Samurai Blue coach NISHINO Akira on Thursday, May 31, named 23 players for the upcoming 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia in Tokyo, expressing his hopes of “displaying Japan-brand football” while aiming to going beyond the group stage in their sixth straight appearance at the world’s most prestigious tournament.

The squad features 11 players who experienced in the 2014 finals in Brazil with the likes of captain HASEBE Makoto of Eintracht Frankfurt, NAGATOMO Yuto of Galatasaray S.K. and HONDA Keisuke of CF Pachuca. KAGAWA Shinji of Borussia Dortmund, OKAZAKI Shinji of Leicester City FC and INUI Takashi of SD Eibar, were also in time for joining the final squad after having recovered from their recent injury.

Japan will play Colombia on June 19 in Saransk, Senegal on June 24 in Ekaterinburg and Poland on June 28 in Volgograd in Group H at the Russia 2018.

Nishino, who has been rapidly working on building his team since his arrival at the helm of Japan in early April, said, “It was a very difficult and tough work to make the list, but I felt delightful to be involved with the World Cup selection that you can experience only with the national team. “I thought about various possibilities from overall point of view and they are the ones who can show their best performance on June 19 [against Colombia]. I made the list of these 23 players with confidence.”

Among them, FC Metz goalkeeper KAWASHIMA Eiji is the oldest at 35 and will make his third straight World Cup appearances along with Hasebe, Honda, Okazaki and Nagatomo. Six others including YOSHIDA Maya of Southampton will make their second straight challenge with the World Cup, and 12 others such as HARAGUCHI Genki of Fortuna Dusseldorf and OHSHIMA Ryota of Kawasaki Frontale are new to the tournament.

The average age of the squad is 28.26, but Nishino said, “At the huge tournament like World Cup, you have to be on the pitch in a different situation from usual, and the well-experienced players will be important presence to the team.” He also said of Kagawa, “He is getting better and is showing more with his own performance. I am expecting that his unique and high sense of play in midfield can rise higher. Honda also is improving his fitness and he has an influential power to the rest of the team in addition to his experience,” the 63-year-old Japan coach noted.

The Japanese team is heading to Austria on June 2, where they will hold a preparation camp. The team will play Switzerland on June 8 in Lugano and Paraguay on June 12 in Innsbruck in World Cup warm-ups before heading to Kazan, their base during the tournament.

Nishino said, “The match can be decided by a small difference in a split second or one centimeter, and we need to keep that in mind and work on our preparation. I’d like to make our players united to make a team to play a best game against every opponent with good adjustability.”

This will be the first World Cup for Nishino, who surprised the world by beating Brazil with his 1996 Olympic team. He said, “I am hoping to play Japan brand football with our players and earn points in every match to get through the group stage. If we can do that, we can express Japanese football to some extent. I hope our players fight hard in the tournament with their top form, showing their own play.”

Comments

NISHINO Akira, Samurai Blue Head Coach
With less than a month from taking the position as the coach, we are now heading to the big stage. It was really a difficult and tough work to do to make the final list with 23 players only after we had a camp for 10 days from May 21, but at the same time I felt delightful to be involved with the World Cup selection that you can experience only with the national team. I made the list of these 23 players with confidence.

There are players who helped us go to Russia and those who are developing very well, or who can make a big progress from now. You cannot choose 23 players so easily. I thought about various possibilities from overall point of view and these players are the ones who can show their best performance on June 19 against Colombia. Japan has wonderful strong points which we have built on by now and I’d like our team to make the most of them while adding some adjustability and changes. I’d like to show Japan brand football and earn points in every match to get through the group stage. If we can do that, we can express Japanese football to some extent.

It’s a high standard tournament, and I am asking our players to show their adjustability to develop a game with our favor. They showed that yesterday even though they had to play in a position that they don’t usually play. I am describing many positive pictures; how we can play with which system and with which of the 23 players. I know it’s hard to make the players fully understand that, but I hope our players can have the same picture with me. I convey various patterns of play to our players and need to make preparation to make them play a game automatically, but Japanese players have a very high response. I am aiming to play strong against Colombia and beat them in our first game at the World Cup. I cannot wait to see how our 23 players perform.

SEKIZUKA Takashi, JFA Technical Director
When we had a training camp from May 21 under coach Nishino, we tried some new challenges which can be needed at the coming FIFA World Cup, and we had some outcome and things to be fixed in the game against Ghana on May 30. We leave from Japan on June 2 for a training camp to prepare to display our brand of game in the World Cup. We will fully support to help the team be as one and go into the tournament. We aim to show energetic performance to get the support from the people across Japan.

TASHIMA Kohzo, JFA President
The countdown for the FIFA World Cup has started. It is a dream for a player to play in the World Cup and the only limited number of them can make that happen at the world’s most prestigious tournament. I hope our 23 players have the pride and ambition as the chosen one for SAMURAI BLUE and show their play with sportsmanship. I know that the tournament is not at all easy but tough one to play. But we have a history of Japanese football over the last 97 years and experience from the last 20 years since we first made it to the World Cup. Making the most of those, we will offer a full support to SAMURAI BLUE and play fair to the end. People’s big cheers and support can deliver a great power to the team, and I am hoping they can deliver an energetic yell to the team.

Schedule

*Local Time
*The schedule is subject to change due to the team condition, the weather, etc.

2018 FIFA World Cup Russia

Tournament Dates: 14 June - 15 July 2018

Group stage
1st Match Tue. 19 June Kickoff at 15:00 vs Colombia National Team (Mordovia Arena)
(21:00 Japan time)
2nd Match Sun. 24 June Kickoff at 20:00 vs Senegal National Team (Ekaterinburg Arena)
(Mon. 25 June, 0:00 Japan time)
3rd Match Thu. 28 June Kickoff at 17:00 vs Poland National Team (Volgograd Arena)
(23:00 Japan time)

For more information