Japan get their World Cup campaign underway this afternoon with Arsenal's Takehiro Tomiyasu featuring amongst the substitutes against Germany.
Group E is considered as one of the toughest groups in the tournament and the Samurai Blue will be hoping Tomiyasu can carry his brilliant form for the Gunners into the World Cup. Japan take on four-time winners Germany in their opening fixture, before facing the 2010 World Cup winners, Spain, and Costa Rica.
Japan regularly feature at the World Cup, having been involved in the last seven tournaments, but will be relying on causing a major upset if they are to qualify from a group containing two of Europe’s heavy-hitters. Four years ago in Russia, the Samurai Blue managed to get out of their group, picking up four points against the likes of Colombia, Senegal and Poland before being knocked out against Belgium following a narrow 3-2 defeat.
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Japan still have a talented squad despite not featuring Keisuke Honda and Shinji Kagawa anymore, with captain and former Southampton defender Maya Yoshida at the heart of the defence, whilst Tomiyasu will feature from the bench this afternoon. The Gunners star's versatility means he is able to move into a central role in defence to allow former Marseille right-back Hiroki Sakai to play in his natural position if required.
The Samurai Blue have a good defensive record of late having kept five successive clean sheets before their 2-1 friendly defeat by Canada ahead of the World Cup. In attack, there is another Arsenal link in Takuma Asano, who never made an appearance for the Gunners after arriving in north London from Sanfrecce Hiroshima in the summer of 2016.
Just 21 years old at the time, Asano was signed with a promising reputation but his career at the Emirates Stadium didn't exactly go to plan. Speaking about the signing after missing out on a move for Leicester star Jamie Vardy, Arsene Wenger said: “Takuma is a talented young striker and very much one for the future."
The Japanese forward was not granted a work permit resulting in him heading to Germany to play for Hannover and Stuttgart on-loan. Three years after joining the Gunners, Asano left for Partizan Belgrade on a permanent deal and, now 28 years old, he is back in the Bundesliga with Bochum.
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