A total of 24 players were announced by Japan coach Ivica Osim, who called up midfielders Masahiko Inoha of FC Tokyo, 19-year-old Tsukasa Umesaki of Oita Trinita and Takahiro Futagawa of Gamba Osaka for the first time.

Former Feyenoord midfielder and World Cup player Shinji Ono, and other Europe-based players, including Celtic's Shunsuke Nakamura, Hamburg's Naohiro Takahara and Grenoble's Masashi Oguro, were sidelined.

"I chose these players according to our tactics, I didn't choose them simply after watching yesterday's games in the J-League," said Oshim, 65.

"What's important is that our opponents are a strong team who qualified for the World Cup, not that our players will have an experience to play away games."

"We should not be careless against them, because Middle Eastern countries have strong rivalries against Japan," added Osim, who led the former Yugoslavia to the 1990 World Cup quarterfinals.

The three-time Asian Cup winners, who defeated India 6-0 in February and Yemen 2-0 earlier this month, are now joint leaders of Group A on six points with Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia, also three-time winners of the Asian Cup in 1984, 1988 and 1996, also defeated Yemen 4-0 and India 3-0.

Japan play Saudi Arabia away on September 3 and three days later face Yemen.

SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi (Jubilo Iwata), Norihiro Yamagishi (Urawa Red Diamonds), Shusaku Nishikawa (Oita Trinita)

Defenders: Alessandro Santos (Urawa), Keisuke Tsuboi (Urawa), Akira Kaji (Gamba Osaka), Marcus Tulio Tanaka (Urawa), Yuichi Komano (Sanfrecce Hiroshima)

Midfielders: Naoshi Nakamura (Nagoya Grampus Eight), Naotake Hanyu (JEF United Chiba), Yasuhito Endo (Gamba Osaka), Takahiro Futagawa (Osaka), Keita Suzuki (Urawa), Yuki Abe (Chiba), Koji Yamase (Yokohama Marinos), Hayuma Tanaka (Yokohama), Daigo Kobayashi (Omiya Ardija), Makoto Hasebe (Urawa), Masahiko Inoha (FC Tokyo), Tsukasa Umesaki (Oita)

Forwards: Seiichiro Maki (Chiba), Kazuki Ganaha (Kawasaki Frontale), Hisato Sato (Sanfrecche Hiroshima), Tatsuya Tanaka (Urawa)