J1 League in the 2022 East Asian Cup

DBasia.news – The 2022 East Asian Cup or EAFF E-1 Football Championship will kick off in Japan on July 19-27 2022.

The East Asian Cup is a competition between member countries of the East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) and was first held in 2003. South Korea became the most successful country in this event with five wins.

China’s national team followed behind with two wins, and one other edition won by Japan.

The East Asian Cup winners will then qualify for the AFF-EAFF Champions Trophy against the Southeast Asian champions, a new competition that will now be held every two years.

The 2022 East Asian Cup was originally to be held in China, before they withdrew due to soaring COVID-19 cases. Japan will then take over the tournament host status. This is the fourth time the Blue Samurai has taken on the role of host.

Japan as the host will have guests from the Chinese, South Korean and Hong Kong national teams. Meanwhile, North Korea withdrew from the qualifying round.

The 4 teams that qualify for the finals in this edition are determined through the highest FIFA rankings for the March 31 2022 edition.

Kashima Stadium in Kashima Prefecture and Toyota Stadium in Toyota will be the two stadiums used in this event. These 4 countries will compete against each other in one group with a single round-robin system, each country meeting once, with the owner of the most points will emerge as the champion.

The Meiji Yasuda J1 League will be dominant to the 2022 East Asian Cup. This is because the Japanese national team squad, all of which will be filled by players competing in local leagues, no players from European clubs are called up. Several big names were called by the Japanese national team for this event.

On the front lines, there is Yoshinori Muto, a former Newcastle United striker who is now in Vissel Kobe. With a record of 29 caps and 3 goals, Muto is the player with the most caps and goals in the squad that Japan brought this time.

In addition, there are also two strikers who are on fire, Takuma Nishimura (Yokohama F Marinos) and Shuto Machino (Shonan Bellmare) who have both collected 8 goals in the Meiji Yasuda J1 League 2022.

In midfield, there is former Arsenal midfielder, Ryo Miyaichi, who now plays at Yokohama F Marinos.

In addition, there is also midfielder, Vissel Kobe who has just signed from Russian League club Rostov, Kento Hashimoto.

The young Marinos player who is of Nigerian descent from his father, Joel Chima Fujita, was also called up to strengthen the Blue Samurai in this tournament.

At the back, there are several names that are regularly called by the Japanese national team, such as Sho Sasaki (Sanfrecce Hiroshima), Shogo Taniguchi (Kawasaki Frontale), and Miki Yamane (Kawasaki Frontale).

Of the 26 players who were brought in, Yokohama F Marinos became the biggest contributor by sending 7 representatives to the Japanese national team.

Sanfrecce Hiroshima was behind Marinos with 6 players, followed by Kawasaki Frontale (3 players) and Shonan Bellmare (3 players).

The 2022 East Asian Cup will be held from July 19 to 27 2022.