Japan secured its spot in the World Cup with 1-0 victory over Uzbekistan.
The Blue Samurai opened the scoring nine minutes in when Shimizu S-Pulse striker Shinji Okazaki’s got on the end of Kengo Nakamura through ball and after his initial attempt was saved he managed to head the rebound in. With the exception of the [...]

Japan’s opening match in the Kirin Cup Wednesday evening at Nagai Stadium in Osaka ended with a solid 4-0 trouncing of Chile.
After a number of early threats by Chile’s Jean Beausejour, Japan took the 1-0 lead at the twentieth minute as Shinji Okazaki (Shimizu S-Pulse) capitalized on a rebound of Keisuke Honda (VVV-Venlo) to drive [...]

Japan’s World Cup qualifying hopes advanced with a 1-0 defeat of Bahrain at Saitama Stadium. The win moves the Blue Samurai one point above Australia who have a match in-hand and face Uzbekistan next Wednesday.
Takeshi Okada deployed a more aggressive 4-3-3 using Tatsuya Tanaka (Urawa Red Diamonds), Keiji Tamada (Nagoya Grampus) and Yoshito Ōkubo [...]

Takeshi Okada’s step towards his lofty World Cup goals continue on Saturday as the Blue Samuria face Bahrain at Saitama Stadium. At present Japan is in second place of Group B and know that a win is desperately needed to advance but know they have a difficult test as Bahrain, led by Cxech coach Milan [...]

The clash between Japan and Australia for 2010 World Cup South Africa in Yokohama ended in a scoreless draw. With the result the Socceroos maintain their two point advantage over the Blue Samurai in Group 1 of the AFC zone.
A packed International Stadium saw Japan go on the assault early but Pim Verbeek’s plan [...]

Looking ahead to Wednesday’s crucial World Cup qualifier between Japan and Australia at Yokohama’s International Stadium, Blue Samurai coach Takeshi Okada commented his counterparts barbs, saying:
“I don’t care about it at all. I know Pim’s character.
“He may be trying to put pressure on me. But I believe he knows that I don’t buy it… We [...]

Leading into next weeks important World Cup qualifying match against Australia, Japan defeated a young Finnish side 5-1 in a friendly.
Following the match Blue Samurai manager Takeshi Okada said:
“This is a test match. But Australia are a stronger team than Finland and we still have some more days to improve.
“First of all, we must eliminate [...]

Bahrain defeated Japan 1-0 in a 2011 Asian Cup qualifying match in Manama on Wednesday evening. Bahrain’s pace was too much for the Blue Samurai and after Abdulla Fatadi came close at the eighteenth minute but took the lead from good when Salman Isa headed Husain Ali Hasan Ali free-kick into the net. Japan searched [...]

Takeshi Okada’s valiant decision to field an entire J-League lineup pulled through as in-front of our 30,000 supporters the Blue Samurai defeated Yemen 2-1 in the opening match of the 2011 AFC Asian Cup qualifying.
Prior to the match, Japan’s manager had taken a very aggressive stance in utilizing an entire lineup from the J-League, given [...]

With the Blue Samurai dealing with a number of injuries for today’s match against Yemen, Takeshi Okada will be fielding a significantly changed lineup. Oita Trinita’s Masato Morishige and Urawa Red Diamonds defender Yuki Abe and Marcus Tulio Tanaka are all out with injuries forcing a series of changes. Of the changes, Okada said:
“We have [...]