US Japan preview

Frank Dell'Apa makes a good point about the similarities between the US and Japanese national teams: they both have young improving domestic leagues who contribute to a certain percentage of their World Cup squad. Consequently, Japan are at a similar stage of preparation to our own; they're trying to see who from the J-league will excel on the national team and join the established European-based stars for the World Cup.

As a result, the Japanese squad that faces the US on Friday night (11PM ET on ESPN 2) is entirely from the J-league. It seems like a pretty good group; some established figures, such as Ono and Miyamoto and plenty of young hopefuls. It will probably be the stiffest challenge the US has faced so far in this winter.

Here are the twenty squad members, Arena's taking with him to the match in San Francisco. I'm guessing Arena doesn't tinker too much with the starting group that dismantled Norway ten days ago. Many of that group, such as Twellman, Dempsey, Conrad, Dunivant and Zavagnin, are currently towards the right side of the squad cutoff, and Arena will want to see how they perform against a motivated team who's going to be at the World Cup.

A couple of changes I think you will see. The first is at right back; Hejduk is injured, so chances are that Chris Klein will be used in that position. I really think that, in terms of making the squad, Klein is on the outside looking in at the moment, so this could be his opportunity to make a case for himself. He'll particularly will want to get into the attack, and provide good dangerous crosses. (You could also put Conrad there, but I think Arena will want to preserve the Pope-Conrad central defense pairing. Or you go three in the back, but given the general shortage of wing players, I don't think this will happen.)

The second change, I'm guessing, will be at forward. Eddie Johnson is fit once again, and I really think that Arena will want to have him alongside Twellman. This is a potentially explosive front line if they can develop an understanding, and this match will be an excellent opportunity to test that possibility. I'd like to see Chris Rolfe get some time as a sub, too.

Incidentally, they've sold about 28,000 tickets for this one already. Nice. I'm guessing that's partially down to Japanese expatriate fans and partially down to disgruntled Earthquakes fans who are sensing that this is the only live soccer they'll see in 2006.