Japan, not this year.

ThisDrinkingLife and The World Cup: Japan

Japan, Asian champions and first nation to qualify for the World Cup, are great at passing and running, but not a huge amount of overall quality in their squad

Honda is back for another run out in the world stage. he really is the linchpin of this team, the link where everything happens, and can chip in for a good goal as well. If he clicks then Japan clicks. But he had an out of sorts season with Milan and really needs to get back on track soon.

For the group games I see that Ivory Coast might out muscle them in a bruising encounter, which I think they will lose. From then on in its all an uphill struggle. Greece will play it cagey against them and again there will be battles on the pitch. Possibly against Colombia they might have a team that are ready to play a similar type of football, but by then I feel japan will be out of the world cup and only playing for pride. Expect a good few yellow cards in this group.

So for Japan I predict an early exit.