On October 3, Beijing time, the Japanese Football Association announced the latest national team list. Among them, there are only 3 players who play in the local J-League, and Urawa Red Diamonds, who just defeated Guangzhou Evergrande in the first leg of the AFC Champions League semi-finals, were not selected.
The Japan Football Association's national team roster is mainly aimed at the upcoming Round of 40 in October, with Japan taking on Mongolia at home on October 10 and then away to Tajikistan on October 15.
Since the Asian Cup, the japanese team's squad structure has had a clear trend of rejuvenation, and this time Mori Hoichi still has not recruited a veteran like Shinji Kagawa. Players from the top leagues of european non-mainstream countries and some of the secondary leagues of mainstream football countries make up the main framework of the Japanese team.
Takumi Minano, Shoya Nakajima and Yasuru Don were all selected. Takumi Minamino is currently playing for Red Bull Salzburg, Austria, Shoya Nakajima for Porto in the Portuguese Premier League, and Don Annru for Eindhoven in the Dutch League, they are currently in a team that is one of Europe's well-known "black shops", in a way, they are only one step away from joining the world's top giants!
The biggest highlight of the Japanese national team's roster is that 20 of the 23 players play in overseas leagues, which once again shows the thickness of Japan's football talent pool. J-League players are only Yokohama Mariners' Shinnosuke Hataka and fc Tokyo double stars Kensuke Nagai and Kenji Hashimoto, and J-League teams Kashima Antlers and Urawa Red Diamonds, who reached the quarterfinals of the AFC Champions League this year, were not selected.
In the list released by the Chinese national team not long ago, Guangzhou Evergrande has a total of 8 people selected, even so Evergrande still lost 0-2 away to Urawa Red Diamonds, and the gap between Chinese and Japanese football is shocking.
Detailed list of the Japanese national team:
Goalkeepers: Nagashi Kawashima (Ligue 1/Strasbourg), Shuichi Kwonda (Portuguese Premier League/Portimão), Daniel Schmidt (Bjar/Saint-Turden)
Defenders: Yuto Nagatomo (Toshiro/Galatasaray), Maya Yoshida (Premier League/Southampton), Hiroki Sakai (Ligue 1/Marseille), Naotori Ueda (Bijia/Segra Bruges), Yukiaki Ansai (Portuguese Premier League/Portimão), Hataka Makinosuke (Yokohama Mariner), Kenyo Tomiya (Serie A/Bologna)
Midfielders: Genki Haraguchi (Bundesliga/Hanover 96), Takeshi Shibasaki (La Liga/La Coruña), Hang Endo (Bundesliga/Stuttgart), Junya Ito (Bijia/Genk), Kenji Hashimoto (fc Tokyo), Shoya Nakajima (Portuguese Super League/Porto), Takumi Minamino (O1/Red Bull Salzburg), Itakura (Ereka/Groningen), Don Annru (Erdo Liga/Eindhoven), Kenei Kubo (La Liga/Mallorca)
Forwards: Kensuke Nagai (fc Tokyo), Takuma Asano (Super League/Guerrilla Belgrade), Daichi Kamada (Bundesliga/Frankfurt)