DBasia.news – The strength of the Japanese national team cannot be underestimated at the upcoming Qatar 2022 World Cup. The country nicknamed the Blue Samurai could be the dark horse team in the four-yearly event with Europea players.
Previously, Japan confirmed their steps as participants for the 2022 World Cup since March 2022. The Blue Samurai were confirmed to appear in the prestigious tournament for football after coming out as the leader of the World Cup Qualifiers in the Asia zone Group A.
Later, Maya Yoshida and colleagues joined in Group E to compete with Spain, Costa Rica and Germany. The draw puts them in a pretty tough group.
Even so, the experience and strategy of playing in the era of modern football is one of the advantages that Japan has today. Moreover, Hajime Moriyasu’s squad is strengthened by players who have learned a lot or are currently working on the European continent.
In the current Japan national team squad, there are approximately 25 players who have a career in Europe. Referring to the last two matches during the international break against the United States and Ecuador, Hajime Moriyasu is predicted to depend on players who are defending European clubs in the World Cup later.
Players such as Daniel Schmidt, Maya Yoshida, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Wataru Endo, Genki Haraguchi, Gaku Shibasaki, Kyogo Furuhashi, Daichi Kamada, and Takumi Minamino are some of the 25 players currently competing in Europe. Of course, these names will be the backbone of the Blue Samurai at the event held in Qatar.
Coupled with the power of local league players like Yuya Osako, Yuto Nagatomo, and Hiroki Sakai, it is possible that Japan will become one of the candidates for the dark horse team that kicked off the 2022 World Cup.
The Japanese national team does not have naturalized players in their squad, at least until the squad announced at the international break, September 2022 yesterday. Of the 36 names that were called, there was only one foreign name.
He is goalkeeper, Daniel Schmidt, an American-Japanese player. Daniel Schmidt is also born in the United States. However, he moved to Japan at the age of 2 until now.
Automatically, players who are currently playing with Belgian club St Truiden are considered local players, not naturalized or foreign players. Previously, Samurai Blue was strengthened by naturalized players when appearing at the World Cup. Call it Ruy Ramos, Alex, to Wagner Lopes.
Japan has qualified for the World Cup finals for the eighth consecutive time. First appeared in 1998, they hosted the 2002 World Cup with South Korea.
At the 2018 World Cup, Japan became the first Asian nation to beat a team from South America after their 2-1 win over Colombia in the group stage.
Japan also made it to the last 16 but lost to Belgium 2-3 in the tournament. Blue Samurai became the second team after South Korea to be able to appear frequently in the four-year event.