Soccer World Cup 2010 / Japan

This article covers the Japanese national soccer team at the 2010 Soccer World Cup .

qualification

The team qualified for the World Cup in South Africa via the AFC qualifying games , the qualifying games of the Asian Football Association .

Due to a bye for the first two rounds, Japan only took part from the third qualifying round. There the team prevailed in Group 2 against Bahrain , Oman and Thailand and advanced to the next round with second-placed Bahrain.

In the fourth round, the next group stage, Japan met Australia , Bahrain, Qatar and Uzbekistan in Group 1 . After eight games, Japan was second behind Australia and qualified for the World Cup.

Third round

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Japan	12: 3	13
2	Bahrain	7: 5	11
3	Oman	5: 7	8th
4th	Thailand	5:14	1

February 6, 2008 : Japan - Thailand 4: 1 (1: 1)

March 26, 2008 : Bahrain 1-0 Japan (0-0)

June 2, 2008 : Japan 3-0 Oman (2-0)

7 June 2008 : Oman - Japan 1: 1 (1: 0)

June 14, 2008 : Thailand 0: 3 (0: 2) Japan

June 22, 2008 : Japan 1-0 Bahrain (0-0)

Fourth round

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Australia	12: 1	20th
2	Japan	11: 6	15th
3	Bahrain	6: 8	10
4th	Qatar	5:14	6th
5	Uzbekistan	5:10	4th

6 September 2008 : Bahrain 2-3 Japan (0-2)

October 15, 2008 : Japan - Uzbekistan 1: 1 (1: 1)

November 19, 2008 : Qatar - Japan 0: 3 (0: 1)

February 11, 2009 : Japan 0-0 Australia

April 1, 2009 : Japan - Bahrain 1-0 (0-0)

June 6, 2009 : Uzbekistan - Japan 0: 1 (0: 1)

June 10, 2009 : Japan - Qatar 1: 1 (1: 0)

June 17, 2009 : Australia - Japan 2: 1 (0: 1)

Japanese contingent

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the World Cup	birthday	Games	Gates
goalkeeper
1	Seigō Narazaki	Nagoya Grampus	04/15/1976	0	0	0	0	0
21st	Eiji Kawashima	Kawasaki Frontale	03/20/1983	4th	0	0	0	0
23	Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi	Júbilo Iwata	08/15/1975	0	0	0	0	0
Defender
3	Yūichi Komano	Júbilo Iwata	07/25/1981	4th	0	0	0	0
4th	Marcus Tulio Tanaka	Nagoya Grampus	04/24/1981	4th	0	0	0	0
5	Yūto Nagatomo	FC Tokyo	09/12/1986	4th	0	2	0	0
6th	Atsuto Uchida	Kashima Antlers	March 27, 1988	0	0	0	0	0
13	Daiki Iwamasa	Kashima Antlers	01/30/1982	0	0	0	0	0
15th	Yasuyuki Konno	FC Tokyo	01/25/1983	1	0	0	0	0
22nd	Yūji Nakazawa	Yokohama F. Marinos	02/25/1978	4th	0	0	0	0
midfield player
2	Yūki Abe	Urawa Red Diamonds	09/06/1981	4th	0	1	0	0
7th	Yasuhito Endo	Gamba Osaka	January 28, 1980	4th	1	2	0	0
8th	Daisuke Matsui	Grenoble Foot	05/11/1981	4th	0	1	0	0
10	Shunsuke Nakamura	Yokohama F. Marinos	06/24/1978	1	0	0	0	0
14th	Kengo Nakamura	Kawasaki Frontale	October 31, 1980	1	0	0	0	0
17th	Makoto Hasebe	VfL Wolfsburg	01/18/1984	4th	0	0	0	0
18th	Keisuke Honda	CSKA Moscow	06/13/1986	4th	2	1	0	0
20th	Junichi Inamoto	Kawasaki Frontale	09/18/1979	2	0	0	0	0
striker
9	Shinji Okazaki	Shimizu S-Pulse	04/16/1986	3	1	0	0	0
11	Keiji Tamada	Nagoya Grampus	04/11/1980	2	0	0	0	0
12	Kishō Yano	Albirex Niigata	04/05/1984	1	0	0	0	0
16	Yoshito Ōkubo	Vissel Kobe	06/09/1982	4th	0	0	0	0
19th	Takayuki Morimoto	Catania Calcio	05/07/1988	0	0	0	0	0
Trainer
	Takeshi Okada		08/25/1956

Preliminary round

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Netherlands	5: 1	9
2	Japan	4: 2	6th
3	Denmark	3: 6	3
4th	Cameroon	2: 5	0

In the preliminary round of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the Japanese national team met in Group E against the Netherlands , Denmark and Cameroon . The Japanese only had to admit defeat to group favorites Netherlands and clearly prevailed against the other two competitors. As runners-up in the group, the team qualified for the round of 16.

• Monday June 14, 2010; 16:00 in Mangaung / Bloemfontein Japan - Cameroon 1: 0 (1: 0)
  

• Saturday June 19, 2010; 1.30 p.m. in Durban, Netherlands - Japan 1: 0 (0: 0)
  

• Thursday June 24, 2010; 8:30 p.m. in Rustenburg Denmark - Japan 1: 3 (0: 2)
  

Final round

Round of 16

As the runner-up in Group E, the Japanese team met Paraguay in the round of 16 , the winners of Group F. The decision was only made on penalties. The Japanese defender Yūichi Komano was the only player from both teams to miss the point, paving the way for Paraguay to win.

• Tuesday June 29, 2010; 4:00 p.m. in Pretoria Paraguay - Japan 0: 0 a.d., 5: 3 i. E.
  

Web links

• All matches in the preliminary round at a glance ( memento from September 29, 2010 on the Internet Archive ) on FIFA.com
• FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010: Squad Japan ( Memento from June 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive )