NEWS

Sixteen of the Samurai Blue players who played in the recent World Cup, including eight Europe-based players, will get together again in early September for two friendly matches – against Paraguay and Guatemala – under an interim coach.

The 23-member squad features Keisuke Honda of CSKA Moscow, Yuto Nagatomo of Cesena, Atsuto Uchida of Schalke, Shinji Kagawa of Dortmund and Yasuhito Endo of Gamba Osaka, as well as potential new caps Hajime Hosogai of Urawa Reds and the in-form Jungo Fujimoto of Shimizu S-Pulse.
But in Japan’s first international matches since the 2010 finals in South Africa, the team will managed by interim coach Hiromi Hara, as the quest to find a successor to World Cup coach Takeshi Okada goes on.
Hara will be helped by ex-Kawasaki Frontale manager Takashi Sekizuka as assistant coach in addition to Tsutomu Ogura who was an assistant to Okada at the World Cup.
“We were hoping to announce a new coach today, but couldn’t make it,” JFA Vice President Kuniya Daini admitted. “Therefore, our Technical Director Hara will take care of those two matches as an interim coach. However, we are still making efforts to have the new coach attend those games.”
Hara commented: “As we have a short time to prepare for those games, we have picked a squad based around the World Cup players and those who are currently in good shape. We also had to take into consideration those who are in transfer talks.”
Hara suggested a new manager would be named soon.
“We are in the final phase of negotiations and are making maximum efforts so they will be able to attend the training sessions in early September.
The Japanese squad will soon start training to get ready for the Paraguay game (7:20 p.m. kickoff on September 4 at Nissan Stadium) before moving to Osaka for the Guatemala game (7:45 p.m. kickoff on September 7 at Nagai Stadium).

Squad:
Goalkeepers—Seigo Narazaki (Nagoya Grampus), Eiji Kawashima (Lierse SK)
Defenders—Yuji Nakazawa (Yokohama F. Marinos), Marcus Tulio Tanaka (Nagoya Grampus), Yuichi Komano (Jubilo Iwata), Daiki Iwamasa (Kashima Antlers), Yuzo Kurihara (Yokohama F. Marinos), Yuto Nagatomo (Cesena), Tomoaki Makino (Sanfrecce Hiroshima), Atsuto Uchida (FC Schalke 04)
Midfielders—Hideo Hashimoto (Gamba Osaka), Yasuhito Endo (Gamba Osaka), Kengo Nakamura (Kawasaki Frontale), Daisuke Matsui (Grenoble), Yasuyuki Konno (FC Tokyo), Makoto Hasebe (VfL Wolfsburg), Jungo Fujimoto (Shimizu S-Pulse), Hajime Hosogai (Urawa Reds), Keisuke Honda (CSKA Moscow), Takashi Inui (Cerezo Osaka), Shinji Kagawa (Borussia Dortmund)
Forwards—Shinji Okazaki (Shimizu S-Pulse), Takayuki Morimoto (Catania)
Coach—Hiromi Hara