players will live up to my demands further.

Mirjalol Kasimov, Head Coach of Uzbekistan National Team
We were looking to advance further in the AFC Asian Cup, so we disappointed our compatriots as we were eliminated in the round of eight. Thus, we are thinking that we want to come up with better outcomes in the FIFA World Cup qualifying to please them, and we've been keeping playing games in order to know where we are at the moment. Japan have entered their rebirth period with the new head coach, and I think that their players come in the game with higher motivation to show him what they can do. Their new coach has a lot of experiences, so we're looking forward to see what kind of a game he will play and it'll be a very interesting contest.

JFA-TV

Schedule

JAL CHALLENGE CUP 2015

Tue. 31 March 2015
SAMURAI BLUE (Japan National Team)  v  Uzbekistan National Team
Tokyo Stadium, Kickoff 19:25/Open 16:25
TV Coverage: National live broadcasting on NTV Group

More information