Other Teams Squad announcements for Asian Cup 2019

[Saam]

WOW - what is the japan coach on?

okazaki, kagawa, honda, hasebe, kawashima, Inui............this is mindblowing to me that this many key players can be left out! he went all out in rebuild mode for this....

What do you mean what is he on? Hasebe and Honda retired from the national team after the World Cup. Okazaki has not been playing well and Osako was their best performing forward in the World Cup so that's no surprise. Kagawa can't get a game for Dortmund and has only played in the reserves and as for him and Inui, they have called up lots of young European-based attacking players to replace them presumably.

The only real surprise is Kawashima who played well in the World Cup but he is 35 so they are probably trying out a new long-term goalie for the future. He would be almost 40 by the next World Cup so it's a good time to try out a replacement in case he retires before then (even though goalies do sometimes play that long but it's better to have another option ready just in case and it's a good time to test that).

[perspolis#1]

I think their team is definitely good enough to win but it will be harder.

They have to play one of Saudi or Qatar in the R16 and thats a test.

[Leicester City]

How this Japan Squad would look like in FIFA 19!



Goalkeepers:

Masaaki Higashiguchi
Shūichi Gonda
Daniel Schmidt


Defenders:

Yuto Nagatomo
Maya Yoshida
Hiroki Sakai
Tomoaki Makino
Genta Miura
Sho Sasaki
Sei Muroya
Takehiro Tomiyasu


Midfielders:

Genki Haraguchi
Gaku Shibasaki
Wataru Endo
Toshihiro Aoyama
Takumi Minamino
Junya Ito
Shoya Nakajima
Ritsu Doan
Hidemasa Morita


Forwards:

Yuya Osako
Takuma Asano
Koya Kitagawa

[Sarbaze-Vatan]

On the paper Japan is top favorite for me to win the AC 2019.

[irani8perspolis]

On the paper Japan is top favorite for me to win the AC 2019.

Not with the current squad they released. I favour Korea, Australia, and us much more than Japan. Personally I predict a Korea v. Iran final.

[Omids]

The issue isn't that Japan is missing a lot of key players, they're just not selecting the ones that we've always been familiar with. It's natural that players that have been with the team since the 2010 cycle are either being phased out or retiring (e.g. Hasebe, Kagawa, Okazaki, Honda). For all we know, these new players may be the Majid Hosseinis of Japan. Japan may be in a rebuild phase but I don't think it necessarily makes them any less of a contender.

So we are still the underdogs? Thank goodness for that

[Sarbaze-Vatan]

Not with the current squad they released. I favour Korea, Australia, and us much more than Japan. Personally I predict a Korea v. Iran final.

No matter what squad Japan brings. Japan is always Japan. In the past, they won the the title with the squad that looked weaker than their AC 2019 squad on the paper like AC 2000.
I would like we win the AC but I think Japan deserves more than the rest because they were the only successful Asian team in the World Cup 2018. My realistic prediction at the moment is as follows:

Winner: Japan
Runner up: South Korea

Teams to surprise: Oman and China

I also feel Australia will do lower than expectations. IMO If we do extremely well, It will be third place but I hope we win the tournament.

[Leicester City]

No matter what squad Japan brings. Japan is always Japan. In the past, they won the the title with the squad that looked weaker than their AC 2019 squad on the paper like AC 2000.
I would like we win the AC but I think Japan deserves more than the rest because they were the only successful Asian team in the World Cup 2018. My realistic prediction at the moment is as follows:

Winner: Japan
Runner up: South Korea

Teams to surprise: Oman and China

I also feel Australia will do lower than expectations. IMO If we do extremely well, It will be third place but I hope we win the tournament.

https://twitter.com/ladbrokescomau/s...68336585527298

Iran have good odds to win this whole thing

[Kavian]

Every tournament has it's own dynamics and is not the past performances of teams that determine how far they go. Japan's good performance in world cup certainly no guaranty for them to lift Asian top prize.

Asian Cup 2019 will be closely contested by number teams and the one who has the key elements of success plus good old luck will take all home.

There will be some very interesting matches that can potentially change the course of how the group and subsequent stages will shape up. For example; Japan vs Uzbekistan, Saudi vs Qatar, Iran vs iraq, Australia vs Syria.

Japan will have to be tested against either Saudi or Qatar and then Australia in quarter finals .. before facing Iran in semis ..they have a tough task ahead of them.

[K. Nader]

So we are still the underdogs? Thank goodness for that

Like Japan, we're also contenders. Difference between Iran and Japan is that Japan functions like a machine where you can replace any of the pieces and it'll work in the same way. In our case, CQ is the glue that is keeping this team largely together. Regardless of how terrific people may think our players are, I find it frightening to think what we'd look like without CQ. The same players that go and perform as they did in the World Cup under CQ can barely qualify for the latter stages of the Asian Games and the Olympics itself.

[Rooyintan]

Schmidt is a very nice Japanese lastname

[forzatm]

FYI, Japan has a history of sending an experimental squad to the Asian Cup. I remember they missed Nakata (best player in Asia at that time) in 2000 and missed several European based players in 2004.

I follow various European transfer rumors and this Japanese squad isn't bad at all. They have several young talents who are ready to step in to the big leagues.

Nakajima (Portimonense)
He is killing it in Portugal and on the verge of joining Wolverhampton for a fee of 20 million euros.

Tomiyasu (Sint-Truiden)
He has just turned 20 last month but is already a starting CB for the 4th place team in Belgium. Last week Bild reported that Bremen are trying to sign him for 7 million euros. Another source from Italy says Lazio and Udinese are after him.

Doan (Groningen)
He seems to be highly rated in Eredivisie and was named on the final 10-man shortlist for Kopa Trophy (U-21 version of Ballon d'Or).

Minamino (Salzburg)
I don't know much about him but he has already scored 11 goals this season in domestic (6) and European (5) competitions. He plays in Austria but judging by their recent performance in Europe, Salzburg are at least on par with mid table Bundeslia clubs.

Japan has a prolific young striker named Daichi Kamada who has scored 11 goals in 13 games in Belgium but didn't call up him.

[IranPowned]

Team To suprise: Syria

[nmssis]

Iran, Japan, Australia will fight for the finals place. Korea is on the other side of bracket facing Saudi (most likely)

[NFL]

I will not underestimate the KSA team. They didn't do well in the WC, but their team is a good team. I would love for us to play against them in this tournament.

I agree with IranPowned, Syria will be a surprise team.