NEWS

Japan coach Takeshi Okada plans to use all the Europe-based players he called up to play Bahrain in their sixth and final match of the 2011 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers on Wednesday.

“This is our last chance to call up our Europe-based players and I want to see how they fit in with the rest of the team,” Okada said, following his side’s final tune-up session at Toyota Stadium, the venue for Wednesday’s game.
Japan will also play Serbia on April 7 before announcing their World Cup squad in mid-May. But the Europe-based players have club commitments and Okada won’t be able to include them for the April game.
“As I have called them up during their busy match schedule, I will use them from the start or, at least from the bench,” Okada confirmed. “Each of them has their own strong points. I want them to show that for our national team.”
The Europe-based players are CSKA Moscow midfielder Keisuke Honda, Grenoble midfielder Daisuke Matsui, Wolfsburg midfielder Makoto Hasebe and Catania forward Takayuki Morimoto. Midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura moved from Spanish club Espanyol to Yokohama F. Marinos on Sunday.
Okada also called on his players to be focused on beating Bahrain. Japan has won three times and lost twice in the five meetings since Okada arrived in December 2007.
“Whenever we play Bahrain, the games are always decided by one goal,” Okada said. “It won’t be an easy game this time either.”
Asked if he and his players were still suffering from the recent East Asian Championship, where they finished third out of four teams, Okada replied: “That was something that happened in the past, and you cannot do much about it. We are not looking back; we are thinking about beating Bahrain.”
Both Japan and Bahrain have already earned a spot in the 2011 finals in Qatar.
Bahrain coach Milan Macala said his side are also preparing for upcoming tournaments: “From this point, we are starting our preparations for two important competitions: the Gulf Cup in November and the Asian Cup in Qatar in January.”
“But the game tomorrow is a little bit complicated. This is a FIFA day of 48 hours. We cannot fly from Bahrain to Japan [and back] within 48 hours. That is why we lost some players from Europe.”
The Czech coach went on: “But for both of us, me and Japanese coach, this is good preparation for different competitions [coming up]. This game is important, but we cannot celebrate or cry because we know what our main target is. ”
The Japan-Bahrain match is to kick off at 7 p.m. at Toyota Stadium in Aichi Prefecture.