Must avoid Pacific joke if it's the last thing I do

As I mentioned Denmark's roster a few posts ago, Japan-another Group E team-named their 23-man roster for the 2010 World Cup as well.

I don't have any A list comedy material to throw in here about the Japanese team so I'll just give you the facts.

Japan coach Takeshi Okada has named his 23-man squad for the World Cup finals with no surprise selections.

Okada opted for experienced heads who got Japan through their qualifying campaign rather than picking any shock players for the summer finals in South Africa.

"I had a hard time making up my mind regarding al areas of the team, but I selected those players in order to win and achieve our objective,'' he said.

"I haven't changed the objective. In order to make that come true, however, we first have to get through the group stage and our first match against Cameroon will be the most important to us.

"With those 23 players, I believe that we can achieve our objective.''
Okada has also named four Europe-based players in the squad with midfielders Keisuke Honda of CSKA Moscow, Makoto Hasebe of Wolfsburg, Daisuke Matsui of Grenoble and Catania forward Takayuki Morimoto all included. Yokohama F. Marinos' Shunsuke Nakamura and Kawasaki Frontale's Junichi Inamoto are in the squad, justifying their decisions to return to Japan from Europe.

Japan squad: Seigo Narazaki (Nagoya Grampus), Eiji Kawashima (Kawasaki Frontale), Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi (Jubilo Iwata); Yuji Nakazawa (Yokohama F. Marinos), Marcus Tulio Tanaka (Nagoya Grampus), Yuichi Komano (Jubilo Iwata), Daiki Iwamasa (Kashima Antlers), Yasuyuki Konno (FC Tokyo), Yuto Nagatomo (FC Tokyo), Atsuto Uchida (Kashima Antlers); Shunsuke Nakamura (Yokohama F. Marinos), Junichi Inamoto (Kawasaki Frontale), Yasuhito Endo (Gamba Osaka), Kengo Nakamura (Kawasaki Frontale), Daisuke Matsui (Grenoble), Yuki Abe (Urawa Reds), Makoto Hasebe (Wolfsburg), Keisuke Honda (CSKA Moscow); Keiji Tamada (Nagoya Grampus), Yoshito Okubo (Vissel Kobe), Kisho Yano (Albirex Niigata), Shinji Okazaki (Shimizu S-Pulse), Takayuki Morimoto (Catania).