Early on Tuesday, Japan released its roster for the two friendlies versus the United States and Sweden that will be held in Sweden in mid-June as part of the Volvo Winners Cup. Twenty-one players were called up, including Homare Sawa and Mana Iwabuchi who were both recovering from medical issues. One uncapped player was called up, Ami Otaki, who finished university at the end of last year and now plays for UEFA Women’s Champion League champions Olympique Lyonnais in France.
Japan and the United States WNT play each other on June 18th at 13:00 local time in Sweden.
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ROSTER NOTES
Homare Sawa returns to the squad after recovering from her benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, which forced her to miss part of the Algarve Cup in March and the Women’s Kirin Challenge Cup in April. Under-20 forward Mana Iwabuchi is also back to match fitness after a foot injury last December.
The only uncapped player is 22 year-old Ami Otaki* who current plays for Olympique Lyonnais in France (Lyon bio page, Lyon article on her signing, UEFA.com profile). Otaki is tall, especially by Japan’s standards, coming in at 172 centimeters, which rounds up to 5 foot, 8 inches.
*The JFA lists her name as “Ohtaki,” but the preferred romanization for her surname, “大滝,” appears to be without the “h,” as in just “Otaki.” That is the spelling used on her Olympique Lyonnais jersey (see photo, here).
Otaki went the University route in Japan, where she played for Waseda University. She also played a year of soccer at York University in Toronto, Canada (probably as an exchange student). In Otaki’s last year at Waseda, she scored 45 goals in 30 matches (FIFA.com news item).
Otaki was a member of Japan’s U-19/U-20 pool in 2007 and 2008, but did not make the roster for qualifying or the 2008 Under-20 Women’s World Cup.
IT’S THE WOMEN’S WORLD CUP ROSTER, ALMOST: Nineteen of the twenty-one players were part of Japan’s 2011 World Champions team. The only players missing are forward Karina Maruyama, who appears to not yet be 100-percent after the knee injury she picked up last September, and back-up goalkeeper Nozomi Yamago. The two added players are uncapped forward Ami Otaki and defender Saori Ariyoshi who just has 4 caps.
IT’S THE OLYMPIC ROSTER, ALMOST: To reduce the 21-player roster to a proper Olympic roster, three players will need to be cut. The most likely candidates are the uncapped Ami Otaki, Mana Iwabuchi, and one of the younger midfielders, either Asuna Tanaka or Megumi Kamionobe. The three players cut will probably end up still going to Great Britain, but as alternates.
Also, the jersey numbering scheme follows the rules for FIFA World Cups (goalkeepers must be #1, #12, and #21), rather than the Olympic rules (goalkeepers must #1, #18, and #22), so no definite insights can be read into the players’ numbers.
PLAYERS TRAINING WITH JAPAN’S WNT, BUT NOT TRAVELING TO SWEDEN: According to an English JFA write-up, six players will train in Japan before the WNT leaves for Sweden. Those six include goalkeeper Misaki Amano (Vegalta Sendai Ladies), midfielders Manami Nakano (Okayama Yunogo Belle) and Nanase Kiryu (NTV Beleza), plus forwards Karina Maruyama (Speranza F.C. Osaka Takatsuki), Asano Nagasato (NTV Beleza), and Chinatsu Kira (Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies). [Edit: found a proper a source]
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JAPAN’S ROSTER FOR THE VOLVO WINNERS CUP
Goalkeepers:
FUKUMOTO Miho (Okayama Yunogo Belle)
KAIHORI Ayumi (INAC Kobe Leonessa)
Defenders:
ARIYOSHI Saori (NTV Beleza)
IWASHIMIZU Azusa (NTV Beleza)
KINGA Yukari (INAC Kobe Leonessa)
KUMAGAI Saki (FFC Frankfurt, Germany)
SAMESHIMA Aya (Montpellier, France)
YANO Kyoko (Urawa Reds Ladies)
Midfielders:
KAMIONOBE Megumi (Albirex Niigata Ladies)
KAWASUMI Nahomi (INAC Kobe Leonessa)
MIYAMA Aya (Okyama Yunogo Belle)
SAKAGUCHI Mizuho (NTV Beleza)
SAWA Homare (INAC Kobe Leonessa)
TANAKA Asuna (INAC Kobe Leonessa)
UTSUGI Rumi (Montpellier, France)
Forwards:
ANDO Kozue (Duisburg)
IWABUCHI Mana (NTV Beleza)
NAGASATO Yuki (Turbine Potsdam, Germany)
OHNO Shinobu (INAC Kobe Leonessa)
OHTAKI Ami (Olympique Lyonnais, France)
TAKASE Megumi (INAC Kobe Leonessa)
TABLE: Japan’s Roster, Sorted By Position, Then By International Caps
# PLAYER P. D.O.B. Age^ HT WT CAPS G 12 FUKUMOTO Miho GK 10/02/1983 28.8 5'5" 145.5 59 -62* 1 KAIHORI Ayumi GK 09/04/1986 25.9 5'7" 141.1 30 -23* 2 KINGA Yukari DF 05/02/1984 28.2 5'3" 116.8 78 5 16 YANO Kyoko DF 06/03/1984 28.1 5'5" 121.3 71 1 3 IWASHIMIZU Azusa DF 10/14/1986 25.8 5'4" 119.0 77 8 5 SAMESHIMA Aya DF 06/16/1987 25.1 5'4" 116.8 43 2 15 KUMAGAI Saki DF 10/17/1990 21.8 5"7" 130.1 39 0 4 ARIYOSHI Saori DF 11/01/1987 24.7 5'3" 114.6 4 0 10 SAWA Homare MF 09/06/1978 33.9 5'5" 121.3 177 80 8 MIYAMA Aya MF 01/28/1985 27.5 5'2" 110.2 110 27 13 UTSUGI Rumi MF 12/05/1988 23.6 5'6" 138.9 53 5 6 SAKAGUCHI Mizuho MF 10/15/1987 24.8 5'5" 127.9 51 16 9 KAWASUMI Nahomi MF 09/23/1985 26.8 5'2" 108.0 29 8 18 KAMIONOBE Megumi MF 03/15/1986 26.4 5'2" 114.6 17 2 14 TANAKA Asuna MF 04/23/1988 24.3 5'5" 114.6 12 3 7 ANDO Kozue FW 07/09/1982 30.0 5'5" 125.7 101 17 11 OHNO Shinobu FW 01/23/1984 28.5 5'1" 110.2 103 37 17 NAGASATO Yuki FW 07/15/1987 25.0 5'5" 132.3 81 35 20 TAKASE Megumi FW 11/10/1990 21.7 5'5" 132.3 24 5 19 IWABUCHI Mana FW 03/18/1993 19.4 5'1" 114.6 11 2 21 OHTAKI Ami FW 07/28/1989 23.0 5'8" 130.1 0 0
*For goalkeepers, the JFA reports goals allowed as negative numbers.
^The age is calculated based on the opening day of the Olympics tournament, July 25th.
Roster Sources: JFA (Japanese version, with vital statistics); JFA (English version, just team info).
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