Japan vs Syria Preview

Squad

Goalkeepers: Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi (Jubilo Iwata), Seigo Narazaki (Nagoya Grampus), Eiji Kawashima (Kawasaki Frontale), Ryota Tsuzuki ( Urawa Reds)

Defenders: Shuhei Terada (Kawasaki Frontale), Yuji Nakazawa (Yokohama Marinos), Marcus Tulio Tanaka (Urawa Red Diamonds), Yuichi Komano (Jubilo Iwata), Yuki Abe (Urawa Red Diamonds), Yuto Nagatomo (FC Tokyo), Michihiro Yasuda (Gamba Osaka), Atsuto Uchida (Kashima Antlers), Kazumichi Takagi ( Shimizu S-Pulse)

Midfielders: Shunsuke Nakamura (Celtic/SCO), Hideo Hashimoto (Gamba Osaka), Yasuhito Endo (Gamba Osaka), Kengo Nakamura (Kawasaki Frontale), Daisuke Matsui (Saint-Etienne/FRA), Yasuyuki Konno (FC Tokyo), Makoto Hasebe (VfL Wolfsburg/GER), Shinji Kagawa (Cerezo Osaka)

Forwards: Keiji Tamada (Nagoya Grampus), Seiichiro Maki (JEF United Chiba), Hisato Sato (Sanfrecce Hiroshima), Yoshito Okubo (Vissel Kobe), Tatsuya Tanaka (Urawa Red Diamonds), Shinji Okazaki (Shimizu S-Pulse)

Japan have suffered a few injuries to their squad, and GK Narazaki and Df Nakazawa have both been ruled out. Tsuzuki and Takagi have been brought in as replacements, but both are very fresh as NT-players. MF Nakamura is also highly doubtful, which will be a huge blow. The same goes with MF Inamoto, who’s not been picked for the squad, but if he were to recover from his injury, he will join the team in Doha on November 19th.

Against Syria tomorrow, none of the Europe-based players will be available, and the same goes for the Gamba players, who’s busy with ACL-final in Australia.

Japan’s form isn’t the best, as they only got 2 draws in their last 2 matches. That was against UAE and Uzbekistan at home. They beat Bahrain in their opening match of this group though, so they’re in a good position with regards to getting qualified. Syria got 3 losses in their last 4 matches, but beat UAE 3-1 away in June. A strong result. The teams have met twice in the past, with Japan winning both quite comfortably.

Everything suggests Japan should win this one, but Syria will approach the game in a very defensive manner. 10 men behind the ball at all is a likely scenario, so they could scrape through for a draw, like UAE and Uzbekistan did.