“I want my players to put every will and every piece of guts into getting goals.” The coach of SAMURAI BLUE (Japan National Team), Vahid HALILHODZIC spoke of their enthusiastic state of mind towards their next 2nd round match of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Asian Qualifiers against Cambodia at the press conference held on 2 September. 

The ongoing round of the qualifiers restarts after the break of two and a half months. The Cambodia match will be followed by the match against Afghanistan on 8 September in Tehran, a neutral country, and consecutive away matches in next two months. 

After Japan ended up drawing with no goals scored with Singapore at the first match in June, they finished the following EAFF East Asian Cup with one loss and two ties, which in total kept them away from winning in four straight matches. Japan’s boss clearly wants to come out of the stagnancy with a win at the last home match of the year to be held on 3 September to give themselves much-needed momentum toward away matches to come.

Halilhodzic said “We are expected to show how we are going to play. We need to convince people that what happened in Singapore was just an accident.”

“The only thing we were missing in the Singapore match was finishing touches,” added the former Yugoslavia international. “I want my players to remember that we are capable of scoring goals. Wins can make you confident. I expect them to attack with decisiveness and aggressiveness.”

The players share the coach’s mind-set. Forward OKAZAKI Shinji (Leicester City Football Club / England), who has already scored a goal in England’s Premier League where he newly started playing this season, says “What is expected most is scoring goals. I want to help the team there.”

Midfielder YAMAGUCHI Hotaru (Cerezo Osaka) agrees, saying “We need middle-range shots and rush-ins by second-row and third-row players, too. I want to get involved in offence.”

The squad had one-hour training at the match venue Saitama Stadium 2002, of which only the first 15 minutes was open to media.

Cambodia are at the 180th in the FIFA ranking, while Japan stand at the 56th. This is the first time for the Southeast Asian country to advance to the second round of the Asian Qualifiers for the World Cup. In this round where five countries belong to each group competing against each other, they played two matches in June and failed to earn a single point. In the Group E, Cambodia currently sit at the bottom as Japan are placed fourth. The total record between two countries is Japan’s two wins in the two matches. 

Midfielder HASEBE Makoto (Eintracht Frankfurt / Germany) confidently spoke of his take on the upcoming match, saying “All of us understand where we are right now. We will go all out to win the match tomorrow. We have to play the match that can impress all the people who take time to watch it.”

The match between Japan and Cambodia kicks off at 7:25 p.m. on 3 September.

Coach and Players' Comments

Vahid HALILHODZIC, Coach of SAMURAI BLUE (Japan National Team)
I told the players at the beginning of this camp, we have to go out and earn wins, as long as they aren’t given. We will go all out to win determined. We still lack determination and composure at finishing plays. I want my players to put every will and every piece of guts into getting goals. We are capable of scoring goals, so we need to stay confident and keep playing.

I don’t think the first goal will be easy, but if we get that at early stage of the match, we can play the rest of the match with a different mind-set. We are expected to show how we are going to play. So we want to show it. We want to finish the last match we play at home in this year with spectacular goals. 

MF   HASEBE Makoto (Eintracht Frankfurt / Germany)
We were playing well at the first few matches we played after we got the new coach. So it’s important to win this one and get our confidence back. Coach tells us in practice what kind of plays we should play, but in fact it’s the players who do it in matches. So he also tells us to play flexibly. 

In the match against Singapore, we players couldn’t show that flexibility, and that’s where experienced players including myself have to lead others. In this Cambodia match, it’s important to put early pressure and regain the ball. Those things are more important than vertical quick offences. The accuracy and collectiveness in the last one third of the pitch toward the goal is very important, too. We will show that in the match. 

MF   YAMAGUCHI Hotaru (Cerezo Osaka)
We want to play with winning as the top priority. We need middle-range shots and rush-ins by second-row and third-row players, too. I want to get involved in offence, but I need to be careful of counter-attacks, too. So to me transition defence after offence needs more perfection than offence itself. I want to keep showing what I can do as well as incorporating what I can do into the team’s game plan.

LEE Tae Hoon, Coach (Cambodia National Team)
Japanese players are many levels higher than our players. Every one of them is dangerous. Our players are still learning in all areas of the game, so it will be very difficult for us to win against Japan. I think we will spend long time defending, but first we make sure to defend Japan’s attacks, and after getting the ball we want to attack confidently. This is a great opportunity for our players to learn from Japan, so I want them to learn many things. 

JFA-TV (Japanese version only)

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