Japanese coach confident over his squad

(BEIJING, July 28) -- With the Beijing Olympic football tournament on the horizon, the coach of the Japanese men's team Yasuharu Sorimachi recently expressed his confidence over his team's chances of winning an Olympic medal this summer.

"I've chosen the strongest players available, with the aim of winning at the Olympics." Sorimachi was quoted as saying by Fifa.com.

There are quite a few prominent players on Sorimachi’s roster, including the "Japanese Chilavert" Shusaku Nishikawa, so named because he is a goalkeeper who is also a dead ball specialist like the former goalkeeper of Paraguay Jose Luis Chilavert. Other players to watch will be defender Atsuto Uchida and forward Takayuki Morimoto.

Japan will play a warm-up match against Argentina before they head to Beijing, where its group opponents will be the United States, Nigeria and the Netherlands.