By Paul Giblin
MOSCOW, June 27 (Xinhua) -- The coach of the Japanese national team, Akira Nishino wants his players to make the ball do the work when they play Poland in the Volgograd Arena in their final Group H game in the 2018 World Cup.
A draw for Japan against a Polish side with nothing to play for would be enough to make them the only Asian side in the last 16 of the World Cup for the second time in eight years, but with the game scheduled to kick off at 5pm local time, temperatures of over 30 degrees centigrade and high humidity are likely to be important factors.
"When I landed on Tuesday, I was surprised at how humid it was, but I don't think the team's conditions is going to be affected much by that," Nishino said in his pre-game press conference on Wednesday.
The Japan coach said he would assess the fitness of his squad in training, but added they were not tired after a 2-1 win against Colombia and a 2-2 draw with Senegal.
"In domestic competition sides tend to cover 110 or 120 km... Here we will have to coordinate our moves and not waste energy."
"The ball doesn't get tired, so we will have to use it as effectively as possible," he commented.
Nishino said the fact Poland were only playing for pride did not make them less dangerous.
"There is no such thing as an easy game I am sure Poland will want to play for pride and (Robert) Lewandowski will come out looking to score a goal... We don't think Poland will be easy rivals, they qualified from a tough group," he insisted.
"We want to keep hold of the ball and continue with our Japanese style of football. We want to continue, so we will move the ball, move ourselves and look to attack at speed," he concluded.
