Japan underline status as Asia’s best World Cup hope as fellow qualifiers get mixed results
Hajime Moriyasu’s men look most likely to make impact among continent’s nine teams heading to North America after noteworthy wins in Europe
Wins over England and Scotland underline Japan’s status as the Asian nation most likely to make a major impact at the World Cup during an international window of mixed fortunes for the continent’s qualifiers for this summer’s finals.
But while Graham Arnold and his players were celebrating the completion of a qualifying journey that lasted 21 matches over 28 months, the continent’s eight other finalists experienced varying levels of satisfaction with their preparations.
The Japanese took the headlines with their 1-0 wins at Hampden Park and Wembley, the first over England by an Asian nation, to give coach Hajime Moriyasu increased belief his team can be among the World Cup contenders.
“Come the World Cup, we must be able to do many things, we must have many styles of play,” said Moriyasu, whose side have won their past five matches and who will face the Netherlands, Sweden and Tunisia at the finals.
“Offensively, we must be able to attack slowly as well as attacking on the counter-attack, which will be faster offensively.