Takumi Minamino and Takefuso Kubo to lead the line as Japan announces 26-member squad for the FIFA World Cup

Takumi Minamino and Takefuso Kubo to lead the line as Japan announces 26-member squad for the FIFA World Cup

Maya Yoshida(left), Takefuso Kubo(middle), Takumi Minamino(right)

Japan national football team has finally revealed their 26-member squad that will take the flight to Qatar for the FIFA World Cup and the squad looks absolutely balanced on paper. Picking up 26 players is a tough task for any manager and it was just the same for Hajime Moriyasu as he made some brave and tough calls before the tournament.

Leaving out Celtic duo Kyogo Furuhashi and Reo Hatate was really shocking for the Japan fans but still, the squad looks really strong and would give a tough fight to the competitors in their group. Japan has been handed a very tough task and it is the group of death with the likes of Spain, Germany, and Costa Rica as their opponents.

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Last year Japan was on an impressive run and was close to shocking the entire football world when they took a 2-0 lead in the round of 16 match against Belgium only to concede late to a Nacer Chadli goal that took Belgium to the next round. A lot of hope will lie upon the impressive midfield duo of Minamino and Kubo who will look to steer their team deep into the competition.

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How the final squad looks:

Hiroki Sakai(left), Ritsu Doan(middle), Yuto Nagatomo(right)

Goalkeepers: Eiji Kawashima (Strasbourg), Daniel Schmidt (Sint Truiden), Shuichi Gonda (Shimizu S-Pulse)

Defenders: Hiroki Sakai (Urawa Red Diamonds), Miki Yamane (Kawasaki Frontale), Ko Itakura (Borussia Monchengladbach), Takehiro Tomiyasu (Arsenal), Maya Yoshida (Schalke 04), Shogo Taniguchi (Kawasaki Frontale), Hiroki Ito (VfB Stuttgart), Yuto Nagatomo (FC Tokyo), Yuta Nakayama (Huddersfield Town)

Midfielders: Junya Ito (Stade de Reims), Ritsu Doan (SC Freiburg), Wataru Endo (VfB Stuttgart), Hidemasa Morita (Sporting), Ao Tanaka (Fortuna Dusseldorf), Daichi Kamada (Eintracht Frankfurt), Takefusa Kubo (Real Sociedad), Takumi Minamino (AS Monaco), Kaoru Mitoma (Brighton & Hove Albion), Gaku Shibasaki (Leganes), Yuki Soma (Nagoya Grampus)

Forwards: Takuma Asano (Vfl Bochum), Daizen Maeda (Celtic), Ayase Ueda (Cercle Brugge)

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