Fixtures · Sep 23, 2026
Matchday eve: Zion Suzuki expected to miss the Uruguay opener as Japan's defense takes hits too
The eve of the first match since Houston, and Samurai Blue is already dealing with a scare. Zion Suzuki, the goalkeeper who spent this whole summer making history at Aston Villa, has been working on a separate training menu for days with a side injury and is expected to miss Thursday's Kirin Challenge Cup opener against Uruguay in Miyagi. Kashima's Tomoki Hayakawa looks set to get the start in his place, telling reporters he plans to "show what I've got." Suzuki isn't the only one banged up. Defender Tomoya Ando was pulled from the traveling squad entirely with lower back pain and is resting at the team hotel in Chiba, joining Takehiro Tomiyasu, who was already unavailable with a calf issue. Moriyasu addressed the group at his pre-match press conference, saying he plans to build his lineup mainly around players who had arrived by Monday, and flagged a wary respect for Uruguay under brand new boss Diego Forlan: a team, he said, that plays "right up to the edge of fouls" even when it isn't getting the results it wants. First match of a new era, and it's already testing the squad's depth before kickoff.