Brighton & Hove Albion’s in-form Kaoru Mitoma yesterday returned to the Japan squad as Hajime Moriyasu’s side eye an eighth straight appearance at the FIFA World Cup.
Japan face China at home on Thursday next week and Bahrain away five days later to start the decisive third round of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup.
The 27-year-old winger Mitoma has not featured for Japan since the AFC Asian Cup in Qatar in January, when injury restricted him to two substitute appearances.
Photo: Reuters
He was ruled out for the rest of last season after he returned to Brighton, but he has started the new Premier League campaign in good form with one goal and one assist in his side’s perfect start.
Japan coach Moriyasu wants his team to make a fast start to the third qualifying round.
“They will be tough games, but we have to go into them with a winning mindset and prepare well for each one,” he said. “We want to maximize our potential and give everything in these games.”
Japan have also been drawn with Australia, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia in a tough Group C.
The top two teams qualify automatically for the finals, with the third and fourth-placed sides going into a further round of qualifying.
Mitoma is joined in the squad by three other Premier League players in Liverpool’s Wataru Endo, Crystal Palace’s Daichi Kamada and Southampton’s Yukinari Sugawara.
There was also a recall for Stade de Reims winger Junya Ito, who has not featured since he left the Asian Cup squad after a Japanese magazine published allegations that he sexually assaulted two women in a hotel in Osaka last year.
Japanese prosecutors dropped charges against the player earlier this month and he has denied any wrongdoing.
Moriyasu had previously said he had not subsequently called up Ito to “protect” him.
The coach said the time was right to bring him back into the fold.
“The player and the team have to be able to work in an environment where they can focus on their football and up until now I doubted that would be the case,” he said.
Former captain Makoto Hasebe was invited to join the squad as a coach for the games against China and Bahrain.
Hasebe retired from playing aged 40 at the end of last season and is working as a coach with German side Eintracht Frankfurt’s under-21 team.
BOOT TO FACE: Wilfried Singo said that his actions were not intentional, ‘but I was able to see afterwards that’ the ’keeper had a significant face injury Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday came from behind to extend their unbeaten start to the Ligue 1 season with a 4-2 win away against AS Monaco, but lost goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma to a gruesome facial injury. The bloodied Italy international was left requiring 10 staples after sustaining lacerations to the right side of his face when he was caught by the studs of Monaco defender Wilfried Singo. “I don’t know if the referee was badly positioned, but VAR [video assistant referee] needed to intervene, you have to protect the players,” PSG captain Marquinhos said. “To not give a red in a situation like
India’s chess star Gukesh Dommaraju returned to a hero’s welcome in his home city yesterday after becoming the youngest world champion aged only 18. Hundreds of fans crowded the arrivals area of Chennai International Airport, cheering alongside banks of television cameras as Gukesh made his way out of the airport after victory in taking the World Chess Championship title. “It means a lot to bring back the trophy to India,” Gukesh told reporters, with garlands of flowers draped around his neck, brandishing the glittering trophy in his hand. “I can see the support and what it means to India, I
Zach LaVine on Thursday scored a season-high 36 points to lead the Chicago Bulls to a 117-108 upset victory against defending NBA champions the Boston Celtics, while LeBron James once again made history. LaVine went 11-of-19 from the floor and made six three-pointers while adding six rebounds and four assists for the Bulls, who improved to 13-15 for the season. “We’re a good team,” LaVine said. “We’re competitive and we’re a resilient group.” Ayo Dosunmu contributed 17 points for the Bulls, while Nikola Vucevic had 16 points and 14 rebounds for Chicago. The Bulls outscored Boston 35-22 in the fourth quarter to rally past
Brimin Kipkorir of Kenya and Amid Fozya Jemal of Ethiopia won the men’s and the women’s categories, respectively, in the annual Taipei Marathon yesterday, which drew about 28,000 participants. Kipkorir finished the 42.2km run in 2 hours, 11 minutes and 41 seconds, which was about 2.5 minutes off the event’s record of 2:09:18 set by his countryman Paul Lonyongata in 2020. Meanwhile, Jemal — who also won the New Taipei Wan Jin Shi Marathon in March — finished with a first-place time of 2:32:47, about seven minutes behind the race’s women’s record of 2:25:55. For winning the race, Kipkorir and
RSS