Japan boss already knows his 23 team squad for Germany

Coach Zico already has a good idea of the 23 guys that will accompany him to the World Cup. That will be bad news for many of the J.League players who thought they might use the rest of the friendly games to impress the coach.

Zico wants to put together his strongest team possible and that means if he was given the opportunity to pick his 23 man squad today he will.

However, I think the J.League players should just continue to play to their best potential and wait and see what happens. Players do get injured and there will always be opportunities to replace them up to the finals

Japan host Bulgaria, coached by former Barcelona and Kashiwa Reysol striker Hrsito Stoitchkov, on May 9 in the first Kirin Cup tie at Osaka Nagai Stadium, before taking on the Scots at Saitama Stadium four days later and the final squad will be annnouced on the 15th of May

Zico wants his Europe-based stars to use the Kirin Cup week as a resting period. Japan faces Australia in its World Cup opener on June 12 in Kaiserslautern. Beforehand, it will warm up against Germany on May 30 and Malta on June 4, Japan’s last tune-up.

The coach is not expecting any Europe based players to be involved in the Kirin Cup and is urging them to use that week as a resting week after a long season playing in Europe.