Football World Cup 2018 / Japan

Football World Cup 2018 : Japan
Trainer	Akira Nishino
captain	Makoto Hasebe
Qualified as	Winner Asia Group 2
World rankings before the tournament	61
Tournament result	Out in the round of 16
Games won	1
Games tie	1
Games lost	2
Gates	6: 7

This article covers the Japanese national soccer team at the 2018 World Cup . Japan took part in the finals for the sixth time. Japan has always qualified since it first participated in 1998. Japan is the first team in World Cup history to qualify for the round of 16 due to the fair play rating, as they received fewer yellow cards in the games against Colombia, Poland and Senegal than the Senegalese tied for points and goals.

qualification

The team qualified through the qualification of the Asian Football Association AFC .

Games

Keisuke Honda, Japan's top scorer in qualifying

Japan did not have to intervene until the second round and met Afghanistan , Cambodia , Singapore and Syria in the group stage . Of the eight resulting matches, Japan won seven and only played a draw in the first game. The Japanese never conceded a goal and scored at least two goals apart from the goalless first game. As group winners, Japan qualified for the third round, which again took place as a group stage. Here the Japanese met Australia , Saudi Arabia , the United Arab Emirates , Iraq and Thailand . The Japanese lost the first and last game of ten games. They also drew twice. With a 2-0 win over Australia, the Japanese managed to qualify for the World Cup finals on the penultimate matchday. The Australians had ultimately lost fewer games than the Japanese and Saudis placed in front of them, but since they only won five and drew four times in a row, they had to be content with third place due to the poorer goal difference compared to the Saudis with the same number of points and the internal route - and intercontinental playoffs are going to qualify.

Overall, national coach Vahid Halilhodžić , who took over the team in March 2015 after the quarter-finals at the Asian Cup , used 39 players in the 18 games, 19 of which were also in the squad for the 2015 Asian Cup . Two players were used in all games: Genki Haraguchi and Maya Yoshida . Ten players only had one bet. On March 29, 2016, Shinji Okazaki made his 100th international match in the qualifier against Syria . A year later he scored his 50th international goal in the qualifier against Thailand. Captain Makoto Hasebe also made his 100th international match during qualifying: on September 1, 2016 in the first game of the third round against the United Arab Emirates.

The top scorer was Keisuke Honda with seven goals. This is followed by Shinji Kagawa with six and Genki Haraguchi and Shinji Okazaki with five goals each. A total of 15 Japanese contributed at least one goal to the 41 goals they scored themselves, and they also benefited from an own goal each by a Cambodian, Afghan and Syrian player, so they scored 44 goals (average 2.44 per game). World champions Germany and Belgium, who scored as many goals in ten games, averaged 4.3 goals per game.

Second round

date	Venue	host		guest	Result	Goal scorers for Japan
06/16/2015	Saitama	Japan	-	Singapore	0-0
09/03/2015	Saitama	Japan	-	Cambodia	3: 0 (1: 0)	Keisuke Honda (28th), Maya Yoshida (50th), Shinji Kagawa (61st)
09/08/2015	Tehran ( IRN )	Afghanistan	-	Japan	0: 6 (0: 2)	Shinji Kagawa (10th, 49th), Masato Morishige (35th), Shinji Okazaki (57th, 60th), Keisuke Honda (74th)
08/10/2015	Sib ( OMA )	Syria	-	Japan	0: 3 (0: 0)	Keisuke Honda (55th / penalty), Shinji Okazaki (70th), Takashi Usami (88th)
11/12/2015	Kallang	Singapore	-	Japan	0: 3 (0: 2)	Mū Kanazaki (20th), Keisuke Honda (26th), Maya Yoshida (87th)
11/17/2015	Phnom Penh	Cambodia	-	Japan	0: 2 (0: 0)	Own goal Cambodia (52nd), Keisuke Honda (90th)
March 24, 2016	Saitama	Japan	-	Afghanistan	5: 0 (1: 0)	Shinji Okazaki (43.), Hiroshi Kiyotake (58.), own goal Afghanistan (63.), Maya Yoshida (74.), Mū Kanazaki (78.)
03/29/2016	Saitama	Japan	-	Syria	5: 0 (1: 0)	Own goal Syria (17th), Shinji Kagawa (66th, 90th), Keisuke Honda (86th), Genki Haraguchi (90th + 3)

1. ↑ Afghanistan has played all of its home games in Iran. Source = Mir Farhad Ali Khan: Crisis-Hit Countries Can Play World Cup Qualifiers in Iran , In: Persianfootball.com from April 29, 2015.
2. ↑ Syria has played all of its home games in Oman.

Final table of the second round

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Japan	8th	7th	1	0	027: 000	+27	22nd
2.	Syria	8th	6th	0	2	026:110	+15	18th
3.	Singapore	8th	3	1	4th	009: 900	± 0	10
4th	Afghanistan	8th	3	0	5	008:240	−16	09
5.	Cambodia	8th	0	0	8th	001:270	−26	00

Third round

date	Venue	host		guest	Result	Goal scorers for Japan
09/01/2016	Saitama	Japan	-	Ver. Arab. Emirates	1: 2 (1: 1)	Keisuke Honda (11th)
09/06/2016	Bangkok	Thailand	-	Japan	0: 2 (0: 1)	Genki Haraguchi (19th), Takuma Asano (75th)
10/06/2016	Saitama	Japan	-	Iraq	2: 1 (1: 0)	Genki Haraguchi (26th), Hotaru Yamaguchi (90th + 5)
10/11/2016	Melbourne	Australia	-	Japan	1: 1 (0: 1)	Genki Haraguchi (5th)
11/15/2016	Saitama	Japan	-	Saudi Arabia	2: 1 (1: 0)	Hiroshi Kiyotake (45th / penalty), Genki Haraguchi (80th)
03/23/2017	al-Ain	Ver. Arab. Emirates	-	Japan	0: 2 (0: 1)	Yūya Kubo (14th), Yasuyuki Konno (52nd)
03/28/2017	Saitama	Japan	-	Thailand	4: 0 (2: 0)	Shinji Kagawa (8th), Shinji Okazaki (19th), Yūya Kubo (57th), Maya Yoshida (83rd)
06/13/2017	Tehran ( IRN )	Iraq	-	Japan	1: 1 (0: 1)	Yūya Ōsako (8th)
08/31/2017	Saitama	Japan	-	Australia	2: 0 (1: 0)	Takuma Asano (41.), Yōsuke Ideguchi (82.)
05.09.2017	Jeddah	Saudi Arabia	-	Japan	1: 0 (0: 0)

1. ↑ Iraq has played all of its home games in Iran. Source = Mir Farhad Ali Khan: Crisis-Hit Countries Can Play World Cup Qualifiers in Iran , In: Persianfootball.com from April 29, 2015.

Third round final table

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Japan	10	6th	2	2	017: 700	+10	20th
2.	Saudi Arabia	10	6th	1	3	017:100	+7	19th
3.	Australia	10	5	4th	1	016:110	+5	19th
4th	Ver. Arab. Emirates	10	4th	1	5	010:130	−3	13
5.	Iraq	10	3	2	5	011:120	−1	11
6th	Thailand	10	0	2	8th	006:240	−18	02

Games

date	Result	opponent	venue	Goal scorers for Japan
October 6, 2017	2: 1	New Zealand	Toyota	Yūya Ōsako (50.), Shū Kurata (88.)
October 10, 2017	3: 3	Haiti	Yokohama	Shū Kurata (7th), Ken'yū Sugimoto (17th), Shinji Kagawa (90th + 2)
November 10, 2017	1: 3	Brazil	Villeneuve d'Ascq ( FRA )	Tomoaki Makino (63.)
November 14, 2017	0: 1	Belgium	Bruges
December 9, 2017	1-0	North Korea	Tokyo	Yōsuke Ideguchi (90th + 4)
December 12, 2017	2: 1	People's Republic of China	Tokyo	Yū Kobayashi (84th), Gen Shōji (88.)
December 16, 2017	1: 4	South Korea	Tokyo	Yū Kobayashi (3rd / penalty)
March 24, 2018	1: 1	Mali	Liege ( BEL )	Shoya Nakajima (90th + 5)
March 27, 2018	1: 2	Ukraine	Liege ( BEL )	Tomoaki Makino (41st)
May 30, 2018	0: 2	Ghana	Yokohama
June 8, 2018	0: 2	Switzerland	Lugano
June 12, 2018	4: 2	Paraguay	Innsbruck ( AUT )	Takashi Inui (51st, 63rd), Federico Santander (77th / own goal), Shinji Kagawa (90th + 1)

Remarks:

• Teams in italics are not qualified for the World Cup. For the New Zealanders, the game was a preparation game for the playoff games against Peru, in which they failed.
• For the games in December at the East Asian Championship , only eight players were nominated, who were also used in the qualifying games, but were used a maximum of four times. Five players had no previous international experience.
• On April 9, national team coach Vahid Halilhodžić was sacked and replaced by Akira Nishino .

Quarter

Team quarters will be the Rubin Kazan's training facility in Kazan .

Squad

The Japanese team at the World Cup before the game against Poland

A preliminary player list contains 27 players. On May 31, the list was reduced to 23 players. Were canceled Toshihiro Aoyama , Takuma Asano , Yosuke Ideguchi and Kento Misao . Of these, however, Takuma Asano and Yosuke Ideguchi travel to the training camp in Austria as backup . They can only move into the World Cup if a nominated player is injured up to 24 hours before the first game.

position	No.	Surname	birth date	Calls	Gates	society	debut	Last use						World Cup participation	World Cup games (before 2018)	World Cup goals (before 2018)
goal	12	Masaaki Higashiguchi	05/12/1986	005	00	Gamba Osaka	2015	06/12/2018
	01	Eiji Kawashima	03/20/1983	084	00	FC Metz ↓	2008	06/08/2018	4th		1			2010, 2014	7th	0
	23	Kosuke Nakamura	02/27/1995	004th	00	Kashiwa Reysol	2017	06/12/2018
Defense	06th	Wataru Endo	02/09/1993	012	00	Urawa Red Diamonds	2015	06/12/2018
	20th	Tomoaki Makino	05/11/1987	032	04th	Urawa Red Diamonds	2010	06/08/2018	1		1
	05	Yūto Nagatomo	09/12/1986	105	03	Galatasaray Istanbul M	2008	06/08/2018	4th					2010, 2014	7th	0
	21st	Gotoku Sakai	03/14/1991	041	00	Hamburger SV ↓	2012	06/12/2018	1					2014	0	0
	19th	Hiroki Sakai	04/12/1990	043	00	Olympique de Marseille	2012	06/12/2018	4th					2014	0	0
	03	Gen Shōji	12/11/1992	012	01	Kashima Antlers	2015	06/12/2018	3
	02	Naomichi Ueda	October 24, 1994	004th	00	Kashima Antlers	2017	06/12/2018
	22nd	Maya Yoshida	08/24/1988	082	10	Southampton FC	2011	06/08/2018	4th					2014	3	0
midfield	08th	Genki Haraguchi	05/09/1991	033	06th	Fortuna Düsseldorf M2 ↑	2011	06/12/2018	3	1
	17th	Makoto Hasebe	01/18/1984	110	02	Eintracht Frankfurt P.	2006	06/08/2018	4th		1			2010, 2014	7th	0
	04th	Keisuke Honda	06/13/1986	095	36	CF Pachuca	2009	06/08/2018	3	1				2010, 2014	7th	3
	14th	Takashi Inui	06/02/1988	027	04th	SD Eibar	2010	06/12/2018	4th	2	1
	10	Shinji Kagawa	03/17/1989	092	30th	Borussia Dortmund	2008	06/12/2018	3	1				2014	3	0
	18th	Ryōta Ōshima	01/23/1993	005	00	Kawasaki Frontale M	2017	06/08/2018
	07th	Gaku Shibasaki	05/28/1992	018th	03	Getafe CF.	2014	06/12/2018	4th		1
	11	Takashi Usami	05/06/1992	024	03	Fortuna Düsseldorf M2 ↑	2015	06/12/2018	2
	16	Hotaru Yamaguchi	10/06/1990	042	02	Cerezo Osaka P	2013	06/12/2018	3					2014	3	0
Storm	13	Yoshinori Muto	07/15/1992	023	02	1. FSV Mainz 05	2014	06/12/2018	1
	09	Shinji Okazaki	04/16/1986	113	50	Leicester City	2008	06/12/2018	3					2010, 2014	7th	2
	15th	Yūya Ōsako	May 18, 1990	029	07th	1. FC Cologne ↓	2013	06/12/2018	4th	1				2014	2	0
Coaching staff	Trainer	Akira Nishino	04/07/1955	012	01		2018
	Trainer assistant	Makoto Teguramori	11/14/1967
		Hajime Moriyasu	08/23/1968	035	01
	Fitness trainer	Naoki Hayakawa	03/09/1993
		Tomohiro Ogai	01/05/1974
	Goalkeeping coach	Yukiya Hamano	09/28/1972
		Takashi Shimoda	11/28/1975	001	00

1. ↑ Numbers according to the official squad list
2. ↑ ^{a b} Status: June 12, 2018 after the game against Paraguay
3. ↑ Clubs in italics played in the second highest league in the World Cup year, M = champions in the World Cup year, M2 = champions of the 2nd division in the World Cup year, P = cup winners in the World Cup year, ↓ = relegated in the World Cup year, ↑ = Club will play in the first division for the next season,

Finals

Group draw

Volgograd (VR) Saransk (VR) Yekaterinburg (VR) Rostov-on-Don (AF) Kazan

Venues and quarters (blue / italic) of the Japanese team

For the draw of the qualifying groups on December 1st, Japan was assigned pot 4. The team met in Group H , the only group without current or ex-world champions on Colombia , Poland and Senegal . Colombia were the last opponents at the last World Cup and Japan were eliminated with a 4-1 defeat. They also met in the last game in the preliminary round of the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup , and Japan were eliminated 1-0 there as well. There is also a goalless draw in a friendly. Against Poland, however, the record is positive with two wins in friendly games and 7-0 goals. Against Senegal, there were only three friendlies with one draw and two defeats.

Japan had never played in Russia before the World Cup.

Group stage / group H matches

→ Main article : Football World Cup 2018 / Group H

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Colombia	3	2	0	1	005: 200	+3	06th
2.	Japan	3	1	1	1	004: 400	± 0	04th
3.	Senegal	3	1	1	1	004: 400	± 0	04th
4th	Poland	3	1	0	2	002: 500	−3	03
Note: Japan with four yellow cards and Senegal with six yellow cards (fair play rating)

Tuesday, June 19, 2018, 3:00 p.m. (2:00 p.m. CEST) in Saransk
Colombia	-	Japan	1: 2 (1: 1)	6./Elfmeter ' Kagawa , 73.' Osako
Sun., June 24, 2018, 8:00 p.m. (5:00 p.m. CEST) in Yekaterinburg
Japan	-	Senegal	2: 2 (1: 1)	34. ′ Inui , 78. ′ Honda
Thursday, June 28, 2018, 5:00 p.m. (4:00 p.m. CEST) in Volgograd
Japan	-	Poland	0: 1 (0: 0)

Games of the knockout round

Mon., July 2, 2018, 9:00 p.m. (8:00 p.m. CEST) in Rostov-on-Don ( Rostov-Arena )
Belgium	-	Japan	3: 2 (0: 0)	48 ′ Haraguchi , 52 ′ Inui

The Japanese met Belgium in the first game of the 2002 home World Cup and scored 2-2. There were also two wins, one draw and one defeat in friendly matches - in the last game in November 2017.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ jfa.jp: "SAMURAI BLUE beat Syria 5-0 to top group in FIFA World Cup Russia Asian Qualifiers Round 2's last match"
2. ^ Makoto Hasebe - Century of International Appearances
3. ↑ SAMURAI BLUE (Japan National Team) squad, schedule - EAFF E-1 Football Championship 2017 Final - (8-16 Dec.)
4. ↑ fifa.com: Halilhodzic is no longer Japan's national coach
5. ↑ fifa.com: 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia - Team Base Camps
6. ↑ francefootball.fr: Une première liste de 27 joueurs pour le Japon
7. ↑ jfa.jp: SAMURAI BLUE (Japan National Team) Squad, Schedule - KIRIN CHALLENGE CUP 2018 vs Ghana (5/30 ＠ Kanagawa / Nissan Stadium)
8. ↑ fifa.com: Nishino announces provisional Japan squad
9. ↑ kicker.de: Japan's Asano is traveling to the World Cup as a backup