Japan coach names 27-man squad to face TT

JAPAN COACH Hajime Moriyasu has named a 27-man squad to face TT in the friendly football international at the Toyota Stadium in Aichi on June 5. The game will be the first of the 2019 Kirin Challenge Cup which also involves El Salvador.

The squad includes 17 European-based players including former Leicester City forward Shinji Okazaki and Werder Bremen frontman Yuya Osaka. Also on the roster are midfielder Genki Haraguchi (Hannover 96), Shinji Kagawa (Besiktas), Gaku Shibasaki (Getafe), Yuto Nagatomo (Galatasaray) and Hiroki Sakai (Olympique Marseille).

Following their encounter against TT, Japan will host El Salvador on June 9 as they prepare for the 2019 Copa America. Japan will begin their 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign this September.

About the forthcoming matches against TT and El Salvador, Moriyasu said, “They are strong teams who are preparing themselves for the Gold Cup, so they will come out with a strong intention to win. Through these two matches, we will strive to deepen the strategical understandings among the team and prepare ourselves ahead of the upcoming qualifiers for the World Cup.

“It is our mission to win through the competition in Asia to earn our spot into the World Cup,” Moriyasu added. “Through each of our activities, we must build our team strengths and strive to win out of the qualifiers.”

TT coach Dennis Lawrence will announce his squad tomorrow and the team will leave for Japan via New York on Friday.

Squad:

Goalkeepers – Eiji Kawashima, Shuichi Gonda, Daniel Schmidt, Keisuke Osako.

Defenders – Yuto Nagatomo, Tomoaki Makino, Hiroki Sakai, Gen Shoji, Sei Muroya, Naomichi Ueda, Shinnosuke Hatanaka, Yuta Nakayama, Takehiro Tomiyasu.

Midfielders – Shinji Kagawa, Genki Haraguchi, Yuki Kobayashi, Gaku Shibasaki, Junya Ito, Kento Hashimoto, Shoya Nakajima, Takumi Minamino, Hidemasa Morita, Ritsu Doan, Takefusa Kubo.

Forwards – Shinji Okazaki, Yuya Osako, Musashi Suzuki.