It's official. Our March 1st international match day will be spent in a friendly against Bosnia to take place in Germany (match time is 3 pm local time). Bosnia-Herzegovina is ranked 65th. They failed to qualify for the World Cup, but performed well in their qualifying group with 2 draws against Spain, 1 draw/1 loss against Serbia. And having the game take place in Germany will be good logisticall, both in the ease with which the European players can join the team and in getting used to playing in Germany. The stadium is still not determined.
Pre-match news, updates on National team >>Here, >>Here, and >>Here, as well as GAME REVIEW to follow >>Here.
The day was originally set aside for our Asia Cup qualifying game against Saudi Arabia. But the whole thing turned into a confusing mess because the AFC did not honor their own initial outline for rescheduling and flip flopped on their own rules.
It's a valuable day, given that we are allowed to call the players in Europe, and finally the entire national team can get together. The problems with the way the AFC is unable to stick to their original policy and the suspicious nature of Saudi Arabia's behind the scenes "agreement" with the AFC is enough to make me want to go off on a tirade.
But I won't. The only thing I do want to note is that we have had way way way too many problems like this in the last year, with the AFC and other opponent countries not respecting their promises. The JFA may need to carry a bigger stick or change their own tactics to one that is a bit more savvy.
The Asia Cup qualifier game is rescheduled for September 1, which is not an international match day.
The irony about all this of course, is that as the current Asian Champions, we shouldn't have to be playing in these qualifiers to begin with -- only this year has the AFC changed the rules.
Pre-match news, updates on National team >>Here, >>Here, and >>Here, as well as GAME REVIEW to follow >>Here.
The day was originally set aside for our Asia Cup qualifying game against Saudi Arabia. But the whole thing turned into a confusing mess because the AFC did not honor their own initial outline for rescheduling and flip flopped on their own rules.
It's a valuable day, given that we are allowed to call the players in Europe, and finally the entire national team can get together. The problems with the way the AFC is unable to stick to their original policy and the suspicious nature of Saudi Arabia's behind the scenes "agreement" with the AFC is enough to make me want to go off on a tirade.
But I won't. The only thing I do want to note is that we have had way way way too many problems like this in the last year, with the AFC and other opponent countries not respecting their promises. The JFA may need to carry a bigger stick or change their own tactics to one that is a bit more savvy.
The Asia Cup qualifier game is rescheduled for September 1, which is not an international match day.
The irony about all this of course, is that as the current Asian Champions, we shouldn't have to be playing in these qualifiers to begin with -- only this year has the AFC changed the rules.
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