Japan names overseas stars to face Australia

2 min read 3 February 2009

Japan has included five Europe-based players in its squad for the crucial World Cup qualifier against the Socceroos next week in Yokohama International Stadium.

Celtic star midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura, Eintracht Frankfurt's Junichi Inamoto, Saint-Etienne's Daisuke Matsui, VfL Wolfsburg's Makoto Hasebe and Yoshito Okubo were chosen by Takeshi Okada in the 25-man squad.

With Australia on top of FIFA World Cup™ Qualifying Group A and Japan second just two points behind, a win for either side will almost ensure their passage to the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa.

The Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek will name his squad tomorrow in Sydney.

Both teams will take on a new look from last week-s Asian Cup qualifiers, which saw Japan beaten 1-0 by fellow World Cup qualifying rival Bahrain in Manama. "Australia are the top team in Asia. No other Asian teams have such solid individual skills as Australia," Okada said.

"We've improved our squad so we can beat such an excellent team," he said.

The match can be seen LIVE on Fox Sports on February 11, with kick-off at 9.20pm AEDT.

The full Japanese squad:

Goalkeepers: Ryota Tsuzuki (Urawa Red Diamonds), Eiji Kawashima (Kawasaki Frontale), Takanori Sugeno (Kashiwa Reysol).

Defenders: Shuhei Terada (Kawasaki Frontale), Yuji Nakazawa (Yokohama Marinos), Kazumichi Takagi (Gamba Osaka), Marcus Tulio Tanaka (Urawa), Yuichi Komano (Jubilo Iwata), Yuto Nagatomo (FC Tokyo), Michihiro Yasuda (Osaka), Atsuto Uchida (Kashima Antlers).

Midfielders: Shunsuke Nakamura (Celtic/SCO), Hideo Hashimoto (Osaka), Junichi Inamoto (Eintracht Frankfurt/GER), Yasuhito Endo (Osaka), Kengo Nakamura (Kawasaki), Daisuke Matsui (Saint-Etienne/FRA), Yasuyuki Konno (FC Tokyo), Makoto Hasebe (VfL Wolfsburg/GER), Shinji Kagawa (Cerezo Osaka).

Forwards: Keiji Tamada (Nagoya Grampus), Seiichiro Maki (JEF United Chiba), Yoshito Okubo (Wolfsburg/GER), Tatsuya Tanaka (Urawa), Shinji Okazaki (Shimizu S-Pulse).