Japanese Soccer

On July 24 of the current year Javier Aguirre was selected as the new coach of the Japanese national football team as he replaced Alberto Zaccheroni who decided to resign and retire after the 2014 World Cup was over.

The Mexican coach said that a new era for the Japanese squad will begin under his guidance as he wants to give all of his players a fresh start and a new chance for them to make their presence be felt in the team and earn their spot in his starting lineup.

“This is a brand new start and if I talk about one player then I have to talk about all 23. Whether they are young, veterans, first-timers, have played before, play here or abroad – all the players will be starting from zero.”

“I want a team that can keep possession more than their opponents, can attack but also maintain balance. We will start with training but it won’t be easy. I want them to use space, keep hold of the ball and be an intelligent team,” he added.

Japan has played 2 friendly matches since the conclusion of the 2014 World Cup with Javier Aguirre taking charge of the squad but still has not managed to claim a victory as they suffered a 2-0 defeat over Uruguay and 4 days later had to settle with a 2-2 draw with Venezuela.

In the upcoming month of October, Japan will be facing off with Jamaica and later with Brazil on international friendly matches. All of these friendly games serve as preparation for the tournaments that Japan is going to be participating in within the next months.

Javier Aguirre signed a 2 year long deal with the Japanese national side and these matches are the ideal scenario for the Mexican coach to try out new formations and combination of players before Japan begins playing with their upcoming competitions.

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.

Alberto Zaccheroni has joined the list of managers who have stepped down from their role after a disappointing World Cup. The World Cup has already seen the exit of managers like Cesare Prandelli and Fernando Santos. Ottmar Hitzfeld has announced his resignation after the end of the tournament. Zaccheroni, who has been widely tipped to return to Europe in club football in the last few months, has also decided to step down from his post after Japan failed to make it into the knockout stages of the World Cup 2014.

Japan came into the tournament as one of the top teams from Asia. Despite being in a relatively winnable group that contained the likes of Colombia and Ivory Coast, Japan finished bottom of the group after having taken no wins in the three matches. They only managed a 0-0 draw with Greece, while the matches against Ivory Coast and Colombia finished as 2-1 and 4-1 defeat respectively. Everything that could go wrong for Japan and the tournament went against them, as they conceded lots of goals without scoring many in reply.

Zaccheroni has accepted the blame for this poor showing and has announced his resignation. He is widely expected to return to Italian football with a club job. “I am the one that decided on the tactics and how we play and I want to take full responsibility. Everyone got together at lunch today and I offered my thanks to all the people that have supported the team. I would select exactly the same players and staff if I had another chance,” said Zaccheroni. He led Japan to the Asian cup title recently.

The national team will be coming back together to defend this trophy, which will be hosted by Australia in January. Japan are yet to announce a successor for Zaccheroni.