Blue Samurai ready for Bahrain

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 Máčala, have upset Japan in two of the last four meetings.

The Japan coach said of the match:

“All matches are important, but this is the one where we really have to fight for the win.

“As we haven’t won our home games in the final-round qualifiers so far, we would love to win this time round.

“I know how they play and don’t think they will deviate much from that.

“They try to frustrate their opponents, but we’d like to focus on our own game.”

Along with captain Yokohama F. Marinos’s Yuji Nakazawa and Gamba Osaka’s Yasuhito Endo, the European contingency of Celtic’s Shunsuke Nakamura, St. Etienne’s Daisuke Matsui and VfL Wolfsburg duo Makoto Hasebe and Yoshito Ōkubo return to the fold.

Goalkeepers—Seigo Narazaki (Nagoya Grampus), Ryota Tsuzuki (Urawa Reds), Eiji Kawashima (Kawasaki Frontale)

Defenders—Shuhei Terada (Kawasaki Frontale), Yuji Nakazawa (Yokohama F. Marinos), Marcus Tulio Tanaka (Urawa Reds), Yuichi Komano (Jubilo Iwata), Yuki Abe (Urawa Reds), Yuto Nagatomo (FC Tokyo), Atsuto Uchida (Kashima Antlers)

Midfielders—Shunsuke Nakamura (Celtic), Hideo Hashimoto (Gamba Osaka), Yasuhito Endo (Gamba Osaka), Kengo Nakamura (Kawasaki Frontale), Daisuke Matsui (St. Etienne), Yasuyuki Konno (FC Tokyo), Makoto Hasebe (VfL Wolfsburg), Mu Kanazaki (Oita Trinita), Shinji Kagawa (Cerezo Osaka)

Forwards—Keiji Tamada (Nagoya Grampus), Yoshito Ōkubo (VfL Wolfsburg), Tatsuya Tanaka (Urawa Reds), Kisho Yano (Albirex Niigata), Shinji Okazaki (Shimizu S-Pulse)