Wins over Germany and Spain at last year's World Cup propelled Japan into a brighter international spotlight, and they haven't looked back since. Despite losing to Croatia on penalties in the Round of 16, there was a sense that their Qatar magic was just the first act. That's looked especially true in Japan's past four games, starting with a 6-0 win against El Salvador and a 4-1 victory over Peru. Not content with those statements, The Samurai Blue rocked up in Wolfsburg in September and beat Germany 4-1, a second win over the Germans in less than a year. Three days later, they scored 4 goals again, this time against Turkey. In addition to the great discipline in the game that has adorned them for years, Japan has great players at their disposal. The vast majority of them have an important role in big European clubs, and all of them have been invited to this cycle of matches. Canada has quality players as well, but I honestly think that Japan is the favorite in this match. The strongest part of this team is certainly the offensive part led by David and Larin, and even Davies, who has a significantly more offensive role in Canada than in Bayern Munich. What the Canadians lack is greater security in defense. In the vast majority of cases, they seem quite unstable and allow their opponents chances too easily. A team like Japan will be able to take advantage of every lapse in the visiting defense. I believe that we can easily see more than 2.5 goals in this match with the home team winning.

在去年世界杯上战胜德国和西班牙的比赛让日本成为了国际瞩目的焦点，从那以后他们就再也没有后悔过。尽管在16强决赛中点球负于克罗地亚，但人们感觉卡塔尔的魔力只是第一幕。日本队在过去的四场比赛中尤其如此，先是6-0战胜萨尔瓦多队，然后4-1战胜秘鲁队。不满足于这些言论，蓝武士队在9月的沃尔夫斯堡以4比1击败了德国队，这是不到一年的时间里第二次战胜德国队。三天后，他们又进了4个球，这次是对阵土耳其。除了多年来在比赛中表现出色的纪律外，日本队还拥有出色的球员。他们中的绝大多数人都在欧洲豪门俱乐部扮演着重要的角色，他们都被邀请参加了这一轮的比赛。加拿大也有优秀的球员，但老实说，我认为日本在这场比赛中是最受欢迎的。这支球队最强大的部分当然是由大卫和拉林带领的进攻部分，甚至还有戴维斯，他在加拿大的进攻作用比在拜仁慕尼黑要大得多。加拿大人缺乏的是更大的国防安全。在绝大多数情况下，他们看起来很不稳定，很容易给对手机会。像日本队这样的球队将能够利用客队防守的每一个失误。我相信在这场主队获胜的比赛中，我们很容易看到超过2.5个进球。