In relation to the FIFA World Cup North America tournament, which opens on the 11th (12th Japan time), Taiwan media outlet Liberty Times on the 9th named 5 teams including Japan as dark horses.

This tournament, co-hosted by three countries—the United States, Canada, and Mexico—has seen the number of participating teams increase from 32 in the previous tournament to 48. The first round (group stage) will be divided into 12 groups, with a total of 32 teams—the top two teams from each group and the 8 best third-place teams—advancing to the knockout stage.

The article first mentioned Japan, noting that they defeated powerhouses Germany and Spain to finish first in their group in the previous tournament, and narrowly lost to Croatia in a penalty shootout in the first round of the knockout stage.

Furthermore, regarding the team composition for this tournament, although they will be without star player Kaoru Mitoma (29), who plays for Brighton in the English Premier League, due to injury, Takefusa Kubo (25), Ao Tanaka (27), Daizen Maeda (28), and others are still active, and head coach Hajime Moriyasu, who has led the team since 2018, has brought tactical consistency, and it is expected that they will break their previous barrier of reaching only the Round of 16.

As for other dark horses, they named Norway, which boasts superstar striker Haaland (25) and broke through the European qualifiers with 8 consecutive wins in a group including Italy; Ecuador, which boasts a strong defense with only 5 goals conceded in 18 South American qualifying matches; Colombia, which scored a total of 28 goals in the South American qualifiers, second only to defending champions Argentina; and Turkey, making its first appearance in 24 years since finishing 3rd in the 2002 Japan-Korea tournament, and boasting young stars such as midfielder Güler (21), who plays for Real Madrid, and Juventus' Yıldız (21), who possesses speed, dribbling, and finishing ability. (Translation/Editing by Yanagawa)