Following Japan's 2-2 draw with Senegal that left their World Cup Group H fate in their own hands going into the final match, Sean Carroll and Stuart Smith joined me to discuss the game and look ahead to Poland (and, hopefully, beyond).
We begin with some bigger picture takes on the merits of the Senegal result and the impact the players at the centre of Akira Nishino's major selection decisions have had (to 17:00), before moving on to all of the major incidents from the first half of the clash with The Lions of Teranga, including the latest installment of The Eiji Kawashima Chronicles.
After a half time break to tackle several of the great range of twitter questions we received, we wrap up the second half and discuss Keisuke Honda's role in Nishino's set up, then move on to preview the clash with Poland (from 1:04:00), and the permutations in the group, with Senegal v Colombia kicking off at the same time on Thursday.
We finish with Japan's potential Round of 16 (touch wood) opponents England and Belgium - a loaded topic with both guests hailing from England.
#AUDIO ISSUE# Sean was heading home for the first 15 or so minutes of the episode, so you will notice a lot of traffic/background noise, we hope it doesn't detract too much from your listening experience.
Follow my guests on twitter:
Stuart - @sushi_football
Sean - @seankyaroru
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