The USMNT will play against Japan in a friendly game in Europe in September.
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We already knew Gregg Berhalter’s side were heading to play two friendlies in Europe in September, which will be their final games before the 2022 World Cup in Qatar which kicks off in November.
Now we know one of those games will be against Japan, as the Samurai Blue have confirmed the friendly on their social media account and it looks like they will be the hosts for the game.
The USMNT will face Japan on Sept. 23 in Europe but the exact location will be confirmed in due course.
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What can we expect from Japan?
This is a very smart friendly to arrange as the vast majority of the USMNT’s squad play in Europe and there will be very little travel involved.
Also, given that Iran are in the USMNT’s World Cup group there is a lot to be said about playing another opponent from the Asian confederation. Of course, Iran and Japan played differently but both have very technical players in midfield and attack and don’t mind sitting back and making it difficult for teams to break them down.
Focusing on Japan, the eased into the World Cup through qualifying as they finished second in their group, one point behind Saudi Arabia, and conceded just four goals in 10 games in the final round of qualifying in the AFC region. Japan will face Germany, Spain and Costa Rica in their World Cup group.
Japan’s star players are Liverpool’s Takumi Minamino, Arsenal’s Takehiro Tomiyasu and Eintracht Frankfurt’s Daichi Kamada and although they have plenty of experienced players in their squad, similar to the U.S. they also have plenty of talented youngsters coming through.
What will USMNT be focusing on?
When we focus on the USMNT specifically the chance to have one final look at center backs and center forwards will be invaluable as those two positions are still up for grabs for Berhalter.
It will be intriguing to see who the USMNT’s other opponent is in Europe in September but you can almost guarantee it will be a team who play a similar style to Wales and England as prepping for those World Cup group stage games is now the sole focus for Berhalter.
USMNT to play Japan in friendly originally appeared on NBCSports.com
