Celtic’s Daizen Maeda has admitted that he didn’t even know the procedure for the pre-match coin toss when captaining Japan against Scotland.
The forward was captaining his country for the first time as the Samurai Blue ran out 1-0 winners against Steve Clarke’s men at Hampden.
In the absence of Wataru Endo, Takumi Minamino and Yuto Nagatomo, it was the Celtic man who was trusted with the armband by Hajime Moriyasu.
Speaking after the game, Maeda revealed that he had reached out to Endo for advice, having only been informed shortly before kick-off that he was captaining the side.
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Celtic’s Daizen Maeda was ‘concerned’ about captaining Japan vs Scotland
Maeda said, via gekisaka: “I don’t think anyone imagined I’d be able to show this side of myself in my football career.
“So many people have supported me up until now, so I played with a feeling of gratitude.
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“[Being captain] is a first in my life. This is really tough, I don’t even know how to do a coin toss.
“I asked [Endo] whether we would take kick-off or decide sides with a coin toss. But the sun was out, so my teammates wanted us to switch ends.
“But we lost the coin toss, so the opponent took the territory and we could only take the kick-off.
“It was my first time, and what we had talked about and what we were actually doing were completely different, so I was confused, but it was a good experience for me. “
“I was a little concerned about it before the match, but during the game I was focused on playing my own game, so I wasn’t too conscious of it.
“As a team, we didn’t score (in the first half), but I think we were able to play in a way that is typical of Japan, where we fought tenaciously like in the Qatar World Cup and created chances in the second half.”
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Midfielder Joel Fujita said of Maeda: “It was his first time wearing the captain’s armband, so he seemed a bit unsure.
“But in true Daizen fashion, he didn’t say much, but I think he showed us by example by running and giving momentum to his teammates.”
Maeda played as a left-wing-back on the day, a major departure from positions he has played for Celtic this season.
He played 62 minutes before being replaced by Keito Nakamura. The game was won by fellow substitute Junya Ito 20 minutes later.
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