One year to the World Cup: How does Japan shape up?

Keisuke Honda with Shinji Kagawa

It was business as usual for the Japanese national team as they became the first team (apart from the hosts Brazil) to qualify for the 2014 World Cup, after a 1-1 draw with Australia at the Saitama Stadium last week. The same happened four years ago during qualification for the 2010 World Cup. The four-time Asian Cup winners are used to topping their qualifying group and getting to the World Cup in style. Occasional hiccups aside, there is simply no match at all for this Japanese side in Asia at present.

But put their Asian dominance aside; the question that really matters is : Are they ready to face the world’s best at Brazil 2014?

The history

After agonizingly missing out on USA’94, Japan first made it to the World Cup in 1998 and since then, they have appeared in all subsequent editions. Next year’s event in Brazil will mark Japan’s fifth consecutive World Cup appearance.

1998

Japan’s record at the World Cup has been quite good, considering the fact that the country’s professional league is only two decades old. In their debut in 1998, Japan went home after losing all three of their group games. Masashi Nakayama did, however, manage to score his country’s first World Cup goal in the final group game against Jamaica.

Japan 0 -1 Argentina

Japan 0-1 Croatia

Japan 1-2 Jamaica

2002

2002 saw the World Cup come to Asia as Japan co-hosted it with South Korea. Japan made history by topping their group and advancing to the Round of 16, where they lost out to eventual semi-finalists Turkey.

Japan 2-2 Belgium

Japan 1-0 Russia

Japan 2-0 Tunisia

Japan 0-1 Turkey

2006

Four years later, Japan qualified for the World Cup in Germany and found themselves in a group containing Brazil, Croatia and Australia. They crashed out in the first stage itself, garnering only one point.

Japan 1-3 Australia

Japan 0-0 Croatia

Japan 1-4 Brazil

2010

The 2010 World Cup was arguably the scene of Japan’s best World Cup performance till date. Keisuke Honda and Co. led the Blue Samurai to the Round of 16 for the second time, where they met Paraguay. If it was not for an unfortunate penalty shooutout loss to the South Americans, Japan would have faced Spain in the quarterfinals.

Japan 1-0 Cameroon

Japan 0-1 Netherlands

Japan 3-1 Denmark

Japan 0 (3) -0 (5) Paraguay

Japanese coach Alberto Zaccheroni and captain Makato Hasebe hold the winners trophy after Japan defeated Australia in extra time 1-0 at the AFC Asian Cup Final match

Road to the 2014 World Cup

Third Round :

As per AFC’s seeding procedure, Japan received a bye to the third round of qualification where they were placed in Group C along with Uzbekistan, North Korea and Tajikistan. They won three of their first four games to ensure qualification to the fourth round with two games to spare.

Fourth Round :

In the fourth round, Japan qualified for the World Cup finals with one match left to play; they finished four points clear of second-placed Australia in the final standings.

The team

This is how the Japanese lined up in the qualification-clinching game against Australia : (4-2-3-1) Kawashima; Nagatomo, Yoshida, Konno, Uchida; Endo, Hasebe; Kagawa, Honda, Okazaki; Maeda.

It was virtually the same team that defeated Australia in the Asian Cup final in January 2011, except for Shinji Kagawa who missed that final through injury. This shows the stability in the squad, as the first XI has been at the top of the game in the two years since the Asian Cup.

Keeper Eiji Kawashima has been brilliant as ever and now plies his trade in Belgium for Standard Liege, appearing in all of his team’s league matches. Left-back Yuto Nagatomo, who was named in Arsene Wenger’s best XI for the 2010 World Cup, has racked up 97 appearances for Inter since joining in 2010. Centre-back Maya Yoshida has been first-choice for Southampton for most of the 2012-13 Premier League season. His partner in defence is Yasuyuki Konno, one of only three players in the first XI who play in the J-League. Right-back Atsuto Uchida made his national team debut while still in his teens, and now plays for Schalke 04 in the Bundesliga.

The two defensive midfielders are Makoto Hasebe and Yasuhito Endo. Captain Hasebe is the tireless engine man, and is a regular for VFL Wolfsburg, where he managed to win the Bundesliga in 2008-09. Japan’s most-capped player Endo is widely regarded as one of Asia’s best midfielders, despite never playing abroad. And then there is the trio of Keisuke Honda, Shinji Kagawa and Shinji Okazaki – household names for those who religiously follow European football. CSKA’s Honda and Manchester United‘s Kagawa have both won multiple domestic titles in Europe while Okazaki, who has not been as successful with Stuttgart, has consistently shone at international level. Playing up front is Ryoichi Maeda, who has scored over 162 goals for his J-League club Jubilo Iwata.

The amount of talent and experience in this first XI is great but nevertheless, coach Alberto Zaccheroni, who took over after the last World Cup, has wisely chosen to experiment with his first team in international friendlies. He has since brought to the fore players like Mike Havenaar, Gotoku Sakai, Hiroki Sakai and Hiroshi Kiyotake. They all seem to have almost ensured their places in the squad that will go to Brazil. Though, their form over the next season might play spoilsport. It also remains to be seen if Arsenal‘s Ryo Miyaichi will make it to the final squad. Miyaichi, who has 2 caps, spent last season on loan at Wigan Athletic and will need to play regular football to impress Zaccheroni.

The prediction

Predicting the results of the 2014 World Cup, with one year still left, would be a tad premature, wouldn’t it? Yet, many fans across Japan and Asia have high hopes for this team, which in my opinion, is the best Japanese team in the last 15 years. This could well be called the Golden Generation of Japanese football, unless the colts who finished fourth at the 2012 Olympics better the exploits of their seniors. Take those colts and the 2011 Asian Cup-winning Golden Generation, put them together and you have potential greatness in your hands. The future does look bright for the Blue Samurai and if injuries and unlikely bad form do not intervene, 2014 may turn out to be the year Japan reach the quarter-finals or even better – who knows?

When Arsene Wenger was asked about Japan’s World Cup chances, he said: “Can they do much better than that? I don’t think they are a candidate to win the World Cup today, but when you look at their youth teams, Japan are a dominant force in the international tournaments. That means that their next step is to reach the semi-finals or final of the World Cup.”

As I was preparing this article, Japan fell 0-3 to Brazil in their Confederations Cup opener. I don’t think one should read much from this result though, as matches at the Confederations Cup rarely reflect what will happen at the World Cup. One just needs to study the results of the last few Confed Cups and World Cups to understand what I’m trying to say. So I, as an admirer of the Japanese national team, still remain hopeful of a great performance come 2014. Nippon Ole!