🏏 Mon, 28 Sep 2026 19:25 JST
Japan
vs
ベネズエラ代表
3-4-2-1 vs 3-4-1-2
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- The second fixture of Japan's September window is staged at Edion Peace Wing in Hiroshima, four days on from the friendly with Uruguay. The starting eleven has been overhauled almost completely: Ayumu Seko is the only player to begin both matches, while Daichi Kamada and Yuki Soma, substitutes on 24 September, are promoted into the side.
- Leo Brian Kokubo takes the gloves. He left Kashiwa's academy for Benfica as a teenager and has since moved from Portugal to Belgium, yet with the senior national team he has collected call-ups while waiting for minutes. Behind him sit Zion Suzuki, the 190cm goalkeeper who started all four of Japan's matches at the 2026 World Cup before joining Aston Villa in August 2026, and Kashima's Yuki Hayakawa, who started against Uruguay.
- The back three is Go Watanabe (29, 186cm), the left-footed Ayumu Seko (26), whose distribution sets the tempo from deep, and Junnosuke Suzuki (23), who made 49 J1 appearances for Shonan before a permanent move to FC Copenhagen in the summer of 2025. Venezuela set up 5-3-2 with Kevin Kelsy and Bryan Castillo up front, making that three-versus-two duel the first thing to watch.
- Daichi Kamada, 30, is the most experienced head in the Japan midfield. He won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt, spent a spell at Lazio and now plays Premier League football with Crystal Palace, pairing a precise final ball with a goal threat of his own. How he conducts a midfield that also features 19-year-old Ryunosuke Sato and 25-year-old Koki Kumasaka is the central question of the evening.
- Ryunosuke Sato spent roughly a decade in FC Tokyo's system before moving to Spain at 19. In the matches covered on this site he had only ever come off the bench, in June and November 2025, so a start marks a clear step up for a player who earned his senior debut as a teenager. At 171cm he leans on technique and forward drive rather than physique.
- Alongside him, Koki Kumasaka (25) came through Kashiwa's academy and Tokyo International University; at 185cm he wins his duels in the air and on the floor. That profile earned him a first call-up in 2025, but he then ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and only completed a full 90 minutes again in August 2026, 446 days later.
- Keisuke Goto, 21, leads the line. At 185cm he offers aerial presence and hold-up play alongside a finisher's instinct, and a loan spell in Belgium yielded eight goals in 21 appearances after earlier stints with Nagoya Grampus and FC Tokyo. In the shadow role beside him is the 166cm Yuki Soma (29), whose pace gives Japan a contrasting route at a five-man defence.
- Venezuela's midfield is anchored by Real Sociedad's Yangel Herrera (28, 184cm), a box-to-box operator who was on Manchester City's books and broke through at Girona, covering ground and timing runs into the area. His club team-mate Jon Aramburu (24), an attacking right-back who rejoined Sociedad after a spell back in Venezuela required by FIFA regulations, is in the back five — and Takefusa Kubo, starting on the Japan bench, could end up facing both.
- There is more European experience on Venezuela's bench. Teo Quintero (36), a left-footed centre-back born and raised in Spain and schooled in Girona's youth system, now plays for Sparta Rotterdam in the Eredivisie, while Cristian Cásseres Jr. (26) joined New York Red Bulls at 16, spent six MLS seasons there and has been a box-to-box midfielder at Toulouse since 2023.
- Japan's replacements are formidable: Ritsu Doan (28), who scored in successive games against Germany and Spain at the 2022 World Cup; Ao Tanaka (28), whose goal settled that Spain match; and Ayase Ueda (28), who broke the Eredivisie scoring record for a Japanese player at Feyenoord. The Sano brothers — Kaishu of Mainz and Kota of NEC — are waiting too, so the second-half changes could reshape the game entirely.