Japan reveals its ambitions for the 2022 World Cup
Japan coach Hajime Moriyasu dropped Celtic striker Kyogo Furuhashi and Kobe Vessel's Yuya Osako from his 26-man squad for the World Cup on Tuesday, saying he had selected players with "burning ambition" and more importantly experience for this month's finals.
Japan has not yet gone past the World Cup round of 16, but Moriasu is targeting the quarter-finals in Qatar, despite falling into a difficult group E, which includes Germany, Spain and Costa Rica.
"Our goal is to reach the quarter-finals at least... It will not be easy," Moriyasu said at a press conference in Tokyo.
Moriyasu has ruled out striker Furuhashi despite his impressive form with Celtic, while Osako, who was a regular with Moriyasu, has been suffering from physical problems after returning to the J-League.
The squad also did not include veteran midfielder Genki Haraguchi of Union Berlin, who was part of Japan's squad at the last World Cup and participated regularly during the last qualifiers.
In response to a question about the exclusion of Osako and Furuhashi, Moriyasu said, "If I could, I would have included them, and I would have liked to fight with them in the World Cup ... They have the ability to do that."
He added, "Picking experienced players was one of the options, but in the end we decided to bet on players who did not have that but have a burning ambition to succeed in the World Cup."
Suddenly joined Nagoya Grampus winger Yuki Soma, as well as Bochum striker Takuma Asano, who will carry the captaincy of Maya Yoshida.
The Japanese squad also included Arsenal defender Takehiro Tomiyasu and Real Sociedad's Takefusa Kubo.
Japan will start its World Cup campaign against Germany on November 23.
The lineup was as follows:
Goalkeepers: Shuichi Gonda (Shimizu Pulse), Daniel Schmidt (Saint-Truiden), Eiji Kawashima (Strasbourg).
Defenders: Hiroki Sakai (Urawa Red Diamonds), Miki Yamani (Kawasaki Frontale), Ko Itakura (Borussia Moenchengladbach), Takehiro Tomiyasu (Arsenal), Maya Yoshida (Schalke), Shougo Taniguchi (Kawasaki Frontale), Hiroki Ito (Stuttgart), Yuto Nagatomo (Tokyo), Utah Nakayama (Huddersfield Town).
Midfielders: Junya Ito (Stade Reims), Ritsu Doan (Freiburg), Wataru Endo (Stuttgart), Hidemasa Morita (Sporting), O Tanaka (Fortuna Dusseldorf), Daichi Kamada (Eintracht Frankfurt), Takefusa Kubo (Real Sociedad), Takumi Minamino (Monaco), Kaoru Mituma (Brighton & Hove Albion), Jaku Shibasaki (Leganes), Yuki Soma (Nagoya Grampus).
Forwards: Daisen Maeda (Celtic), Ayase Ueda (Circle Brugge), Takuma Asano (Bochum).
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