World Cup preview: Japan
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Since qualifying for their first ever World Cup in 1998, Japan have been ever-presents on the grandest stage in football.
Russia 2018 will be their sixth successive appearance at a World Cup, with the legacy of hosting the tournament alongside South Korea in 2002 living on with the current crop of players.
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Japan have so far alternated between a group-stage exit and reaching the knockout rounds in each tournament, and they will be hoping that pattern continues this summer having been eliminated without winning a game in Brazil four years ago.
Here, Sports Mole assesses Japan’s chances at the World Cup in Russia.
GROUP
The draw could have been worse for Japan, who avoided any of the major World Cup heavyweights when they were placed alongside Poland, Colombia and Senegal in Group H.
Japan will nonetheless be up against it as the lowest-ranked team in the group, and they will likely need to pull off an upset somewhere along the way if they are to prevent favourites Poland and Colombia from claiming the top two places in the group.
Should they manage to avoid defeat in their opening match against Colombia then that could set them up nicely for their easiest game on paper against Senegal next up, before ending the group stages against Poland.
JAPAN FIXTURES
June 19: Colombia vs. Japan (1pm, Mordovia Arena, Saransk)
June 24: Japan vs. Senegal (4pm, Central Stadium, Yekaterinburg)
June 28: Japan vs. Poland (3pm, Volgograd Arena, Volgograd)
HOW THEY QUALIFIED
Japan’s qualifying campaign began all the way back in June 2015 with a less-than-convincing goalless draw at home to Singapore, but from then on they did not look back.
The team – then managed by Vahid Halilhodzic – won their next seven games without conceding a single goal, ensuring that they cruised through the first phase of qualifying in style, scoring 27 goals without reply along the way.
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Predictably, the second phase was not as straightforward, and fans may have been fearing the worst when it began with a 2-1 defeat at home to UAE, squandering a lead in Saitama on their way to the loss.
It proved to be another case of Japan being slow starters, though, and they went on to take 20 of the next 24 points available to them to gain control of the group.
A 2-0 win over Australia in August 2017 sealed their place in Russia, meaning that a final-day defeat to Saudi Arabia was inconsequential as far as Japan were concerned.
RECENT FORM
New manager Nishino has had just three friendlies to drill his side since his appointment in April, and results have not been all that convincing.
Japan suffered a 2-0 loss to Ghana at the end of May and lost by the same scoreline to Switzerland a week later, but their winless and goalless run did come to an end in their final warm-up match.
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Takashi Inui netted twice in a 4-2 victory over Paraguay in Austria on Tuesday, giving a previously disciplined Japan side a much-needed boost before jetting off for their sixth successive finals appearance.
Even if results have not been perfect, the Samurai Blue have at least managed to fit in games against African, European and South American opposition over the past few weeks, giving them some practice ahead of those matches that really matter in Russia.
SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Eiji Kawashima (Metz), Masaaki Higashiguchi (Gamba Osaka), Kosuke Nakamura (Kashiwa Reysol).
Defenders: Yuto Nagatomo (Galatasaray), Tomoaki Makino, Wataru Endo (Urawa Reds), Maya Yoshida (Southampton), Hiroki Sakai (Marseille), Gotoku Sakai (Hamburg), Gen Shoji, Naomichi Ueda (Kashima Antlers).
Midfielders: Makoto Hasebe (Eintracht Frankfurt), Keisuke Honda (Pachuca), Takashi Inui (Eibar), Shinji Kagawa (Dortmund), Hotaru Yamaguchi (Cerezo Osaka), Genki Haraguchi, Takashi Usami (Fortuna Dusseldorf), Gaku Shibasaki (Getafe), Ryota Oshima (Kawasaki Frontale).
Forwards: Shinji Okazaki (Leicester), Yuya Osako (Werder Bremen), Yoshinori Muto (Mainz).
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