Prediction: Japan vs USA

Verdict: Draw

Best odds: 43/20

Bookmaker: 888sport

Japan and the United States of America will measure their respective qualities against each other ahead of their adventures in Qatar, in their third ever international encounter on Friday at the Merkur Spiel-Arena in Dusseldorf, Germany. The previous two matches they played ended with one win each as Japan took the one played at the Kirin Cup in 1993 and the USA won the last one, in 2006.

Japan

The Blue Samurai finished second in Group B of the third qualifying round, one point behind Saudi Arabia, to earn a place at the upcoming World Cup. The last time out, in 2018 in Russia, they managed to navigate successfully through the group stages together with Colombia, at the expense of Senegal and Poland. They were narrowly beaten by Belgium in the round of 16, having led 2-0 to eventually lose 2-3 as Nacer Chadli bagged a 94th-minute winner for the European country.

Not many see their chances of repeating the feat this time as good, given that they’ll be facing Spain, Germany and Costa Rica in Group E, but they’ve managed to pull off a few surprises before, so let’s wait and see.

Back in 2018, current manager Hajime Moriyasu was an assistant to Akira Nishino, and obviously his hard work paid off in accordance with the Japanese culture and he’s been given a shot to lead the team as the main man now.

Team News

Judging by his selection, Moriyasu appears to have gone with players who know each other as well as possible. The trio of Daizen Maeda, Kyogo Furuhashi and Reo Hatate all play for Celtic together. Hiroki Ito and Wataru Endo are both at Stuttgart, and Shogo Taniguchi and Miki Yamane represent the current J1 League champions Kawasaki Frontale.

Takumi Minamino and Junya Ito faced each other a couple of days ago as AS Monaco beat Reims by 3-0, with Minamino on target for the first time since joining Monaco from Liverpool this summer.

USA

As for the Americans, their qualifying campaign wasn’t exactly impressive as they finished behind neighbours Canada and Mexico in the CONCACAF region, but it was obviously enough to see them book their place at the main tournament in Qatar. That in itself is a huge improvement on the last time, when they failed to qualify for the World Cup in Russia four years ago. Apart from being back at the biggest international tournament on the planet, the USA managed to grab the CONCACAF Nations League as well as the Gold Cup in 2021, all under the leadership of former Columbus Crew boss Gregg Berghalter, who took the helm after the last unsuccessful qualifications.

Berghalter may have more high-quality players to choose from than most of his predecessors, but the progress the American team has made under his tutorship is clear for anyone to see.

Team News

The US of A have come a long way indeed in the sport they refer to as soccer since hosting the World Cup to promote it back in 1994. In those days their supporters were happy if an average European fan could name one of their players. Now they have stars playing at top clubs, such as Christian Pulisic of Chelsea, Weston McKennie of Juventus, Giovanni Reyna of Borussia Dortmund, and Sergino Dest, currently at AC Milan on loan from Barcelona, in their ranks.

Still, Berghalter was forced into several late changes to his squad as Yunus Musah, Chris Richards and Cameron Carter-Vickers all got injured recently, and he’s had to call up the trio of Johnny Cardoso, Mark McKenzie and Erik Palmer-Brown in their place.

Conclusion

These matches obviously serve for the coaches to test their tactical ideas and see in action which players are best suited to do them on the pitch, and the results are of secondary importance. The bookies appear to favour Japan slightly, but a draw would probably be a good call as well.

Verdict: Draw

Best odds: 43/20

Bookmaker: 888sport