Japan Football Fans

Claudio Ranieri has been sacked as the manager of the Greece national football team.

The decision was taken by the higher authorities of Greece Federation yesterday after the team lost a home game against Faroe Islands.

There hasn’t been any official announcement made. It would be made in a few days’ time probably when Ranieri and the Federation agree over the compensation amount.

The Federation, in the meanwhile, has made it clear that in the upcoming game against Serbia, the manager’s duty will be discharged by Kostas Tsanas.

Tsanas is currently in charge of the junior team of Greece. He has been asked to manage the senior team till the time the Federation slots in a permanent replacement.

Greece is the bottom placed team in the Euro qualification Group F. They have not won any game so far and are almost out of the contention as far as qualifying for the main draw is concerned.

The only point that Greece has been able to secure came against Finland on 11th of October. They were struggling in that game too, but, they somehow avoided defeat. Apart from that game, it has just been a pathetic showing of skills from them.

Ranieri had penned a 2-year deal of close to 2 million Euros with Greek Federation, but, he could not hold on to his post even for 6 months. However, it doesn’t mean the 63-year old is a bad manager. He has managed top clubs in almost every European country with success.
Greece was actually the first international side that Ranieri had taken charge of. Until then, he had only tried his hand in club football.

Before getting the Greece job, Ranieri was at Monaco, a club which plays in the French top division.

Ever since the Mexican manager Javier Aguirre was selected as the next manager of the Japanese national football team on July 24, the Japanese team has a played a number of international friendly encounters. Japan lost to Uruguay earlier in September but managed to overcome Jamaica one month later.

The latest friendly match of Japan has seen the Japanese side locking horns with Brazil and losing 4-0. Before the game had started Javier Aguirre said that this match was going to be a good preparation match for his squad and their upcoming international fixtures.

Japan has matches in the Asian Cup and World Cup qualifying matches scheduled to be played on 2015 and Javier Aguirre has been preparing his squad by playing a number of friendly encounters with Jamaica, Brazil, Venezuela and Uruguay.

“This will be a good preparation for us ahead of our campaigns in the Asian Cup and the World Cup qualifiers. Our players will get experience of playing abroad, away from home’’ The 55 year old Mexican manager of Japan said.

The highest position that the Japanese squad has secured in their history of performing in World Cups was back in 2010 when they ended their campaign of that World Cup by placing in the 9th spot.

The Japanese national squad competed in the 2014 World Cup but failed to make it out of the group stages and this tournament was the last one of the Italian manager Alberto Zaccheroni as he resigned from coaching Japan and announced his retirement from football coaching.

When Alberto Zaccheroni left his managerial position, the Japanese Football Association announced that Javier Aguirre was the next coach of the national squad and now the Mexican manager has the task of positioning Japan to heights they have never reached before.

One of the first tasks that Javier Aguirre has to do is help Japan defend their Asian Cup title. Japan is the current champions of the Asian Cup and they were pitted in Group D along with Jordan, Iraq and Palestine. The tournament will kick-off and end in January of 2015

On November of 2013, New Zealand and Mexico played in a match that was going to decide which nation would be able to play in the 2014 World Cup and it was Mexico the team that came out on top with the triumph. When New Zealand lost the match, Ricki Herbert announced to the media his desire to retire as he resigned and it was Neil Emblen the man that was chosen as the interim manager of New Zealand.

Neil Emblen wanted to take up the position of coaching New Zealand on a permanent basis but not too long ago it was announced that 43 year old English manager is not in the shortlist of the final 3 people that will be chosen.

Upon being notified about this news, Neil Emblen expressed his shock and displeasure as he said: “I’m very disappointed but the decisions are out of my hands. I thought I did all I could, but that’s part of football. The three candidates that have been shortlisted are more ready in NZF eyes at the moment for international coaching, but they hope to still have a role within New Zealand Football for me’’

A number of different managers have applied and tried to take up the position of coaching the national football team of New Zealand including the former coach of Queens Park Rangers Iain Dowie, former manager of England Terry Butcher, and Frank Farina who used to be in charge of Australia.

Frank Farina voiced his interest in coaching New Zealand as he went on telling reporters: ”I have a lot of friends in New Zealand that I played with and against. New Zealand has a very good squad. When I look at players in the A-League or overseas, they’ve got a fantastic group of young players coming through, but also existing players. That’s what a lot of people will be looking at in terms of job appeal.”

The Japanese players have shown lack of hunger in their first two matches in the ongoing FIFA World Cup and the manager of the team, Alberto Zaccheroni, is not happy with that. He wants his boys to turn up with a different kind of attitude in the must-win match against Colombia tomorrow and try to win so that they give themselves any chance of qualifying to the round of 16.

Japan has got only one point in two matches, but, they are still not out of the hunt as far as registering a place in the pre quarter final is concerned. Japan would need two results to go in their favour tomorrow.

First, they would need a win against Colombia and then, they would need Greece not to let Ivory Coast win. If these two things happen, Japan would be through.

Talking to the reporters ahead of the match against Colombia, Zaccheroni said, “There hasn’t been enough intensity in our game so far. The guys have appeared to be under pressure and probably, that’s why we haven’t been able to achieve the kind of results that we wanted. But, we still have an opportunity and we need to ensure that we go on the ground tomorrow with a different approach.”

“These are the same players who have done the nation proud on many occasions in the last few years and there is no reason why they can’t do that again. They just have to sort the mental aspects of their game and try to play fluently.”
Colombia just has to play a draw to get through to the knockouts and thus, they might use defensive tactics tomorrow and go with a strong backline.

The points’ tally of Colombia reads 6 at the moment.

Japan Football Association president Kuniya Daini has stated that the country is ready to step in and host the FIFA World Cup 2022 in place of Qatar if the organising committee runs into trouble in terms of hosting the tournament at this location. Qatar was initially awarded to the World Cup, but since the future of the tournament at this location has run into several doubts. It has meant primarily because of the extreme temperatures experienced by Qatar, while the operations behind constructing the necessary infrastructure also appears to be taking a huge toll on people’s lives.

It has been reported that as much as 20 Indians lose their lives every month in the construction activities. So far, there have been 450 reported deaths of the migrant workers. Qatar has refused to comment on this aspect, but several organisations around the world have demanded FIFA to cancel the rights and stage it at another location. Japan will be a potential contender after losing out in the original selection process. Daini says that Japan has found the infrastructure needed to host a tournament of this magnitude on its own.

He also says that the upcoming Olympics 2020 has required the country to construct numerous stadiums, which can be used for the World Cup as well.

“If FIFA look for an alternative country, we already have the stadiums that would meet the criteria to host it. We have the Olympics in 2020. If there is a chance, we’d like to do it, although I don’t know how likely that would be. We are looking to perform better than we did the last time. In South Africa we got to the last 16 so that means this time we want to reach the quarter-finals. It’s a difficult group, so that’s the first aim,” said Daini.

Japan have been given a great prospect of getting into the knockout stages of the World Cup after being drawn into a group containing Ivory Coast, Columbia, and Greece. This is seen as a great opportunity for manager Alberto Zaccheroni to make himself a legend around these parts.

The manager has been talking in length about the possibility of including former greats like Shunsuke Nakamura into the squad. The former Celtic star is currently playing in Japan after his days at the top appear to have come down.

Despite this, Zaccheroni considers Nakamura has an important member of the squad and as someone will be able to provide immense experience and quality despite his age.

The 35-year-old, who has made 98 appearances for the national team in a career that lasted from 2000 to 2010, says that he is unlikely to return to international football. He is the current holder of the Player of the Year award in the J-League. Nakamura recently said that he is undoubtedly going through the best spell of his career in recent times, but it has been because of the concentration and work he has been putting into his time at Yokohama F. Marinos.

He feels that he may not be able to do the same with the Japanese national team after all these years.

“At that time (when I retired from the national team) I was struggling and the only way to restore myself was by focusing on Yokohama F. Marinos. Just the fact that people are saying that (they want me to return to the national team) makes me happy, but I am done. As a player I want a beautiful finish to my career,” said Nakamura. Japan did extremely well in the previous World Cup, as they reached the knockout stages – the first time for an Asian country.

Japan’s national team manager Alberto Zaccheroni has claimed that he wants the national team to do well at the World Cup 2014.

Even though Japan go into the tournament as one of the strongest teams from the Asian region, they are not expected to fight for the title. European nations like Spain and Germany along with South American teams like Brazil and Argentina have been regarded as the favourites for the competition. Zaccheroni, whose Japanese team will be playing Colombia, Greece, and Ivory Coast in the group stages, thinks that they can do well at this tournament.

Japan were reasonably good during the recent 2013 Confederations cup and Zaccheroni believes that this experience helps the team a lot. The Italian is one of the several foreign managers in the Asian region, but he believes that he has managed to adapt to the culture in his time in Japan. Zaccheroni says that he has not tried to curb the enthusiasm of the Japanese players, who are natural dreamers according to him. This is helping him mould the team according to the Japanese culture.

Zaccheroni was linked with a return to European club football in the last few months. Lazio were interested in his services, but it seems that he will be with the Japanese national team until the World Cup.

“Confederations Cup gave us a chance to see the distances involved, the climate and humidity, and to see where we are in footballing terms, the things we need to work on. As for the World Cup itself, it will be a great experience for Japan to play in Brazil. The Japanese really admire Brazilian football and we all want to create a good impression. Most of the pressure on us comes from the Japan fans, who expect a lot of the team. What it does is just motivate us even more,” said Zaccheroni.

Japan manager Alberto Zaccheroni has come under intense pressure in recent months due to the poor form of the team, but he has said that there is nothing to worry.

Zaccheroni was speaking ahead of the friendly matches with Belgium and Netherlands, which will be extreme tests for Japan. They are regarded as one of the strongest teams from Asia, and they are expected to do well at the World Cup 2014. However, their recent form suggests that they will struggle at the World Cup.

Zaccheroni recently announced the squad that will play against Netherlands and Belgium, and there were not many surprises for those who have been expecting the inclusion of a couple of players. Zaccheroni has explained the reason for making no major changes. He has said that the result is not the important aspect right now, but how the team plays, is what matters. He has urged his players not to lose confidence if they do not get the positive result against these two strong European teams.

“At this point in time, how we play is more important than what result we have. Even if we cannot produce results, we want to test our ability without losing confidence. It is not our goal to win the few matches in front of us. We could not make best use of the two October matches. I felt a bit dissatisfied over our offensive part. We were short on intensity and the accuracy of play in our attack, ” Zaccheroni said.

Belgium are currently ranked fifth in the world, while Netherlands reached the final of the 2010 World Cup. Japan come into these two matches on the back of defeats against Serbia and Belarus.

The Japanese football Federation is yet to schedule a friendly match for the team between now and the World Cup.

Japan recently returned to form after managing a 3-0 victory over Ghana in a friendly match. The team was defeated 4-2 by Uruguay only recently, which increased the pressure on manager Alberto Zaccheroni ahead of the World Cup.

He was an extremely pleased man after the Ghana match, as his team performed up to his expectations in all areas of the pitch. Japan came into the encounter on the back of a 3-0 win over Guatemala only a few days ago, but this was the real test for the Japanese players. A number of them have been finding it difficult to get regular first-team football with their clubs.

One of the most important among them has been Shinji Kagawa, who has so far not featured as a starter in any of the three Premier league matches for Manchester United. He was signed for more than $ 20 million only recently. When asked about the lack of action in the Premier league, he said that it is a question that should be asked David Moyes – the manager of Manchester United. Despite these shortcomings, Japan managed to overcome a very strong Ghana team. Kagawa was on the scoresheet for Japan along with Honda and Endo.

“I told my players that I was satisfied with their performance. They played aggressively while keeping the midfield tight and pressured their opponents well. I was able to see that in the Guatemala game, but today it was clearer. We played much better today, especially against our tough opponents. We dominated in midfield and created good finishing opportunities and made more attempts than our opponents. On top of that, our players responded well after giving away a goal,” said the Japan manager after the match. Japan’s next match will be once again in a friendly against Serbia.

Japan recently managed to win the East Asian Cup for the first time, but the manager Alberto Zaccheroni was more pleased with the number of new faces that shone for the national team. Japan came into this tournament with a number of players in their squad.

They will be one of the favourites to do well at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Japan is expected to be one of the strongest teams from Asia to participate in this tournament. As a result, Zaccheroni has been stressing the importance of carrying a strong squad tournament.

Japan started the East Asian Cup with an entertaining 3-3 draw against China. However, they quickly returned to their best in the 3-2 win over Australia. Following the 2-1 win over South Korea, they managed to lift the tournament.

Even though they conceded a lot goals during the tournament, Zaccheroni was pleased with the progress made by the new faces. He has said that the players exceeded his expectations throughout the tournament. Hotaru Yamaguchi was rewarded for an excellent tournament with the Golden Boot award, while the likes of Manabu Saito and Yuya Osako have increased their chances of making it into the World Cup squad with an impressive performance.

“The players exceeded my expectations, but I already knew they had quality. The fact that the players were able to grasp the team concept so quickly is proof of their intelligence. I could feel their desire to make the most of their chance. I feel like I have a lot of options, and although every player is different, the fact that my options have now increased is a big thing. Some players are ready to be called up now and some will play for the national team in the future,” said Zaccheroni after the win.