Japan national team manager Hajime Moriyasu had to defend his decision of selecting a young squad to participate in the South American tournament.

Venezuela manager Rafael Dudamel had earlier criticised Japan’s Tokyo Olympic squad of green players. “I’m don’t agree with a guest like Japan bringing so many U-23 players to this tournament,” he said.

At the Japan vs Ecuador pre-match press conference, Moriyasu responded, “I don’t know how to reply to that. As I have made it known before the tournament, while we didn’t have the power to call up players, we came here with the best we could call up.”

Ecuador manager Dario Gomez came to the invited nations’ defence as well. He said, “It’s a good thing that Japan and Qatar came (to Copa America).”

For Japanese football news: CoolJapan Soccer

Source: Yahoo

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