2022 World Cup Team Profile: Japan

Japan National Team (Instagram @japanfootballassociation)

JAKARTA - The Japanese national football team often participates in continental and universal competitions. The players in this squad are renowned for their speed on the pitch. The Japanese players will be looking to make waves at the upcoming Qatar World Cup.

Most members of the Japanese national team are based in Asia. Most of them play in Chinese and Russian football leagues. There is a lot of background information about the Japanese national team. This article will show you details like their roster, world rankings, coaches, etc.

Profile overview

Full name: Japan National Football Team Nickname: Samurai Blue Association: Japan Football Association Head coach: Hajime Moriyasu Captain: Maya Yoshida Most caps: Yasuhito Endo (152) Top scorer: Kunishige Kamamoto (75) Home stadium: Saitama Stadium Kode FIFA: JPN World Cup appearances: 7 (first in 1998) Best result in World Cup: Round of 16 (2002, 2010, 2018) Squad size: 28 players Average age: 27.9 years old Confederation: AFC (Asia) Sub-confederation: EAFF (East Asia) Team captain

The current captain of the Japanese national team is Maya Yoshida. Maya is a 33-year-old player who plays for Serie A club Sampdoria. He started captaining the team in June 2021 during the Olympic tournament.

Name: Maya Yoshida Age: 33 (as of June 2022) Date of birth: August 24, 1988 Place of birth: Nagasaki, Japan Jersey number: 22 Current club: Sampdoria Former club: Southampton FC Playing position: Center back Optional foot: Right Player height: 1.89 meters Player agent: CAA Base Ltd Net worth: 16.6 million US dollars Salary: 1.3 million US dollars Trainer

The current head coach of the Asian national football team is Hajime Moriyasu. Moriyasu is a former professional soccer player for the Japan national team and a legendary member of the Sanfrecce Hiroshima squad.

Here's a brief summary of the manager's profile:

Name: Hajime Moriyasu Date of birth: August 23, 1968 Age of manager: 53 (as of June 2022) Place of birth: Kakegawa, Shizuoka, Japan Height: 1.74 meters Playing position: Midfielder Top player Shinji Kagawa is a former Japan national team midfielder who played for several clubs in Europe, including Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund. Shinji Kagawa, known for his agility on the pitch, is currently a member of Belgian club Sint Truiden VV. Keisuke Honda, a talented versatile player, can operate as a winger or an offensive midfielder. Takumi Minamino A Cerezo Osaka fan since the age of 12, was inspired by Cristiano Ronaldo and chose to pursue a career in football. The Asian footballer now plays for AS Monaco after not getting any minutes at Liverpool during the 2021-2022 season. Salzburg in Austria, where he also enjoyed success, was another stop on his career path.

Interview with SAMURAI BLUE's MINAMINO Takumi】Improving to perform on the dream stage - KIRIN CUP SOCCER 202 #football https://t.co/UAwOvtnFfL

— jfa_en (@jfa_en) June 7, 2022

2022 World Cup provisional squad

The following is a list of players from the Samurai Blue squad based on the latest squad selection:

Goalkeeper

Kosei Tani Daniel Schmidt Shuichi Gonda Eji Kawashima

defender

Ko Itakura Maya Yoshida Shogo Taniguchi Sho Sasaki Naomichi Ueda Yuto Nakayama Yuto Nagatomo Hiroki Sakai Miki Yamane

Midfielder

Wataru Endo Hidemasa Morita Ao Tanaka Reo Hatate Gaku Shibasaki Genki Haraguchi

Striker

Takumi Minamino Kaoru Mitoma Daizen Maeda Takefusa Kubo Junya Ito Takuma Asano Daichi Hayashi Ayase Ueda Yuya Osako FIFA Ranking

Japan's national squad is currently ranked 24th as of June 2022 with 1552.77 points. Their highest rating was 9 in March 1998, while their lowest was 66 in December 1992.

Samurai Blue have often had success in continental competitions and because of that it had a huge impact on their ranking in the FIFA rankings. They are also regular participants of the World Cup tournament.

trophy

The following are important trophies that have been bagged by the Japanese national team:

AFC Asian Cup: 1992, 2000, 2004, 2011 Olympic Games: Bronze medal (1968) FIFA Confederations Cup: Runners-up: (2001) Asian Games: Third place (1951, 1966) Far Eastern Games: 1930 Dynasty Cup: 1992, 1995, 1998 EAFF E-1 Football Championship: 2013 Kirin Cup: 1991, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2015 Japan in the World Cup

At the 2018 World Cup, they became the first Asian nation to beat a team from South America after their 2-1 win over Colombia in the group stage. The Samurai Blue team made it to the Round of 16 (first knock-out stage) but lost to Belgium 2-3.

Japan in the 2022 World Cup

Japan's national team has qualified for the World Cup finals for the eighth year in a row, and are one of eight teams in Pot 3. The Qatar World Cup, which will feature 32 nations, is scheduled to kick off on November 21. They are in Group E with Spain, Costa Rica and Germany.

Here is the schedule for their group stage matches:

Wednesday, 23 November 2022 Spain vs Costa Rica: 20.00 WIB Germany vs Japan: 23.00 WIB Sunday, 27 November 2022 Japan vs Costa Rica: 17:00 WIB Monday, 28 November 2022 Spain vs Germany: 02.00 WIB Friday, 2 December 2022 Japan vs Spain: 02.00 WIB Costa Rica vs Germany: 02.00 WIB