Samurai Blue will face the Lions of Mesopotamia in this high profile group D game, with both teams having 3 points in their kitty. Japan will clearly start as favourites, however Iraq are formidable opponents who can hurt big names. Both teams won their first game. Japan were clinical and thrashed Palestine 4-0, while Iraq played a drab game, and got a goal towards the end against Jordan, which turns out to be the only goal of the game. A win here will put the winner in the driver’s seat and both teams would be hoping for that. This will also mean that they will be able to rest key players in the final group game.
Iraq and Japan would play very different tactics. Iraq is known to be cautious, compact and their matches typically see very few goals. Japan, on the other hand, will be extremely dynamic and try to attack a lot, often giving the opponent a chance to score. Iraq will also try to impose a physical game to break Japan’s free flowing dynamic football. Japan’s superior experience will come handy. In their last 5 games, Iraq has won two games, against Uzbekistan and Jordan. They have scored only 3 goals in these 5 games, while conceding twice. The five games saw a total of 5 goals! Japan has won 4 of their last 5 games, including a 2-1 win against Australia. They were defeated by the mighty Brazil 0-4. In these 5 games, Japan scored 14 goals, conceding 5 goals. The numbers clearly shows the difference between the approaches of these two teams.
Football lovers will love to see some of the top class Japanese players like Shinji Kagawa, Shinji Okazaki, Keisuke Honda, Yasuhito Endo to name a few. For Iraq, their captain Younis Mahmoud will spearhead the attack, who has 51 international goals. Yaser Kasim, the ‘Iraqi Pirlo’ will have to take a lot of responsibility on his 23 year old shoulder. A 4-2-3-1 formation expected from Iraq.
In terms of preparation, Iraq is pretty much lagging behind Japan. With conflict and ISIS very much a bread and breakfast for Iraq, the team has found very little time and resources for the preparations. Strangely, Iraq’s coach Radhi Shanaishel is not even a full time national team coach. He has been lent to Iraq by his club Nadi Qatar for the duration of this tournament. Japan has experienced Mexican coach Javier Aguirre, who has the experience of coaching Mexico national team and Real Madrid. However, his alleged involvement in match fixing scandal during his tenure with Real Zaragoza might have a disturbing effect in the team
Source: http://www.indianfootballnetwork.com/blog/2015/01/16/japan-vs-iraq-live-stream-free-afc-asian-cup-2015-preview/
