Two nations looking to return to form will do battle today in an international friendly between Japan and Uruguay. The match scheduled for 6:20 a.m. ET will be held at National Olympic Stadium in Tokyo and can be live streamed here free. Additional TV coverage can be found on ESPN Deportes.
Japanese defender Maya Yoshida had this to offer ahead of today's encounter on home soil (via Sportal): "As you know, Uruguay is one of the top teams in the world, even without Suarez. But it is up to us to show our quality to the new coach and the supporters as well because the supporters were disappointed about the results at the World Cup."
"The World Cup was not a great experience for us," he added. "As the gaffer [Javier Aguirre] said, we should focus on getting the title again at the Asian Cup in the winter. Now a new chapter starts for us."
That new chapter begins in Tokyo this morning.
Tactical Preview
Player to Watch: With no Luis Suarez to spearhead the attack, the responsibility to do so falls squarely on the shoulders of Edinson Cavani. The 27-year-old Uruguayan has made four appearances for Paris Saint-Germain this season, providing his club two goals and an average of 4.3 shots per match.
Japan's Projected Lineup (4-2-3-1): Kawashima; Nagatomo, Morishige, Yoshida, Sakai; Hasebe, Shibasaki; Morioka, Honda, Okazaki; Osako
Uruguay's Projected Lineup (4-4-2): Muslera; Pereira, Giménez, Godín, Cáceres; Corujo, Ríos, Lodeiro, Rodríguez; Cavani, Rolan
Note: Credit all statistics to officially licensed data from Opta Sports (via WhoScored).
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