Japan

History and achievements

The Japan national football team has a nickname ‘Samurai Blue’ and it is the most titled Asian team. In Japanese mass media the team is also named after its head coach. The team’s status is proved with the 20th position in the FIFA World Rankings. The team became champions in the AFC Asian Cup four times: in 1992, 2000, 2004 and 2011.

Japan made its debut in the World Cup for the first time in 1998 in France where the squad was good at handling the ball but couldn’t leave the group stage. In the World Cups in 2002 and 2010, held in Japan/South Korea and South Africa the team performed well and qualified for 1/8 finals. In general the team’s achievements aren’t very significant but some of the Japanese footballers perform for such European clubs as Manchester United, Schalke 04, Koln, CSKA Moscow and others.

Alberto Zaccheroni manages the team, Masami Ihara has the most caps (122) and Kunishige Kamamoto is the top scorer (80). Makoto Hasebe is the team’s captain.

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Country team

№	Name and surname	Role	Ranking	Age	Weight	Height	Country
1	Keisuke Honda	midfielder	270	38 years	76 kg	182 cm	Japan
2	Shinji Kagawa	midfielder	109	36 years	65 kg	172 cm	Japan
3	Yuki Otsu	midfielder	88	35 years	74 kg	180 cm	Japan
4	Hiroki Sakai	defender	33	35 years	70 kg	183 cm	Japan
5	Atsuto Uchida	defender	13	37 years	62 kg	176 cm	Japan
6	Yuto Nagatomo	defender	11	38 years	65 kg	170 cm	Japan
7	Hidetoshi Nakata	midfielder	3	48 years	72 kg	175 cm	Japan
8	Eiji Kawashima	goalkeeper	3	42 years	80 kg	185 cm	Japan
9	Tadanari Lee	forward	2	39 years	73 kg	183 cm	Japan
10	Yasuhito Endo	midfielder	1	45 years	75 kg	178 cm	Japan