Celtic will play their first proper pre-season friendly on Wednesday against Yokohama F. Marinos.
So far, the Hoops have faced Portuguese outfit Portimonense on two occasions with the latter clash receiving only moderate coverage from the club.
But things will step up a gear this week as Brendan Rodgers‘ team face their first fixtures in front of supporters. We’ve got Marinos in midweek before rounding off the Japan tour against Gamba Osaka on Saturday.
The former is probably one of the toughest tests we could have faced in Japan. Yokohama F. Marinos are the reigning J1 League champions having won the league by two points ahead of Kawasaki Frontale last season.
They’re not doing too badly this year either, currently level at the top with Vissel Kobe but having played one game more.
Their squad is made up entirely of Japanese and Brazilian players, with the former making up the lion’s share.
The South Americans seem to add the real flair to the side, with five players from Brazil including vice-captain Eduardo, and experienced attackers Élber and Marcos Júnior.
Forward Anderson Lopes seems to be their biggest goalscoring threat. He is the top scorer in the whole of Japan with 15 league strikes so far this season.
Marinos are managed by former Rangers player Kevin Muscat. The Australian was mentioned on a few occasions when we were looking for a new manager in the summer, but the links were never concrete.
Hoops pair Daizen Maeda and Tomoki Iwata will be returning to their old home at the vast 72,000 Nissan Stadium, while Reo Hatate, Kyogo Furuhashi and Yuki Kobayashi are likely to have played there in the past too.
Marinos are also the former club of Celtic favourite Shunsuke Nakamura. The midfielder spent a total of 12 years with the club over two spells — both before and after his time Glasgow.
Nakamura is now a first-team coach at Yokohama FC. Their next game isn’t until August so it will be interesting to see if our former hero is in attendance on Wednesday to see two of his old sides in action.
His attendance remains a question but you would have to assume he’d be keen to get along. If he does, you’re likely to hear about it on social media.
The game is a 7pm kick-off in Japan, meaning an 11am start Celtic Park time.
In other news, David Moyes has been talking up Celtic in brilliant fashion
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