Earlier today, Japan Football Association (JFA) announced squad of Japan national team for two international friendly matches in Germany and Belgium in September. Kyogo Furuhashi and Daizen Maeda were called up from Celtic. The details of the squad are as follows.

In this announcement, I will share the reasons and aims that Moriyasu, the manager, and Yamamoto, the technical director, talked about.

The two of them talk at the beginning of the announcement as follows.

Technical Director Yamamoto: “This is the first away games for our team formed to aim for 2026 FIFA World Cup. I want our team to get through two tough games in Europe for important tournaments such as the World Cup Qualifiers and Asian Cup. And I hope our team will develop through these games.”

Manager Moriyasu: “Germany and Turkey are strong teams. The away games against them are great opportunities for us to aim for leveling up. Based on these games, I want our team to deepen understanding of tactics and expand range of what we can do.”

In addition, in questions answered by two of them from reporters who attended the press conference, I’ll share the following excerpts of parts related to Celtic’s Japanese bhoys.

Q: What is the point you focused on regarding attacker who you called up again?

Moriyasu: “The point I focused on is that they are playing well now. After that, I grasped condition of players and considered their performances so far. In addition, I decided to call up them with expectation for important competitions we will face in the future, such as Asian Cup.

Q: What part do you want to challenge in the game against Germany?

Moriyasu: “I want to control the game while holding the ball as much as possible. German national team is so strong, so I don’t think we can completely dominate the game. I want to make use of what we have learned through Qatar World Cup to challenge ourselves to create opportunities to attack tenaciously and create base for our attack.”

Q: What is goal/theme as a team in 2 games?

Moriyasu: “I want our team to be able to level up both each players and team. Regarding the system, etc., I want to decide after players joins our team.”

Q: Recently, you added technical staff Taichi Wakabayashi to your team, what is the aim?

Technical Director Yamamoto: “Wakabayashi, the technical staff we have newly added to our team, is an excellent analyst who has worked with various managers in Sevilla for many years and has experienced winning European competitions. What I expect from him is that he may be able to improve the quality of our technical department. In order for us to become a stronger team, I think it’s important to improve the quality of game/performance analysis, so plan to improve the level of technical department around him from now on. This time, it’s the start of the challenge.”

Moriyasu: “As Yamamoto said, I expect Wakabayashi to bring the analysis know-how we don’t have to our team.”

That’s all. With the addition of experienced and excellent technical staff from this time, Kyogo and Daizen may be able to gain more technical experience than ever before through the two games in Europe. I hope that what Japanese bhoys experienced in the national team will have positive impacts on their performance at Celtic.

On the other hand, Reo Hatate was not called up due to injury, but Moriyasu said that he decided whether to call up injured players after communicating with club’s medical staffs, so if Reo performs well again at Celtic after recovering completely, there’s possibility that he will be called up again.

I will continue to report if there are any news about Japanese national team.

Yatao