NEWS

Frankfurt midfielder Junichi Inamoto and VVV Venlo midfielder Keisuke Honda have been called up to the Japan squad for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup qualifying match against Bahrain in Manama on January 28.

Japan coach Takeshi Okada named a 25-member squad on Wednesday, which also saw a first call-up for Kashiwa Reysol goalkeeper Takanori Sugeno.
Familiar faces such as Gamba Osaka midfielder Yasuhito Endo, Yokohama F. Marinos defender Yuji Nakazawa and Nagoya Grampus forward Keiji Tamada returned to the squad, but Shunsuke Nakamura of Celtic, Daisuke Matsui of St. Etienne, midfielder Makoto Hasebe and his Wolfsburg new teammate forward Yoshito Okubo were excluded due to club commitments.
“Inamoto and Honda should be in a good shape as they are in the middle of the season,” Okada said. “I’m thankful to their clubs for agreeing to release them.”
The 52-year-old coach said some of those who played against Yemen last night have been left out of the squad so that they will be able to refresh themselves after putting in a lot of effort at the squad’s training camp earlier this month.
On Sugeno’s call-up, Okada commented, “He’s a good shot-stopper and an accurate kicker. I wanted to have him with us from the start of the January camp, but it wasn’t possible as he played in the Emperor’s Cup final on January 1.”
The Japan squad will hold a short tune-up session from Thursday before flying to Manama on Friday.
Japan are grouped with Bahrain, Yemen and Hong Kong in Group A in the qualifiers. The top two finishers will earn a berth in the finals in Doha.

Squad:

Goalkeepers—Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi (Jubilo Iwata), Ryota Tsuzuki (Urawa Reds), Eiji Kawashima (Kawasaki Frontale), Takanori Sugeno (Kashiwa Reysol)
Defenders—Shuhei Terada (Kawasaki Frontale), Yuji Nakazawa (Yokohama F. Marinos), Kazumichi Takagi (Gamba Osaka), Yuichi Komano (Jubilo Iwata), Hiroki Mizumoto (Kyoto Sanga), Yuto Nagatomo (FC Tokyo), Michihiro Yasuda (Gamba Osaka), Atsuto Uchida (Kashima Antlers)
Midfielders—Hideo Hashimoto (Gamba Osaka), Junichi Inamoto (Frankfurt), Yasuhito Endo (Gamba Osaka), Kengo Nakamura (Kawasaki Frontale), Takeshi Aoki (Kashima Antlers), Yasuyuki Konno (FC Tokyo), Keisuke Honda (VVV Venlo), Shinji Kagawa (Cerezo Osaka)