Japan's U-17 World Cup 2023 U-17 Vs Poland U-17: Blue Samurai Haunted By Curious Feelings

JAKARTA Japan is in a curious condition at the 2023 U-17 World Cup. Especially when starting the first matchday of Group D against the European representative, Poland.

Clashes between the two teams will take place at Si Jalak Harupat Stadium, Bandung, West Java, Saturday, November 11, 2023. The match started at 16.00 WIB.

Indonesia's U-17 World Cup 2023 will mark Japan's third consecutive appearance in this tournament. Meanwhile, overall this is their tenth participation.

However, of that number of performances, their best journey was only until the quarter-finals. The two opportunities occurred in 1993 when they hosted and 2011 in Mexico.

In the two latest editions before this, they couldn't even get through the round. After qualifying from the group stage in India 2017 and Brazil 2019, the round of 16 proved to be a bridge too far for Japan to pass.

However, Japan recorded a total of 13 wins at the U-17 World Cup to date. This number is the highest among other Asian countries to have appeared in the event.

Jepang kali ini berharap banyak pada Gaku Nawata. Ia adalah midfielder serangan dengan tipikal yang unggul dalam penguasan bola, serta memiliki range tekan yang baik dan kemampuan mencetak gol. Nawata dipredikrakan akan menjadi salah satu bintang di turnamen ini.

His achievements in bringing Japan to the Asian U-17 champion in Thailand, have made him the best player and top scorer with five goals. This includes an incredible free-kick goal in the final.

On the other hand, the tournament in Indonesia is Poland's third appearance. On two occasions before that, their furthest journey was the semifinals in the 1993 edition.

At that time, Poland successfully qualified as champions with two wins and one draw. They then stopped the United States in the quarter-finals before losing against Nigeria in the semifinals.

Meanwhile, they made another appearance in 1999 in New Zealand. In that edition they finished as caretakers in the group stage.

Estimated Player Formation

Japan (4-3-3): Wataru Goto; Haruto Matsumoto, Keita Kosugi, Kaito Tsuchiya, Kataro Honda; Joi Yamamoto, Yotaro Nakajima, Ryun Eliap Sato; Yutaka Michiwaki, Rento Takaoka, Gaku Nawata.

Poland (4-4-2):Milosz Piekutowski; Dominik Szala, Jakub Krzyzanowski, Igor Orlikowski, Michal Gurgul; Maksymilian Sznaucner, Filip Wolski, Karol Borys, Krzysztof Kolanko; Oskar Tomczyk, Daniel Mikolanewski.