The four additional players coming from the European clubs have arrived at the NT camp in the UAE, and all players (minus Takahara who is sitting this one out in Japan) are now present and accounted for. Well, it's about time!

But before the above four arrived, the training focused mainly on confirming all the defensive strategies, etc. This is the priority for Japan right now. There was a speculatory article in sports papers yesterday detailing Zico's change in coaching attitude and the question of how he will be using Hide Nakata in this next game. Here's a link to the translation of the article in English (read post #7).

Last night the sports news showed clips from the training yesterday -- with Nakamura and Nakata joining the starting eleven. From the looks of it, Zico will be cutting out one forward and putting Nakata in as an offensive midfielder next to (or slightly in front of) Nakamura. Suzuki will most probably be starting as the single forward at the top. Everyone was drenched in sweat (the humidity over there is much higher than I had expected it would be) but from the player comments it sounds like they are focused.

As for what I think of this altered 3-4-2-1 formation, I think it's fine. Japan's strength is in the midfielders and this game is one where the defensive responsibilities is the priority. With Nakata present alonside Nakamura, the two will be able to run interference for each other -- Nakamura tends to get heavily/roughly targeted by opponents. Putting these two quality players up front may also keep the team from unnecessarily losing the ball on the attack. They will still need the other midfielders (the sides and the dmfs) to come up to support on the offense, but their ability to hold onto the ball will enable the others time to come up without worrying about leaving the backside less populated. Nakazawa has returned to the starting group, which is a plus for both offense and defense. As for getting goals, well, it's hard to say exactly what will happen -- whether there is enough time for this trio up front to gel with each other and with the midfielders behind them. We can only maintain faith.

I mentioned in a previous entry that during the Bahrain home game against Iran the pitch was so bumpy that all players were having difficulty with possession. It sounds like those complaints made it to the ears of the groundskeepers -- apparently the pitch was so unlevel in that previous game that there was a 10 cm difference between the highest and lowest areas. They have announced that the ground has been leveled and made flat -- which may mean a very speedy ball. The pitch is hard, too, which will add to the shock on the players' bodies adding to fatigue. It will be important for our team to get used to the pitch and think of how they are going to use their energy during the full 90+ minutes.

The team will leave UAE today and head over to Bahrain.