From our other sites
The story
On September 28, 2026 at 7:25 PM, the Japan national team took on Venezuela in a friendly broadcast on Nippon TV and streamed on TVer. Daichi Kamada started as the new captain, with Reo Bryan Kokubo in goal. The lineup also included a player just back from an ACL injury, and the live-commentary thread mostly focused on questions over why Yuki Soma got called up, along with debate over Kokubo’s performance between the posts. Some posters also worried about the lack of a clear leader marshaling the center-back line, turning the discussion into something bigger than just the result — a debate over the shape of the next-generation national team.
Watching on TV → Nippon TV
Watching online → TVer
Source: tver.jp / Original article here
What people said
Starting XI
GK 12 Reo Bryan Kokubo
DF 5 Go Watanabe
DF 3 Ayumu Seko
DF 25 Junnosuke Suzuki
MF 15 Daichi Kamada (Cap)
MF 7 Yuki Soma
MF 2 Shuto Nakano
MF 30 Koki Kumasaka
MF 29 Shunsuke Saito
MF 27 Ryunosuke Sato
FW 9 Keisuke Goto
Ugh, boring
Why even call up Soma?
Wait, Soma's still active?
That's what surprised me.
He's only 29 or so
Same age group as Kamada, Itakura, and Watanabe.
What kind of player is he?
A defensive midfielder
Plays kind of like Hidetoshi Nakata
Strong physically too
He was listed on the right side earlier though
Is he really a defensive mid?
Aren't you mixing him up with someone else?
Nakano's a wing-back/center-back.
Figured he was done getting call-ups.
Because Mitoma's not available.
Who's even a young option on the left side?
Huh, that's all
I pictured him as being in his 50s.
That's the Antlers' Soma you're thinking of.
Because the head-to-head record is 4 draws, 1 loss.
A harsh, basically anti-Japan acquaintance of mine said he'll be the first Japanese player to become world-class.
Is it because Akira Nakamura retired?
Huh?
That's a scam.
He's injured right now, after all.
With top surgeons in the US or Europe, injuries to other body parts afterward are a lot less common
I've heard Japan genuinely has few top-tier specialists
Since it's best to operate as soon as possible after the tear, getting the patient to a good surgeon fast matters a lot
Is Zion, the Black player, really that good?
He was the starting keeper in the English top flight, so he's basically an anomaly in Japanese soccer.
His judgment on when to come off his line is a bit shaky, but even at this stage he might be the best goalkeeper Japan's ever had
Though he probably can't beat Kawaguchi on one of his hot days
So who succeeds Ueda then?
Taniguchi's an old man now, expecting Tomiyasu to even be available is foolish, and Itakura was fine back when he was being propped up by Yoshida, Tomiyasu, and Taniguchi around him, but he's no good at leading himself
Is there really nobody in the younger generation who can do it?
By process of elimination, it's gotta be Ito.
Background and Talking Points
With several regulars sidelined by injury, this friendly against Venezuela was framed as a proving ground under new captain Daichi Kamada, and many in the thread read it as “a match for testing the young players.” Opinions split over Yuki Soma’s call-up largely because it had been a while since his last national-team appearance — in reality he’s still only 29, the same age as Kamada, Itakura, and Go Watanabe. Goalkeeper Reo Bryan Kokubo, whose father is from South Africa, drew praise such as “he was the starting keeper in the English top flight” and “maybe the best GK Japan’s ever had,” though some also flagged weaknesses in his decision-making, leaving a mix of hope and concern. The comments about a missing defensive leader also point to a structural issue facing the whole national team: developing a successor generation to Shogo Taniguchi and Takehiro Tomiyasu. It read less as criticism of any one player than as worry over a stalled generational handover.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nanademo Jikkyo G) thread “[Nippon TV] 🇯🇵Japan National Team vs 🇻🇪Venezuela National Team — Kickoff 19:25“.
Leave a Reply