NEWS

Following the draw for the 2010 World Cup in Cape Town on Friday, Japan coach Takeshi Okada commented that the group was “not too bad” for his side.

The Samurai Blue will play Cameroon in Bloemfontein on June 14, the Netherlands in Durban on June 19 and Demark in Rustenburg on June 24 in Group E.
Cameroon, with Samuel Eto’o up front, won their qualifying group with a 4-1-1 win-draw-loss record ahead of Gabon, Togo and Morocco.
The Netherlands qualified with eight straight wins to top their group ahead of Norway and Scotland, becoming the first European side to book a berth in the tournament. Denmark finished ahead of Portugal and Sweden in their group with a 6-3-1 win-draw-loss record.
“As I knew there wouldn’t be any easy games for us, I was not expecting too much from the draw, and none of the games look easy,” Okada commented. “But I don’t think they are too much for us to handle. I would say it is not too bad for us.”
In their head-to-head records with the three teams, Japan fell 3-0 at the hands of the Dutch in their only meeting, a friendly in September in the Dutch town of Enschede.
Japan has only played Denmark once – a 3-2 loss in July 1971.
Against Cameroon, Japan have a 2-1-0 win-draw-loss record. They won in the 2001 Confederations Cup Korea/Japan, and also won in 2007 and drew in 2003 – both in friendly matches at home .
Okada, who also coached Japan in the 1998 World Cup, was pleased with Japan’s schedule.
“If you look at the match schedule, we will have extra days to work on our preparations [ahead of our first game], which is really good for us,” he stated.
“As we have been working on improving our game in order to beat the top teams in the world, I have no intention of making any drastic changes to our style of play as a result of the draw.”