Japan to test World Cup credentials against Germany

The number of friendly games being played amongst teams competing in this year’s World cup makes one wonder what to expect when the real thing kicks off on June 9.

However, one friendly I am really looking forward to seeing is Japan versus German tomorrow in the Bay Arena, Leverkusen.

This game would give Japan an indication of how prepared they are for the actual tournament in less than two weeks time.

Brazilian coach Zico has set a semifinal spot as the target and would be looking to find out how far his team have progressed after the Germany encounter. Besides it would be the second time he gets to utilise his European based players who have all had a busy season with their respective European clubs.

The likes of Celtic’s Shunsuke Nakumura, Bolton’s Hidetoshi Nakata and West Brom’s Junichi Inamoto should feature for Japan but one guy that should be looking forward to the game is Japan striker Naohiro Takahara who plays his football in Germany with SV Hamburg, although he has agreed to join Eintracht Frankfurt for next season.