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Team Japan is floating! Hengo Furuhashi + Takumi Minamino were both abandoned, and Don Anru became the new No. 10?

On March 15, the Japanese national team announced the roster for the first training session of the year, and it is also the first list of the Moriho I and II national teams, which will play Uruguay on March 24 and Colombia on March 28. The 26 players in this World Cup squad, including four newcomers, have dropped significantly overall, but the controversy remains that Hengwu Furuhashi, who has scored 26 goals at Celtic this season, was not selected.

Morihoichi visited Europe in February this year, and then returned to Japan at the end of February to participate in many social activities, such as attending the closing ceremony of the Japan Football Museum, receiving a meeting with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and kicking off the WBC China-Japan war. Morihoichi has also frequently conveyed a message in his recent public appearances: to strive for becoming a World Cup winner and becoming the world's number one as a realistic goal. And Morihoichi has repeatedly stressed that for 2026, there will be new combat forces selected. At today's press conference, Morihoichi said that this time the choice is to increase the thickness of the squad, strengthen the players and increase experience, in order to create the strongest Japanese national team in the future.

In terms of actual selection, compared with the World Cup list, there are a total of 10 adjustments, and Nagaji Kawashima, Shuichi Kwonda, Maya Yoshida, Yuto Nagatomo, Hiroki Sakai, Shogo Taniguchi, Takeshi Yamane, Takashi Shibasaki, Takumi Minamino and Yuki Soma, who participated in the 2022 World Cup, were not selected. Moreover, the average age of the whole team this time is only 24.5 years old, compared to 27.8 years old at the World Cup.

This time, the goalkeeper position is Schmidt, Keisuke Osho and Koyo Tani. In fact, I mentioned it before when I wrote Shuichi Kwonda, when Morihoichi "J2 players are low in the inspection pick", is to exclude the main goalkeeper at the World Cup and the oldest Shuichi Kwon in the current goalkeeper sequence, and this statement is enough to show that the goalkeeper position will be changed, and the 23-year-old Keisuke Osho and the 22-year-old Okashi Tani will definitely enter the national team. But what I didn't expect was that Nakamura Nakamura, who performed extremely well and was highly sought-after in the Portuguese Premier League, was not selected this time.

The back line has changed dramatically, with three of the four absolute newcomers in the team coming from the defensive line, but there is little controversy. Maya Yoshida, Yuto Nagatomo and Hiroki Sakai were collectively excluded, and I am afraid that many Japanese fans are happy, because the competitive status of these three people is actually declining. On Mori's most recent European expedition, the first person he visited was Maya Yoshida, who played for Schalke, and he listened to the captain's many opinions on team building. Just a few days ago, Yoshida was still saying that he "wants to regain the Asian Cup in 2024", but this time he failed to make the shortlist. However, there is also a theory that because Schalke is in the relegation stage, Morihoichi will not recruit Yoshida this time after consulting with the players and the club, but he will definitely return next time.

The oldest in the current list is 26-year-old Borussia Monxing defender Itakura Tsukura, followed by 24-year-old Arsenal defender Kenhiro Tomiyasu, who will also form the main central defender of the Japanese team, along with the other central defenders including newcomer Ryotaro Tsunoda from Yokohama Mariners and Ayumi Sekou of Grasshopper. Ayumi Sekou is an absolute workhorse at the grasshopper, while Ryotaro Tsunoda, a left-handed centre-back, is considered to be the biggest highlight of the J-League back line this season.

In the full-back position, Daiki Hashioka of St. Trudun and Yuki Sugawara of Alkmaar will compete for the main right-back, and absolute newcomer Riku Handa from Gamba Osaka should be the third choice. Daiki Hashioka was headshot by Jiang Zhipeng in the East Asian Cup, but he has also improved a lot in recent years, and as a full-back, Daiki Hashioka ranks in the top five in the league in terms of success rate in the competition. Sugawara is also an excellent Eredivisie, with three goals and six assists as a full-back, making him Alkmaar's assist king.

Benganagad Gaisfu from FC Tokyo and Yoshiki Ito from Stuttgart will compete for left-back. The Japanese-Ghanaian full-back is a true left-hander, his defensive intensity and offensive involvement are very high, and the 21-year-old has already played in FC Tokyo, inheriting the mantle of Yuto Nagatomo at the club, and the same is true for the national team. As for Yoki Ito, he will most likely switch between the left and the middle, and is the key figure in Morihoichi's change from a back 4 to a back 3.

Of the 12 people in the line of goalkeepers and defenders, the oldest is goalkeeper Schmidt, but he is only 30 years old. The average age of the 12 people is 23.3 years old, of which only Schmidt, Itakura Takashi, Tomiyasu Kenhiro and Ito Yoki participated in the World Cup, and the blood exchange was very strong.

Among the players in the middle of the midfield, the 30-year-old Hang Endo is likely to replace Maya Yoshida as team captain, and his 47 appearances for the national team are also the most on this list. Endō's partner was still born in Hidemasa Morita, Bi Tanaka and Daichi Kamata, plus Takuma Nishimura of Yokohama Mariners. Nishimura has been excellent in the league and aggressive enough, and he also scored for Japan in the East Asian Cup, and should be a good substitute for the forward position. This time Morihoichi ruled out Monaco's Takumi Minamino, and although Minamino was the first player to volunteer a penalty in the 1/8 final against Croatia, he actually lost his main position since the World Qualifiers. At present, Nanye cannot play in Monaco, so it is understandable that he lost the election.

As for the winger position, Junya Ito and Yasu Don are definitely the first and second choices on the right, but the left side will be more intense with the selection of Nakamura Keidou who plays for Linz, Austria.

At present, the first pick must be in the Premier League, which is calling for wind and rain, and Morihoichi also said in an interview that the three-ball king is the fastest player from ball skills to mentality after the World Cup, and has the determination to become the world's No. 1. But for the use of the three-ball king, I am afraid that no one will be able to understand Morihoichi until the official game. The second choice should be Kenei Kubo, who will be used as a weapon of attrition in the World Cup, but Kubo's problem is obviously that he plays as a striker and on the right side of the club, and Kubo is really average on the left in the World Cup.

As for the third choice on the left side, I am afraid that it is to fight in the extremely eye-catching Nakamura in the Austrian League. Nakamura has scored 14 goals and seven assists in all competitions for Linz this season, equalling Takumi Minamino's record for goals scored in a single season at Red Bull Salzburg. Four years ago, Nakamura was a thin child when he participated in the U19 Asian Cup, and he was also shy when he won the tournament MVP, but seeing that he now has flexible flashing and moving in the Austrian A, relying on physical strength and even stealing, and dyeing his hair yellow, it is really emotional that the child is older.

More subtle are Daran Maeda and Takuma Asano, both of whom can play on the left and as single strikers, and interestingly, both have scored in the World Cup. Maeda is currently playing left winger for the Celtics because he is too fast, and the club has also arranged Australian legend Kewell as his exclusive coach, which shows the importance of Maeda. And in an interview with Maeda by Japanese reporter Etsuko Motokawa a few days ago, he also made it clear that it is not only Kaoru Mikasa who can break through with the ball on the left side of the Japanese team, but also himself.

And Asano, as Morihoichi's love general, will definitely be on the list without major injuries. In fact, this time there was also a talk that Asano wanted to help the team relegate in Bochum and not go to the national team first, but in the end it came, not to mention Morihoichi bet that Asano bet successfully in the World Preliminary Round and the World Cup.

In the center position, Shudou Machino of Shonan and Kiyo Ueda of Segra Bruges are center forwards in the absolute sense of the word, and they are also considered high school forwards. In terms of form, Ueda has scored 13 goals in the league this season, and his success rate in the air is also in the top 10 in the league. What's more, Ueda's shooting ability is really superior among Japanese strikers, but he has not been able to score goals in the national team and needs to break his demons.

Of course, the state just mentioned is certainly not an absolute state, because this list is still not popular in the Celtic Furuhashi Hengwu, which is still the biggest controversy after today's list was announced, even greater than before last year's World Cup. Furuhashi has scored 20 goals and three assists in the Premier League this season, and currently has 26 goals and five assists all season. Furuhashi scored 20 goals in the league, he scored 10 goals in 14 appearances in 16 games before the World Cup, and after the World Cup he scored 10 goals and added 3 assists in 13 league matches, Furuhashi's longest goal drought of the season was only 2, so it did take courage for Morihoichi to exclude him.

However, Morihoichi also gave an explanation for excluding Furuhashi Hengwu after today's list was announced: "I have watched all of Furuhashi Hengwu games with Celtic, and I know his importance to the team. Although there is no absolute measure of recruiting players, I hope you can understand that there are many factors to consider, and the level of leagues is also different, and I also considered many factors to determine this squad. For Furuhashi Hengwu, I want him to know that the national team opportunity is not only this time, in order to prepare for the 2026 World Cup and build the strongest team, this requires the accumulation of a game, not a day's achievement, this also requires all players to show their best form, only then the strength of the team will go up. I also wanted to look at other players through the game, which is one of the reasons why he was not called. The same explanation applies to the standard-bearer who also plays for the Celtics.

In fact, after the announcement of the list this time, there is another point to watch, that is, after Takumi Minamino loses, who will give the number 10 shirt he has worn for 3 years to whom.

In the entire 4 years of Morihoichi's national team, there were only 2 No. 10 players. After the 2018 World Cup, Morihoichi gave the number 10 shirt to Shoya Nakajima, who was popular in the Portuguese Premier League at the time. However, Nakajima quickly slipped due to personality, injuries, the epidemic and conflicts with the coach, and Minamino began to wear the number 10 shirt of the national team in 2020. But no one expected that the number 10 seemed to become a curse, and Nanno also had a highlight in Morihoichi's national team, and his 17 goals are still Morihoichi's top scorer to this day, but due to his failed career at Liverpool, he has lost all form and has finally been excluded from the national team.

At present, there are only two people in this national team who have worn the number 10 jersey in their careers: Takuma Asano and Ritsu Do. Asano wore No. 10 for 1 season both in Hiroshima and now Bochum, but he crossed No. 15, 16, 18 and 19 in the Kokuska; Don has never worn the No.10 at the club, but he is the No.10 player for the Under-24 Olympic Team at the Tokyo Olympics. And Don made it clear in an interview before the World Cup that one of his career goals is to wear the number 10 shirt of the Japanese team.

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Furuhashi and Nanno, two classmates of Xingguo High School, lost the election together this time... Anyway, I guess the last 10th is Don Anlu.

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