2006 FIFA WORLD CUP

THE PREVIEW BLOG

Welcome to the first ever edition of the 2006 FIFA World Cup Preview Blog. As well as adding my recap of the days action I will now have a daily preview blog in which I will pick one game per day to preview.

Day 4 of the World Cup begins today and the match I am going to preview is AUSTRALIA VS JAPAN from Group F.

World Cup History

australia - Are playing in only their second World Cup and their first in 32 years. Australia have never scored a goal in the World Cup and have only won 1 point which was against Chile. They lost their other 2 group games to East Germany and West Germany.

japan - Japan are playing in their 3rd consecutive World Cup. The first qualified for France '98 and lost all 3 games against Argentina, Croatia and Jamaica. They then automatically qualified for the 2002 World Cup for because they were the host (with South Korea). They topped their group with wins over Russia and Tunisia and a draw against Belgium. They ended up losing 1-0 to Turkey in the Round of 16.

Squads

AUSTRALIA

1. Mark Schwarzer

2. Lucas Neill

3. Craig Moore

4. Tim Cahill

5. Jason Culina

6. Tony Popovic

7. Brett Emerton

8. Josip Skoko

9. Mark Viduka

10. Harry Kewell

11. Stan Lazaridis

12. Ante Covic

13. Vince Grella

14. Scott Chipperfield

15. John Aloisi

16. Michael Beauchamp

17. Archie Thompson

18. Zeljko Kalac

19. Joshua Kennedy

20. Luke Wilkshire

21. Mile Sterjovski

22. Mark Milligan

23. Marco Bresciano

JAPAN

1. Seigo Narazaki

2. Teruyuki Moniwa

3. Yuichi Komano

4. Yasuhito Endo

5. Tsuneyasu Miyamoto

6. Koji Nakata

7. Hidetoshi Nakata

8. Mitsuo Ogasawara

9. Naohiro Takahara

10. Shunsuke Nakamura

11. Seiichiro Maki

12. Yoichi Doi

13. Atsushi Yanagisawa

14. Alessandro Santos

15. Takashi Fukunishi

16. Masashi Oguro

17. Junichi Inamoto

18. Shinji Ono

19. Keisuke Tsuboi

20. Keiji Tamada

21. Akira Kaja

22. Yuji Nakazawa

23. Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi

betting odds

Centrebet

Australia               $2.30

Draw                     $3.20

Japan                   $3.10

TAB Sportsbet

Australia               $2.15

Draw                     $3.40

Japan                    $3.00

Online Betting Guide

Australia                 $2.60

Draw                       $3.20

Japan                      $3.00

INTERESTING NOTE

Australia are favourites with the bookies but it will be regarded as an upset if they beat Japan

Your Thoughts

Please tell me your thoughts on who you think will win this big Group F match between Australia and Japan.