Japan warm up for Honduras friendly with a massive win

MIYAGI, Japan: The Japan national team warmed up for their September 7 friendly against Honduras with a 11-0 thrashing of Vegalta Sendai's youth team here on Monday.

Japan coach Zico fielded all his Europe-based players in the first half with a 4-4-2 formation but changed it to 3-5-2 after the restart. Masashi Oguro of Gamba Osaka scored a hat-trick in the match.

Shunsuke Nakamura, who is now playing his trade with Celtic said: "The match against Honduras is not to try new things but to improve our combination."

Junichi Inamoto of West Bromwich and Koji Nakata of Marceille said they would like to maintain their position in the team for the World Cup finals.

Meanwhile, Japan Football Association (JFA) President Saburo Kawabuchi said the national team will play two friendlies against Latvia (October 8) and Ukraine (October 12) during its training camp in Europe next month. "The players, who will participate in the October 9 J-League all-star match will join the team later," he said.