Japan named yesterday their 25-player squad that will be facing Bahrain on Thursday next week in the third round of Asian qualification for the Fifa World Cup 2026.
The Bahrainis and Japanese are set to clash at Saitama Stadium 2002 in Saitama, Japan, in a game scheduled to kick off at 1.35pm, Bahrain time.
The Japanese team list, which features star players from club teams across Europe, includes goalkeepers Keisuke Osako, Kosei Tani, and Zion Suzuki; defenders Yuto Nagatomo, Kou Itakura, Hiroki Ito, Ayumu Seko, Yukinari Sugawara, Hiroki Sekine, and Kota Takai; and midfielders/forwards Wataru Endo, Junya Ito, Takumi Minamino, Kyogo Furuhashi, Hidemasa Morita, Daichi Kamada, Kaoru Mitoma, Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate, Ritsu Doan, Ayase Ueda, Ao Tanaka, Keito Nakamura, Takefusa Kubo, and Joel Chima Fujita.
Japan’s head coach is Hajime Moriyasu.
Bahrain have a 26-player squad coached by Dragan Talajic. They have already departed for Japan, and will be staying at Hilton Tokyo Hotel, which is approximately half an hour from the match venue.
The delegation arrived yesterday in the Far East, headed by Bahrain Football Association secretary general Rashed Alzaabi.
The nationals will be hoping to do better than their 0-5 loss against the Japanese at home in September of last year, which was then their second game in this stage of qualification.
Following their match against Japan next week, Bahrain take on Indonesia on March 25 in Jakarta. They then play their last two qualifiers against Saudi Arabia at home on June 5 and then against China away on June 10.
The national team roster for their next two games includes Sayed Mohammed Jaafar, Mohammed Jassim Marhoon, Komail Al Aswad, Mahdi Abduljabbar, Mahdi Humaidan, Ali Madan, Sayed Dhiya Saeed, Amine Benaddi, Waleed Al Hayyam, Ebrahim Luthfallah, Ismaeel Abdullatif, Mohammed Al Rumaihi, Ali Haram, Sayed Mahdi Baqer, Ahmed Bughammar, Abdulla Al Khalasi, Hazza Ali, Vincent Emmanuel, Jassim Al Shaikh, Hamad Shamsan, Hussain Abdulkarim, Ahmed Al Sherooqi, Ebrahim Al Khattal, Sayed Ahmed Alwadaie, Hussain Al Eker, and Abdulkarim Al Fardan.
The Bahrainis are currently fifth on the Group C table where they are tied with three others on points. The Japanese are in first place with 16 points after winning five of their six games and are on the verge of officially securing their place in next year’s Fifa World Cup. Australia follow with seven points, but are just one point ahead of Indonesia, Saudi, Bahrain and China, who all have six points apiece in this tightly contested pool.
There are three groups in all in this round of continental qualifying. Group A features Iran, Qatar, Uzbekistan, the UAE, Kyrgyzstan and North Korea; while Group B is composed of South Korea, Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Palestine and Kuwait.
Only the top two finishers from each group will punch their tickets to the Fifa World Cup 2026. The third and fourth-placed squads will compete in a fourth round of Asian qualification.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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