Doha, Nov 10 (thesportsgrail.com) - The first batch of players, mostly from the J-league, and officials were officially welcomed by Japanese ambassador to Qatar Satoshi Maeda at a function held at Radisson Blu Hotel Doha which will serve as Samurai Blue residence for the next few weeks.
The 26-man Japanese squad announced by Manager Hajime Moriyasu ‘s side comprises playmakers Daichi Kamada, who plays for Eintracht Frankfurt in the German league, and Real Sociedad’s Takefusa Kubo.
The notable names who missed the Qatar bus included Celtic forward Kyogo Furuhashi and midfielder Reo Hatate, Vissel Kobe forward Yuya Osako and Union Berlin midfielder Genki Haraguchi.
”Players from the J League will arrive in Qatar around 10 November to begin their training. Since the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 is taking place during the middle of the European league season, players belonging to European clubs will join the team when their clubs’ matches are over,” Japanese Football Association has mentioned on their website.
With most of the players busy with European duty some of the players plying their trade in Europe will join the team next week taking all the factors into account, Japan have fixed its final international friendly match, before the World Cup, against another World Cup side Canada on November 17 in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
Japan are placed in Group E alongside Spain, Costa Rica and Germany and will open their group campaign with a match against Germany on Wednesday 23 November. They will then face Costa Rica on Sunday 27 November and Spain on Thursday 1 December. The top two finishers in each group will advance to the knockout stage.
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