Japan are already favourites to reach the World Cup 2018

Japan are already favourites to reach the World Cup 2018 even before the qualification campaign is yet to begin.

The national team may have been disappointing at the previous World Cup, but they have so far look extremely good under the management of Vahid Halilhodzic. The Bosnian watched his team get a 4-0 win over Iraq in a friendly match. This friendly is a good preparation for the team ahead of the World Cup qualifiers against Singapore. This is the first qualification match and a good result is an important aspect. The national team will also be hoping to put behind the disappointing quarter-final exit at the Asian cup.

The fact that the team managed to beat semifinalist at the Asian cup – Iraq – so convincingly, even if it was a friendly match, is something that provide will a lot of boost. Keisuke Honda opened the scoring and Tomoaki Makino chipped in with another goal all inside 10 minutes. This immediately put the pressure on Iraq, who completely folded in response. Shinji Okazaki came up with the third goal for Japan before substitute Genki Haraguchi also joined in the fun. It was a great game and one that could potentially see Japan make a strong start to the World Cup qualification.

Vahid Halilhodzic reckons the Japan squad has to be rebuilt

Vahid Halilhodzic reckons the Japan squad has to be rebuilt and for that, there is some time needed, but, he is very happy with the talent that he has found in his ranks.

According to Halilhodzic, he is excited to work with the Japanese guys as they are hard working individuals and they go about everything in a much disciplined way.

Halilhodzic has recently been named as the Samurai Blues boss. He has replaced Javier Aguirre who was thrown out because of match fixing allegations.

The 62-year Yugoslavian landed in Tokyo last week and is at his work already.

He has to pick his players for the Tunisia game which is not that far away and so, he has been watching a few games of the Japanese League.

Yesterday, he was among the spectators watching the game between Tokyo and Yokohama.

Halilhodzic looked impressed with a few players post that game, but, he has sent a clear message outside that there is a lot of refining to be done to this team and thus, nobody should expect immediate results.

Claudio Ranieri was 4 Months Manager of Greece Team

Claudio Ranieri lasted 4 months in charge of the Greece national football team before being sacked which probably is one of the fastest periods of time in which a manager has been sacked in modern times. However, there is somebody else who has been sacked very quickly as Javier Aguirre was removed from his managerial position in Japan after claims and allegations involving the Mexican manager were announced and confirmed.

Javier Aguirre took charge of the Japanese national side during the summer of 2014 but was sacked after it was discovered that Aguirre was involved in a series of match-fixing scandals.

“The reason for the cancellation is that we want to avoid any influence to the national team on their preparation for World Cup and we want to avoid those risks,” JFA chief KuniyaDaini said as he revealed that the contract of Javier Aguirre and his relation with the Japanese national team was cancelled.

The Japanese Football Association did not want to have any connections with Javier Aguirre who was being involved with match-fixing allegations back when he was in charge of Zaragoza a few years ago and this was the main reason on why the Mexican coach was sacked.

Javier Aguirre is new Incharge for Japanese National Team

Mexican coach Javier Aguirre took charge of the Japanese national team after the end of the World Cup, which was disappointing in several ways for the Asian outfit.

They came into the tournament as the strongest teams from this part of the world, but they failed to make any impact. This led to the departure of manager Alberto Zaccheroni. Aguirre has been able to get some find referrals since taking over and this includes wins over Australia and Jamaica. They have had embarrassing defeats – most notably the 4-0 thrashing against Brazil – but the overall impact has been good.