Sports Mole previews Tuesday’s International Friendlies clash between USA and Japan, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.
Seeking a strong bounce-back result on Tuesday, the USA will host Japan in a friendly at Lower.com Field in Columbus, the fourth all-time meeting between these two nations.
On Saturday, the Yanks were beaten 2-0 by South Korea, while Japan played to a 0-0 draw in their friendly against Mexico at the Oakland Coliseum.
Match preview
It was another friendly match in which the Americans looked vulnerable defensively and lacked cohesion, and the Taeguk Warriors punished them on Saturday.
They have now lost three consecutive friendlies, conceding six goals, while netting only once over that stretch, hardly encouraging with the World Cup less than a year away and in their own back yard.
Mauricio Pochettino has lost six of his 13 matches in charge of the team this year, with his players scoring a goal or fewer in seven of their 2025 fixtures thus far.
The US have now lost six matches in the calendar year, only the fourth time that has ever happened in the history of this program and the first since 2011.
They have emerged victorious in three of their previous four outings versus Asian opposition, defeating Saudi Arabia 1-0 at this summer’s Gold Cup.
Tuesday will only be the second time they face Japan on American soil, and in that February 2006 friendly in San Francisco, the Yanks came away with a 3-1 triumph.
A four-match winning run across all competitions came to an end for Japan this past weekend as they failed to find the back of the net for the third time this year.
This team had their chances against El Tri, exposing them out wide in transition, but ultimately lacked composure in front of the goal to finish off their strong actions.
One thing Hajime Moriyasu has been able to count on is a solid defensive group, who have now posted five clean sheets in their previous six matches, conceding a combined two goals in their eight games played this year.
Since Iran knocked them out of the Asian Cup quarter-finals in February 2024 (2-1), the Japanese have won 14 of their 17 competitive fixtures, suffering just one defeat over that stretch (1-0 at Australia in June).
Japan have won 13 consecutive games when scoring the opening goal and have only been behind on two occasions since March 2024, drawing Australia last October (1-1) and losing to the Socceroos earlier this year.
The Samurai Blue are unbeaten in their last three meetings versus CONCACAF opposition, with their last victory against that region coming in an October 2023 friendly versus Canada (4-1).
USA International Friendlies form:
USA form (all competitions):
Japan International Friendlies form:
Japan form (all competitions):
Team News
In their defeat on Saturday, Tristan Blackmon collected his first international cap, leaving Noahkai Kai Daniel Banks, Roman Celentano and Jonathan Klinsmann as the only players called up for this window without a senior appearance for the United States.
Christian Pulisic returned to the fold for that match and can earn his 80th senior appearance on Tuesday, while Sean Zawadzki and Max Arfsten will hope to feature on a ground they know well, with both men playing their club football for the Columbus Crew.
An early second-half knock forced Ko Itakura out of Japan’s friendly against Mexico, with Hiroki Sekine taking his place, while American-born goalkeeper Zion Suzuki is now just one cap away from 20, stopping the only effort that he faced on Saturday for a clean sheet.
Takumi Minamino will be seeking his 25th goal for the Samurai Blue, which would put him in a tie for ninth all-time alongside Yuya Osako, while Takefusa Kubo is five appearances away from the half-century mark.
USA possible starting lineup:
Freese; Dest, Richards, Ream, Arfsten; Adams, Berhalter; Pulisic, Luna, Weah; Balogun
Japan possible starting lineup:
Suzuki; Sugawara, Watanabe, Seko; Doan, Endo, Kamada, Ito; Maeda, Minamino; Ueda
We say: USA 0-2 Japan
The US look disorganised and out of sorts defensively right now and should have trouble breaking down a unit as well-drilled and cohesive as Japan, who are in strong form heading into this match.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
ID:581016:1false2false3false: from db desktop :LenBod:collect11848: 
No Data Analysis infoPreviews by emailClick here to get Sports Mole’s daily email of previews and predictions for every major game!
AloJapan.com