G'day tribe. Yesterday we continued Group E with Germany. For those that saw it, you'll see that I've tipped them to win the World Cup! Today we continue Group E with Asian giants Japan. 32 teams in 32 days! This is the Ultimate FIFA World Cup review guide. Check what we've done so far below.
Group A - Qatar | Ecuador | Senegal | Netherlands
Group B - United States | England | Iran | Wales
Group C - Mexico | Poland | Argentina | Saudi Arabia
Group D - Australia | Denmark | Tunisia | France
Group F - Canada | Croatia | Morocco | Belgium
Group E - Spain | Germany |
Group H - Ghana | Portugal | Uruguay | South Korea
Country: Japan
Nickname: The Samurai Blue
Last World Cup Appearance: 2018 (Round of 16)
Previous World Cup Appearances: 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018
World Rank: #24
Star Players: Daichi Kamada, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Takefusa Kubo, Takumi Minamino
Not many things have shocked me when writing these reviews. I did not know that Japan only qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 1998. Crazy when you consider how they've risen to become the best team in Asia for some time.
Japan have qualified for the knockout rounds for three out of the last five tournaments. It's a very tough group with Spain, Germany and Costa Rica but there'll be a real belief that they can knock off Germany like neighbours South Korea did in 2018.
After a rough start in qualifying, Japan ended up stabilizing to secure automatic qualification from the AFC, finishing a point behind Saudi Arabia. A recent and narrow 1-nil loss to Brazil, which Japan were 13 minutes away from securing a draw, will give the team hope that they can battle it with the big guns.
World Cup Group: Group E - Spain, Costa Rica, Japan, Germany
Prediction: On paper at least, Japan is Asia's strongest team by some way. There's a wealth of European experience in the team and it's a young team that should have the Japanese very excited. There's Junya Ito, who recently joined Ligue 1, and Premier League winger Kaoru Mitoma, who helped earn Japan a spot at the World Cup.
Ritsu Doan has also recently joined Bundesliga outfit Freiburg and former Real Madrid winger Takefusa Kubo has signed a permanent deal with Real Sociedad. Former Liverpool winger Takumi Minamino is now at Monaco and I'd expect he'd fill in at an attacking midfield role with the wealth of winger options available to Japan.
Japanese coach Hajime Moriyasu will have to find the right mix of attackers who can pose a threat going forward. They've also got to do it against a very good Spain and Germany defensive outfits which will cause a huge challenge.
Stuttgart captain Wataru Endo beefs up the midfield and should partner up in centrally with fellow Bundesliga star Daichi Kamada, who is probably the best player in Japan's team. Arsenal defender Takehiro Tomiyasu will lead the defensive line and there's more Bundesliga quality with Ko Itakura and Maya Yoshida who can play at the back.
There's undoubted talent in this team which will mix with some quality J-League players. The fact that many in the squad play in Bundesliga could actually help them against Germany. They'll fancy their chances considering South Korea beat Germany in Russia, but I think Germany will be playing with a fire in their belly after what happened in 2018.
Could Japan cause an upset against Spain however?
Round of 16
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Wolfgang Sport started in 2017 as a way to connect my passion for American and British sports. Today it's evolved into a blockchain sports blog pushing the boundaries into the crypto world and embracing Web3 technologies.