Outright Odds: three hundred/one
Group F Winners: sixteen/1
Japan are a challenging crew to forecast. Previous 12 months they defeat European champions Greece and acquired a credible attract with Brazil in previous yrs Confederations Cup but their qualifying campaign was under convincing.
They missing just after in 12 qualifying matches, absent at Iran, and topped the team In general, but they only managed to score a lot more than two objectives versus a severely depleted Indian facet and needed last minute wins against Oman and Korea DPR.
This sort of feebleness in qualification observed the general public call for supervisor Zicos head but The very fact they competent for the Match will save the Brazilian soccer legends position In the interim. Japan attained the second spherical 4 안전놀이터 yrs in the past but they'll do nicely to reach that phase this time all-around.
The 2002 campaign noticed Japan defeat a dismal Russia in advance of narrowly dropping out to Turkey in the 2nd round. Legend has it that then-mentor Phillipe Troussier selected striker Akinori Nishizawa, who had not performed in the Match, in advance of normal strikers Takayuki Suzuki and Atushi Yanagisawa mainly because it was his birthday. Surely Zico wouldnt make such a blunder?
A United kingdom-based mostly midfield trio of Hidetoshi Nakata (Bolton Wanderers), Shunsuke Nakamura (Celtic), Junichi Inamoto (West Bromwich Albion) and if fit, Shinji Ono of Feyenoord offers Japan their very best prospect of good results its the remainder of the workforce which lacks real international course.
The normal strike pairing of Naohiro Takahara and Yanagisawa don't get regular club football with Hamburg and Messina while the remainder of the side is made up of residents from the vastly enhancing J-League. Only 4 of your 23 players in very last yrs Confederations Cup squad were being centered abroad.
The centre half-pairing of Gamba Osakas Tsuneyasu Miyamoto and Yokohamas Yuji Nakazawa ended up good throughout a qualification marketing campaign which conceded just 5 plans but Brazil, Croatia and Australia will offer a A lot sterner examination. Portsmouth flop Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, built the scapegoat after Pompey lost four-1 in your house to Leyton Orient on his debut, has highlighted about 80 situations in objective for his country.
Japan might be victims of their very own latest achievements and expectation will be good at this decades finals. Although There exists a good amount of talent in midfield, the team as a whole may not be as much as emulating their group topping exploits of four several years ago and are not likely to determine within the knockout stages.
Recommended Bet
An unconvincing qualification marketing campaign and a lack of objectives from the two strikers signifies Japan cannot be backed to qualify from the group. The truth is, they may be propping up The remainder by the point the a few initial spherical matches are done and backing versus them might be a far better financial investment than supporting them.
Croatia to defeat Japan @ four/five