The final group of the 2018 World Cup, Group H, gets underway, as favored Colombia takes on Japan in Saransk.
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• Here’s the 2018 World Cup schedule.
How to watch: In the U.S., Fox Sports 1 and Telemundo have the broadcast at 8 a.m. Eastern, but you can stream it here.
Kickoff!
Japan in blue, Colombia in yellow. With James Rodriguez out, Colombia will turn to its captain, Falcao, for its goals. Falcao is 32, but playing in his first World Cup. He was injured in 2014 and Colombia missed the three Cups before that. He has 29 goals for Colombia in his career, the record.
Colombia’s Starting Lineup
Bad news for Colombia: James Rodriguez will not start. He has a leg muscle strain.
1. Ospina
3. Murillo
4. Arias
6. C. Sanchez
9. Falcao
11. Cuadrado
16. Lerma
17. Mojica
20. Quintero
21. Izquierdo
23. D Sanchez
Japan’s Starting Lineup
Who to watch: Dortmund midfielder Shinji Kagawa is the most proven performer, but a key vet could be Keisuke Honda, 31, who at one time played for Milan, but now plays in Mexico.
1. Kawashima
3. Shoji
5. Nagatomo
7. Shibasaki
8. Haraguchi
10. Kagawa
14. Inui
15. Osako
17. Hasebe
19. Sakai
22. Yoshida
Colombia vs. Japan Top Story Lines
• Rodriguez was one of the unquestioned stars of the last World Cup, scoring a tournament-high six goals as Colombia advanced to the quarterfinals. He was snapped up by Real Madrid, but hasn’t made the expected impact there and will look for a return to glory in Russia.
• Group H is the most wide-open in the tournament, with Colombia, Poland, Senegal and Japan all given a puncher’s chance. It could well come down to the last day of the group stage, June 28.
• The other big scorer for Colombia is Radamel Falcao, now 32 and coming off a couple years of shaky play at top English clubs. He has since bounced back with Monaco.
• Colombia is favored in the group, but nearly didn’t qualify, grabbing the fourth and last automatic sport in South America, a point ahead of Peru and Chile.
• Japan won its qualifying group. But it was just a point ahead of Saudi Arabia, which was hammered, 5-0, by Russia last week.
• After a friendly draw with Mali and a loss to Ukraine, Japan abruptly fired its coach, Vahid Halilhodzic in April, replacing him with Akira Nishino. Since then Japan has lost to Ghana and Switzerland, although a win over Paraguay last week stopped the slide.
• Yuya Osako is the goal scorer for Japan. His German club side, Cologne, was recently relegated from the Bundesliga.
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