Japan showed that their offense was quick and had an attacking edge that could score from the midfield thanks to a great goal from Keisuke Honda that opened the scoring against the Ivory Coast this past weekend.
However, that was really the only true action of the day for the Japanese as they failed to be able to earn anything from the match as the Ivorians crushed them in the second half.
While Japan is much more suited to attack, their defense if believed their weak point and Greece will hope they can exploit the Japan back line better than they did Colombia in the first round.
The Greeks are normally known for their more negative style of playing from the back and packing nine men behind the ball hoping to break out and race out on the counter attack.
However, they may have to change their plans a bit if they want to be able to compete with Japan and they will have to make some attacking forays against their opponent just like they did against Colombia.
If the Greeks can push up early and often and hit Japan in attack rather than allowing the Samurai to take the sword to them first, then the Mediterranean nation has a chance at getting three points and having a chance to advance to the next round through pure effort and desire.
Japan Starting XI: Kawashima: Uchida, Yoshida, Morishige, Nagatomo; Endo, Yamaguchi; Okazaki, Honda, Kagawa; Osako.
Greece Starting XI: Karnezis: Torosidis, Sokratis, Manolas, Holebas; Fetfatzidis, Kone, Maniatas, Katsouranis, Samaras; Mitroglou.
