Daniel Schmidt And Ayase Ueda Make Japan World Cup Squad, But Daiki Hashioka Misses Out

Japan have announced their 26 man squad for the World Cup. Sint-Truidens goalkeeper Daniel Schmidt and Cercle Brugge’s striker Ayase Ueda have made the final squad and will be heading to Qatar. Unfortunately, Sint-Truidens right midfielder Daiki Hashioka did not make the final team.

Ueda has been capped 10 times by the Samurais, but is yet to find the back of the net. He is one of three strikers selected, with the other two being Bundesliga side VFL Bochums Takuma Asano and Celtic’s Daizen Maeda. The Bundesliga has seven players who have made the squad. Ueda has scored five goals in 15 matches for Cercle Brugge, having left the J League in the summer to move to Belgium.

30 year-old goalkeeper Daniel Schmidt joined Sint-Truiden in 2019, and has 11 caps for the national team. The American born keeper has been the sides number one since joining, making 89 appearances and keeping 28 clean sheets. Sint-Truiden have strong links to Japan, with Japanese owners. They also have former national team players Shinji Kagawa and Shinji Okazaki among the current playing squad.