Japanese football Association has announced Javier Aguirre as the successor to Alberto Zaccheroni, who stepped down from his managerial role after the World Cup 2014. Japan came into the tournament as one of the strongest representatives from Asia, but they even failed to get past the group stages in a disappointing performance. Zaccheroni, who has overseen several improvements with regard to Japanese football in the last few years, took the blame for this early exit and resigned from his position.

Rather than look forward to having a Japanese coach, it seems that Japan are keen on intent on a foreign coach once again. They have known for Mexican Javier Aguirre, who recently left his role at Spanish club Espanyol. Aguirre is someone who knows Spanish were extremely well after having managed the likes of Osasuna, Atletico Madrid, Real Zaragoza, and Espanyol in the last decade. He has also been in charge of the Mexican national team on two occasions. However, it will be a major task for him to settle into Japanese football where Spanish language is almost non-existent.

“Japan Football Association has decided that the new coach of the Samurai Blue will be Javier Aguirre,” said a statement on the Japanese FA. After taking over, Aguirre said that it was time that Japan kept a cool head in matches against top opponents. “In all their three games they made a good start but weren’t quite strong enough to convert that into the right result. I want to see strength in the latter stages of games. That means when they are leading with five minutes to go, they don’t get turned over. Keeping hold of a lead is also part of controlling a game,” said the former Espanyol manager.

Aguirre’s first match in charge of Japan will be against Uruguay in a friendly on September 5.