Atlanta Beat midfielder Homare Sawa and Yayoi Kobayashi, who trained with the Beat during the 2003 preseason, head Japan coach Eiji Ueda's 20-woman roster announced Wednesday for the Women's World Cup.
Sawa and Kobayashi are among six players returning to the squad from the 1999 World Cup. The others are goalkeeper Nozomi Yamago, defender Hiromi Isozaki and midfielders Tomoe Sakai and Tomomi Miyamoto.
Forward Mio Otani, who debuted for the Japanese national team in May 2000, also is a critical player. She has scored 23 goals in 37 international appearances.
Ueda selected four teenagers for his squad — defenders Yuka Miyazaki and Kyouko Yano and midfielders Aya Miyama and Akiko Sudo — and named 19-year-old goalkeeper Miho Fukumoto as an alternate.
The roster:
Goalkeepers
Shiho Onodera, 29 years old, 20 caps/0 goals
Nozomi Yamago, 28, 58/0
a-Miho Fukumoto, 19, 2/0
Defenders
Hiromi Isozaki, 29 years old, 52 caps/4 goals
Yuka Miyazaki, 19, 16/2
Yum Obe, 28, 78/7
Yasuyo Yamagishi, 23, 45/6
Kyouko Yano, 19, 7/1
Midfielders
Naoko Kawakami, 25 years old, 31 caps/0 goals
Aya Miyama, 18, 5/2
Tomomi Miyamoto, 24, 48/9
Mai Nakachi, 22, 28/0
Tomoe Sakai, 25, 54/2
Akiko Sudo, 19, 2/0
Emi Yamamoto, 21, 11/0
Miyuki Yanagita, 22, 25/3
Forwards
Eriko Arakawa, 23 years old, 12 caps/5 goals
Yayoi Kobayashi, 22, 43/11
Karina Maruyama, 20, 16/6
Mio Otani, 24, 37/23
Homare Sawa, 25, 79/48
a — alternate
All ages as of Sept. 20