SAMURAI BLUE (Japan men's national team) coach Javier Aguirre revealed his intention at a news conference at International Stadium Yokohama on 8th September that he would make some changes in his starting squad for their second game of the 2014 Kirin Challenge Cup against Venezuela.

The new boss played four players who were called up for the national team for the first time in their first game against Uruguay that was played three days before, but he said that he wanted to continue to check on his players' skill-sets by using other men who did not see action in the Uruguay match. ''I want to see all of our players and we will substitute five players for tomorrow. Of course, we may make them during the match,'' Aguirre said. ''In the early stage of the new team, we want to observe it first to determine what we want to do with it. Establishing the  style for the team is more important than anything,'' he added.

Aguirre said that he would look for a win, checking on his players, while he would also ask his squad to not repeat the same mistakes they made in their loss in the first game. ''We want to win this match. We lost the other day and just want a better result this time,'' the Mexican said. Japan closed their practice to the media, except for the first 15 minutes of it, and elaborately worked on their final tune-ups under drizzling rains.

Meanwhile, Venezuela have just entered another chapter with a new coach Noel Sanvicente, a former Venezuelan national team player who has led his clubs to seven championships in the domestic league. He missed to post his first win in his debut game with a 1-3 loss to Korea on the 5th. Venezuela came up short earning a spot in this summer's FIFA World Cup as they finished sixth in the South American qualifier, yet they had more wins against powerhouses like Colombia and Paraguay in it while they also notched a win over Argentina at home although they lost to them away. They are placed 29th in the latest FIFA world rankings (Japan is 44th) and have shown development in recent years.

Japan and Venezuela have played twice and drew in both, including one that was played in August of two years ago.  The contest will kick off at 7:20 p.m. at International Stadium Yokohama.

Comments

Javier AGUIRRE, SAMURAI BLUE Head Coach
It's very significant for us to win a game and celebrate it with the whole team, but establishing our own team style is even more important. First off, we are going to use players to observe them within the year so we will select the best 23 men. Sometimes your FIFA rank gets up when you beat weaker teams, but I don't like it. I would like to earn competitiveness to have better performance even if we lose some games. I would like to set our goal to beat teams like Uruguay and Brazil in the future.

GK KAWASHIMA Eiji (Standard Liege)
It's important to come up with positive results. What we earn will be different depending on whether we win or lose. That said, we came up with the result of a loss, but every single game is a challenge for us. We've started under the new coach after the World Cup, but I think there are what we have to be particular about and that's what we are asked to do as the Japan national team. Aiming at outcomes we want, we want to aggressively show our own plays while putting up what we want to do under the new coach in the games as much as possible.

FW OSAKO YuyaFW (1.FC Koeln)
I believe that what our coach wants to do has been conveyed to everyone, and by continuing it, we are eventually going to have our style. Because the instructions from the coach aren't so detailed, I don't think that it will take time for us to do so if we keep doing things. We have three forwards and if we are aware of the distances between us, I think it's going to work better. It's important for us to have the attitudes to go toward the goal. I'm good at initiating moves and competing for the ball, so I think that I will increase my attitudes to go toward the goal more.

DF SAKAI Gotoku (VfB Stuttgart)
As for my position, what I have to do won't change whether it's the left side or the right side, and I just want to put up what  I can do the best. Venezuela play like South Americans and each player has techniques while they have powerful strikers, so we will have to do what we are supposed to do maintaining our concentration for the entire 90 minutes. We want to play communicating with each other. (On the mistake in the previous match) Our coach tells us that it can be critical when we make a mistake inside the penalty area in a high-level match so we have a sense of urgency. I think that we are asked to have responsibility.

FW OKAZAKI Shinji (1.FSV Mainz 05)
I was not playing confidently and feeling my way out in the game against Uruguay, I want to play much dynamically. It is crucial to pass the ball around as we couldn’t create many scoring chances. Japan national team got to win. Japan national team has to go back to the starting point. I believe we have to win tomorrow and get stronger for us to keep on playing football, hunger for the victory, next four years. I found Uruguay knows how to win the game and learned many things from them.

Noel SANVICENTE, Head Coach (Venezuela)
Japanese players are skillful and good at ball control and fit well for possession football like Honda, AC Milan, Tanaka, Sporting Lisbon who belong to top elite club in the world. I anticipate it will be not easy game and should become difficult one but I hope to show you a good game tomorrow. Head coach Aguirre has been successful in the world stage and he is the man who knows how to win the game. I think he will give a positive impact on Japan national team by adding Latin flavor. It will take some time before his ideas are fully understood and it may require some patience. I would hope both Venezuela and Japan make most of tomorrow’s game for generating good result in the future.

JFA-TV

KIRIN CHALLENGE CUP 2014

Tuesday 9 September　vs. Venezuela National Team
Kanagawa／Internatioinal Stadium Yokohama
Kick Off at 19:20 (estimate time)／Open 16:20 (estimate time)
Nationwide Live Broadcast on TV Asahi Network
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