crunch time against Australia

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 have done our best in terms of conditioning, mental preparation and strategy.”

Earlier in the week the J-League coaching vet Pim Verbeek started the (rather boring) verbal jousting saying that Japan had a “long preparation” and noting “But our advantage is of course that my players are very experienced in international football. They know how to handle it.”

For the match Takeshi Okada has recalled his European reinforcements, Eintracht Frankfurt’s Junichi Inamoto, Saint-Etienne’s Daisuke Matsui, VfL Wolfsburg’s Makoto Hasebe and Yoshito Okubo and Celtic playmaker Shunsuke Nakamura.

Upon arriving Nakamura said:

“I don’t mind if we have to get ugly. We will go for three points for a win.

“Most of the Australian team have played in strong European clubs for many years and they are at high levels.

“I don’t think we will have such a beautiful formula in which we can make a number of good passes and score goals.

“We’ll go back to the defensive as soon as we lose the ball. We will be quick in starting set plays. We want to care about such small details.”