Japan

Nickname: Samurai Blue
FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking: 45

Japan is making their fourth World Cup appearance, with their best performance coming in 2002 where they made it to the second round as co-host of the tournament. They are not expected to progress to the second round out of Group E, which includes Netherlands (ranked 4th), Cameroon (ranked 19th) and Denmark (ranked 36th).

Japan qualified for the World Cup in second place in the Asian Zone, behind Australia. They finished the final group round with four wins, three draws and one loss. It wasn’t the most impressive performance, but it was efficient enough to send them to the World Cup. The biggest disappointment and concern during this qualification phase was the lack of goals scored.

Coach

The Samurai Blue are once again coached by Takeshi Okada, who took over for the second time in 2007 after coach Ivica Osim suffered a stroke. Okada was the first coach to lead Japan to qualify for the World Cup in 1998. Okada values team work and desire to succeed. He is known for choosing players he believes have the most desire to win over more well-known players. Japan hopes Okada’s experience will help motivate the team to succeed, as he has a great desire to improve on his three loss performance in 1998.

Key Players

The biggest star on this team is midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura. Nakamura is a very gifted midfielder who can distribute the ball extremely well and who is calm under pressure. He is also extremely dangerous from free-kicks and that is something this team will count on if they are going to make it to the second round.

Another name to remember is Keisuke Honda. Honda is a strong young player who typically plays in the midfield; however, Coach Okada has sometimes pushed him up to a forward position.

The captain for this Japanese team is Yuji Nakasawa, who has been a mainstay on defense for this national team. He has the third most appearances of all-time for Japan, competing over 90 times. His experience may prove to be crucial for this team.