only four days till Japan faces Yemen

Takeshi Okada’s lofty goals at the 2010 World Cup take an important step as the Blue Samurai’s head toward Asian Cup qualifying matches against Yemen on January 20 and Bahrain on January 28. Following those two matches they will return to working as a team ahead of the crucial World Cup qualifying match against Australia on February 11.

Whether for injury concern or for coaching decisions he has ommited Shunsuke Nakamura of Celtic, Daisuke Matsui of Saint-Étienne, Shinji Ono of VfL Bochum, Makoto Hasebe and Yoshito Okubo of Vfl Wolfsburg and Junichi Inamoto of Eintracht Frankfurt and chosen his entire squad for the J-League.

For camp he invited the following players:

Goalkeepers—Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi (Jubilo Iwata), Ryota Tsuzuki (Urawa Reds), Eiji Kawashima (Kawasaki Frontale)

Defenders—Shuhei Terada (Kawasaki Frontale), Kazumichi Takagi (Shimizu S-Pulse), Yuichi Komano (Jubilo Iwata), Yuki Abe (Urawa Reds), Yosuke Ishibitsu (Vissel Kobe), Hiroki Mizumoto (Kyoto Sanga), Masato Morishige (Oita Trinita), Atsuto Uchida (Kashima Antlers)

Midfielders—Kengo Nakamura (Kawasaki Frontale), Takeshi Aoki (Kashima Antlers), Kohei Kudo (JEF United Chiba), Hiroyuki Taniguchi (Kawasaki Frontale), Takashi Inui (Cerezo Osaka), Mu Kanazaki (Oita Trinita), Shinji Kagawa (Cerezo Osaka)

Forwards—Seiichiro Maki (JEF United Chiba), Tatsuya Tanaka (Urawa Reds), Shinji Okazaki (Shimizu S-Pulse), Shinzo Koroki (Kashima Antlers)