🏏 Fri, 25 Sep 2026 19:30 JST
Japan Women
vs
Philippines
Positions estimated (no formation data from the API)
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- The Asian Games women's tournament reaches the quarter-finals. This is Japan's fourth match in 11 days, following Thailand on 14 September, Vietnam on 17 September and Chinese Taipei on 21 September, and all four have been staged at the same ground, Shizuoka Stadium Ecopa. Kick-off is 19:30 local time, and with no group table to fall back on, the selection tells you exactly how the coaching staff have narrowed things down.
- Japan used a different goalkeeper in each group match: No. 23 S. Ohba against Thailand, No. 1 N. Asano against Vietnam and No. 12 S. Fukuda against Chinese Taipei. For the first knockout tie the gloves go back to Ohba, the opening-night choice, with Asano and Fukuda both starting on the bench. After three games of parity, a clear No. 1 has been identified for the match that matters.
- Four players have started all four matches: No. 7 M. Hamada, No. 10 Y. Narumiya, No. 11 C. Kamiya and No. 15 J. Ito. In a squad that has been rotated heavily from game to game, they are the only fixed points, and most of Japan's circulation runs through them. With only two or three days between fixtures, whether that quartet can sustain the same intensity will dictate the tempo.
- No. 8 K. Sakakibara returns to the starting line-up for the first time since the opener against Thailand, having been left out for both the Vietnam and Chinese Taipei games. She lines up alongside No. 9 M. Ueno and No. 11 C. Kamiya. Ueno's tournament has been just as uneven — a start against Thailand, a substitute appearance against Vietnam, then a start against Chinese Taipei — so the attack is close to its opening-day shape.
- At the back, No. 5 Y. Seno and No. 13 A. Kuwahara get the call. Seno started against Thailand, sat out on the bench against Vietnam and came on as a substitute against Chinese Taipei. Kuwahara's route has been the mirror image: substitute against Thailand, starter against Vietnam, bench against Chinese Taipei. The three who started the Chinese Taipei game — No. 2 S. Suzuki, No. 4 W. Goto and No. 22 Y. Nakashima — all begin among the substitutes.
- Midfield is where the pecking order has shifted most. No. 14 Y. Shiokoshi and No. 17 S. Takarada make a third consecutive start, having both begun the Thailand match on the bench and climbed steadily since. Going the other way are No. 19 F. Mizuno, a starter in the first two matches, and Vietnam starters No. 18 H. Yumura and No. 20 A. Tsujisawa, all of whom drop out of the eleven.
- These sides already met in a knockout tie six months ago: the AFC Women's Asian Cup quarter-final on 15 March at Accor Stadium in Sydney. Four players who started that day — M. Ramirez, J. Curran, J. Sawicki and H. Long — start again here, while K. Guillou, C. Frilles and goalkeeper O. McDaniel have been promoted from that March bench into the eleven.
- Philippines goalkeeper No. 1 O. McDaniel, 28 and 172cm, was understudy to No. 18 N. Meollo in the March meeting with Japan; the roles are reversed here, with Meollo among the substitutes. In front of her, 31-year-old H. Long, 170cm, keeps her place from the March quarter-final. Next to a midfield of 157cm-and-under players, those two carry most of the height in the Philippines block.
- The Philippines midfield leans on experience: 33-year-old J. Sawicki (158cm) and 32-year-old K. Guillou (157cm) are joined by 24-year-old C. Frilles (157cm). Sawicki also started the March meeting with Japan, while Guillou watched that one from the bench before being promoted here. How the trio handle J. Ito and Y. Narumiya, both making a fourth straight start, will decide who controls the game.
- The opponent is the same, but Japan's personnel are unrecognisable from March. Yui Hasegawa, Mina Tanaka, Hinata Miyazawa, Takako Seike and Toko Koga all started that quarter-final, with Saki Kumagai and Ayaka Yamashita on the bench, and none of them are in this Asian Games squad. A different layer of the Japanese player pool now gets to measure itself against the same opposition on an international stage.