Japanese coach opts for experienced World Cup squad

Japan head coach Akira Nishino named an experienced final 23-man squad for the 2018 World Cup in Russia on Thursday. Coming off the back of a disappointing 2-0 loss to Ghana on Wednesday, Nishino’s sole game in charge so far since taking over in April, the former international midfielder decided to stick with a travelling party filled with established players. The squad includes three players with more than 100 caps -- Yuto Nagatomo, Shinji Okazaki and captain Matoko Hasebe -- and only two outfield players with fewer than 10 international appearances. Eleven of the selected players featured at the last World Cup in Brazil. The players cut from the original 27-man squad were forward Takuma Asano and midfielders Yosuke Ideguchi and Kento Misao, while another midfielder, Toshihiro Aoyama, had already pulled out of the squad through injury. Ideguchi was the only one of the omitted players to take part in the loss to Ghana. “The experienced players have been doing very well recently. So the idea is to have a mix of experienced players and the young players,”Nishino said at a news conference in Tokyo, without specifying why the trio had been omitted. Ideguchi and Asano’s non-selection means that the players who secured Japan’s World Cup berth with goals against Australia will not feature in Russia, as well as former coach Vahid Halilhodzic, who led them through Asian qualifying. Playmakers Shinji Kagawa and Keisuke Honda have also been included, with the former proving his fitness over 45 minutes against Ghana following a troublesome ankle injury. Prior to that, Kagawa had only played 15 minutes of football for Borussia Dortmund since February