SAMURAI BLUE head coach Javier Aguirre spoke to the media at a news conference on Monday, one day before their international friendly against Brazil at the Singapore national stadium. The Mexican said, "it won’t be an easy game to play for us, but we want to end their record for having given up no goals for consecutive games.’’
The Japan national squad moved there on Saturday after they beat Jamaica for their first win under Aguirre. They practiced on the following day, but were forced to work inside in the afternoon due to a thunderstorm. Meanwhile, the pitch condition wasn’t good as Aguirre put it, "it’d need some time for us to have the best circumstances.’’ Japan will have to take on Brazil, a five-time FIFA World Cup champions, there.

Japan will have to perform in the tough situation, yet Aguirre said, "there won’t be any home games in (January’s) Asian Cup. We are here to overcome adversities. It’ll a great experience for us.’’
Brazil, No. 6 in the FIFA rankings, finished fourth in the FIFA World Cup as the hosts this summer and resumed under head coach Dunga, a former Brazilian national team player who’s played for Jubilo Iwata.
Brazil has been perfect at 3-0, including their latest match against Argentina in Beijing, which was held a few days ago. At Monday’s official practice session, players like Atletico Mineiro forward Diego Tardelli and Barcelona forward Neymar showed nimble moves.

It will have been the first time the two face against each other since last June’s FIFA Confederations Cup. Japan has had two draws and eight losses against Brazil.
"It’s important for us to capitalize on a few chances we’d have,’’ Aguirre said. "We want to play good defence and play with confidence, while we have to take advantage of some luck as well.’’
Aguirre also said that he’d change six players from the Jamaica match. "Toward (January’s) Asian Cup, we’ll look for a result, but it’s a higher priority for us to find hitting players. Yet it’s important to not hurt the players, too.’’
The Japan-Brazil match will kick off at 6:45 p.m. (7:45 p.m. in Japan time) on Tuesday.

Comments

Javier AGUIRRE, Head Coach of SAMURAI BLUE (Japan National Team)
We are pleased to be able to face one of the best in the world. They have numerous international starts and it will be a great experience for us to play with them. Our opponents have won three in a row, giving up no goals. But we want to change the figures. They have many high-quality players and are expected to keep the ball against us, so it’s going to be a tough game for us, but we’ve got to play good defence play with confidence. We want to capitalize on some luck as well. We want to play with a compact distance of some 40 meters, not given the space we’ve in our last few games. Three of the four goals Brazil’s scored since Dunga took over came from set plays, but we will have to defend it well.

MF  SHIBASAKI Gaku (Kashima Antlers)
Brazil has many players that have high individual qualities and attack on their own. We will have to play tenacious defence with better defensive mind-set than in our Jamaica game. I’ve grown up thinking the image football is Brazil, and Brazil have always kept their top-level plays, so tomorrow’s game will be an indicative game to measure ourselves. We don’t have Kagawa, but no matter who we will have in there, I will do my best to fit for that player.

DF  SHIOTANI Tsukasa (Sanfrecce Hiroshima)
We’ve watched a few games of Brazil on video. Their front guys particularly have high abilities with speed and techniques, so their counter attacks are threatening. Neymar has great ability, so once you give him space, he can pass and fire shots. We need to make it clear on who should go check him and we have to have better coaching between ourselves. I’ve understood on what we are supposed to do during our practices. I want to go up against the world’s top-class players, not being afraid of them.

MF  HOSOGAI Hajime (Hertha BSC)
I’m in a position to work in the background, so when the players in front of me get attention, that means our game is working. Brazil is a top-level team in the world and has many players with high abilities, so we’ll have a lot to learn when we play with them and we want to show what we’ve done on the pitch. I think there’ll be a longer time for them to keep the ball, but for us it’ll be depending on how compact we will able to have our defence, and once we have the ball, we want to put good lateral passes. It’s important for us to not give up a goal first. We’ve got to concentrate and how much patient we’ll be able to play.

Dunga, Head Coach (Brazil National Team)
The most importantly I am going to create the best team by putting together the top quality players. As every one of player is excellent, the squad is able to pick up new strategy easily and generate many things in limited hours of training. Currently, Japanese players got better as many Japanese players are playing in the world’s top clubs and accumulating international experience. Totally different from the time when I was playing. I am going to consider how much each player is exhausted before deciding starters but I don’t think it is necessary to change players every game for building confidence as a team.

JFA-TV

International Friendly Match

Tuesday, 14 October 2014   Kickoff at 18:45 (local time)  19:45(Japan Time)
SAMURAI BLUE (Japan National Team)  vs   Brazil National Team
Singapore/The Singapore National Stadium
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