Monday, September 25 2006 12:01 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Still smarting under the 1-7 humiliation inflicted by Saudi Arabia in their last match, the Indian football team could find some relief if the Japan Football Association sticks to its stand of not including any Europe-based players for the remaining matches this year.

However, what difference it would make to the eventual result of their match at Bangalore on October 11, is a moot point.

Japan, who are the defending champions, have already qualified for next year's Asian Cup finals and JFA President Saburo Kawabuchi has said national team coach Ivica Osim is unlikely to include any Europe-based players in his squad this year.

"I think Europe-based players believe that if they play regularly in their team overseas they will be called up for the national team," says Kawabuchi.

He, however, says that JFA technical director Takeshi Ono would travel to Europe and see the Japanese players in action for himself and all call-up decisions would be based on his assessment.

Nine Japanese stars play their trade with European sides. They are Mitsuo Ogasawara (Messina), Masashi Oguro (Torino), Takayuki Morimoto (Catania), Shunsuke Nakamura (Celtic), Koji Nakata (Basel), Naohiro Takahara (Frankfurt), Daisuke Matsui (Le Mans), Junichi Inamoto (Galatasaray) and Takayuki Suzuki (Red Star Belgrade).