Japan Set to Seal World Cup Spot as Son Aims to Forget Spurs Woes

Japan can become the first team to qualify for the 2026 World Cup this week while Son Heung-min will try to forget his Tottenham woes by firing South Korea to the finals.

Asian nations play two rounds of games, on Thursday and Tuesday, as qualifying for the enlarged 48-team tournament in North America approaches the business end in the region.

Japan will seal their spot with three qualifying matches to go if, as expected, they beat Bahrain at home in Saitama on Thursday.

Even if they stumble, it looks only a matter of time until they secure a place in the United States, Canada and Mexico, as they have another home match against Saudi Arabia next week.

Hajime Moriyasu’s side are nine points clear of Australia at the top of Group C, having won five and drawn one of their six games in this phase of qualifying, scoring 22 goals and conceding twice.

Moriyasu named a full-strength squad led by Liverpool’s Wataru Endo and Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma, but said there were plenty of other players who deserved call-ups.

“There are a lot of players who are showing what they can do in the J. League and in Europe and wouldn’t look out of place in this squad,” he said.

There are three groups in the third Asian qualifying round for 2026, with the top two in each going straight to the World Cup.

Japan are sitting pretty on 16 points with four matches to play but the five-way battle to qualify second from the group could go to the wire.