Sports midfielder Hidemasa Morita is part of the list of 26 called up by Japan for the 2022 World Cup, whose selection by coach Hajime Moriyasu will be announced this Tuesday.
Morita, 27, who in his first season at Sporting played 16 games, scored two goals and gave two assists, is one of the 20 players lining up abroad to be called up, while the remaining six play in the Japanese ‘J-League’. ‘. .
In addition to Morita, the presence in the ‘blue samurai’ of Daichi Camada (Eintracht Frankfurt), Takumi Minamino (Monaco), Takehiro Tomiyasu (Arsenal), Takefusa Cubo (Real Sociedad), recovering from injury, and Daizen Maeda (Celtic ), in a group with some absent.
Coach Hajime Moriyasu highlighted the difficulty of leaving out some, such as Kyogo Furuhashi and Reo Hatate (both from Celtic), Genki Haraguchi (Union Berlin) or Yuya Osako (Vissel Kobe), regular players in the selection.
Japan is scheduled to play a friendly with Canada on November 17 in Dubai, three days before the start of the World Cup in Qatar, which will take place between November 20 and December 18.
In the competition, the Japanese are part of group E, with Germany (November 23), Costa Rica (November 27) and Spain (December 1).
List of 26 selected players from Japan:
– Goalkeepers: Eiji Kawashima (Strasbourg/Fra), Shuichi Gonda (Shimizu S-pulse) and Daniel Schmidt (Saint-Truiden/Bel).
– Defenders: Yuto Nagatomo (FC Tokyo), Maya Yoshida (Schalke 04/Ale), Hiroki Sakai (Urawa Reds), Shogo Taniguchi (Kawasaki Frontale), Miki Yamane (Kawasaki Frontale), Ko Itakura (Borussia Moenchengladbach/Ale), Yuta Nakayama (Huddersfield/Ing), Hiroki Ito (Stuttgart/Ale) and Takehiro Tomiyasu (Arsenal/Ing).
– Midfielders: Gaku Shibasaki (Leganés/Esp), Wataru Endo (Stuttgart/Ale), Hidemasa Morita (Sporting/POR), Yuki Soma (Nagoya Grampus) and Ao Tanaka (Fortuna Düsseldorf/Ale).
– Forwards: Junya Ito (Reims/Fra), Takuma Asano (Bochum/Ale), Takumi Minamino (Monaco/Fra), Daichi Kamada (Eintracht Frankfurt/Ale), Kaoru Mitoma (Brighton/Ing), Daizen Maeda (Celtic/Esc ), Ritsu Doan (Freiburg/Ale), Ayase Ueda (Cercle Brugge/Bel) and Takefusa Kubo (Real Sociedad/Esp).
Source: TSF
