After a year and a half of shadow boxing, national team manager Vahid Halilhodzic finally gets to taste some meaningful action when Japan begins the final round of Asian qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup against the United Arab Emirates on Thursday night.
With a host of dangerous teams looking to deny them a place at a sixth-straight World Cup, however, the Samurai Blue cannot afford to let their guard down for a second.
Japan takes on the UAE at Saitama Stadium to kick off a final-round Group B that also includes Asian champion Australia, Iraq, Thailand and Saudi Arabia, with two automatic qualification places plus one playoff spot for Russia 2018 to play for. A quarterfinal penalty-shootout defeat to the UAE at last year's Asian Cup under Javier Aguirre was the best Japan could muster the last time it came up against the continent's best sides, and Halilhodzic is taking for nothing for granted 18 months after succeeding the Mexican.