World Cup 2014/Japan

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This article is about the Japanese national football team at the 2014 World Cup. Japan participated in the final round for the fifth time and in a final round in South America for the first time, but could not reach the knockout round.

Qualification
Japan played in AFC qualifiers. Together with Australia, Bahrain, North and South Korea, Japan only had to compete from the third qualifying round. The team prevailed in Group C against North Korea and Tajikistan and qualified as group second behind Uzbekistan for the fourth round. In the fourth lap, Japan was able to improve, especially as Keisuke Honda was ready for use again after his knee injury. He also played a decisive role in early qualification: On June 4, 2013, he turned a penalty kick to the 1:1 finish in the first minute of the match against Australia, making Japan the first country to qualify for the World Cup alongside host Brazil. Australia also qualified as group second 14 days later. The group third Jordan then prevailed in the fifth round against the Uzbeks, but then failed in the intercontinental comparisons to Uruguay.

Third round

Game results

Fourth round

Game results

Overall, Alberto Zaccheroni, who had taken over the coaching office in Japan after the 2010 World Cup, used 28 players in the 14 games. Only Shinji Okazaki, who worked in the Bundesliga, played all the games. He was also best Japanese scorer with 8 goals and thus best scorer of the AFC qualification.

Preparation
Test matches:
5 March in Tokyo against New Zealand: 4-2 (goalscorers for Japan: Okazaki/4 and 17, Kagawa/8 and Morishige/11)
May 27 in Saitama for the first time against Cyprus: 1-0 (goal scorer: Uchida/42.)
June 2 in Tampa against Costa Rica 3:1 (goalscorers for Japan: Endō/60, Kagawa/80 and Kakitani/90)
June 6 in Tampa for the first time against Zambia: 4:3 (goalscorers for Japan: Honda/40). (Eleven) and 75, Kagawa/73 and Okubo/90.

Cadre
A preliminary player list of 30 players had to be completed by 13. Submitted to FIFA in May 2014. The definitive list of 23 players had to be completed by the 2nd. In June 2014 at FIFA.

On 12 May 2014, the squad was named. 11 players of the provisional squad were also already in the squad of the last World Cup, when Japan were eliminated in the round of 16. The most experienced player was record international Yasuhito Endō, who was also the fielder with the most international matches at the World Cup.

Final round

Group phase

In the case of the In December 2013, Japan was drawn to the slight group C with Colombia (group head), and Ivory Coast. Against Greece, there was previously only one group match in the 2005 Confederations Cup, which was won 1-0. At the 2003 Confederations Cup, the first match against Colombia took place, ending 0-1. One