🇯🇵 Japan

Moriyasu typically lines up in a 4-2-3-1, with Endo and Ao Tanaka forming a disciplined double pivot that allows Kubo and Ritsu Doan to press high and wide. Japan defend with a compact mid-block and spring forward in rapid transitions, using the width of Yukinari Sugawara and Hiroki Ito as overlapping full-backs to stretch opponents. Kamada operates as the ten, threading passes into the channels.

Watch Takefusa Kubo first — the Real Sociedad winger is Japan's most technically gifted attacker, capable of beating defenders in tight spaces with quick directional changes that make him genuinely dangerous in the final third. Wataru Endo anchors Liverpool's midfield and brings that same defensive intelligence and press-resistance to Japan's engine room. Daichi Kamada is the creative wildcard, a late-arriving midfielder whose timing in the box regularly produces goals from nothing.

Japan's collective pressing is among the most organised in Asia, built around Endo's reading of the game and Tanaka's tireless covering runs. Their ability to hurt elite opponents on the counter — as Germany and Spain discovered in 2022 — gives them a genuine tactical weapon against higher-ranked sides.

Japan's squad depth in central striking is thin: Ayase Ueda and Koki Ogawa are solid club-level forwards but neither has consistently dominated at international level. Set-piece defending has also been a recurring vulnerability, and Ko Itakura and Tsuyoshi Watanabe will need to be sharper aerially against physical European and South American forwards.