Soccer-Inui starts for holders Japan against outsiders Palestine

By Jason Reed NEWCASTLE, Australia, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Attacking midfielder Takashi Inui won the battle with Yoshinori Muto for a place in Japan's starting lineup for the opening match of their Asian Cup defence against Palestine on Monday. The 26-year-old Eintracht Frankfurt attacker edged out the FC Tokyo man to complete Japan's eye-catching forward line, featuring Keisuke Honda, Shinji Okazaki and Shinji Kagawa for the Group D clash against the tournament debutants. The holders will be captained by Inui's club team mate Makoto Hasebe who will anchor the midfield alongside evergreen Yasuhito Endo, Japan's most capped player who will make his 149th appearance for the Blue Samurai. Endo, Honda, Okazaki and Kagawa were among the Japanese players who flattered to deceive in the disappointing group stage exit at the World Cup in June leading to the dismissal of Asian Cup winning coach Alberto Zaccheroni, with Mexican Javier Aguirre replacing the Italian. Hasebe, who never looked fully fit at the World Cup because of long-standing knee problems, said the Asian Cup was the perfect platform for Japan to reestablish their credibility following the poor showing in Brazil. "We had a disappointing performance at the World Cup, but we have re-set ourselves with a new team and a new coach and the Asian Cup is very important in terms of showing our supporters a strong Japan team again," Hasebe said. "We have lost some respect around Asia due to the performance in Brazil. So the Asian Cup is very important." Their opening opponents are expected to be their easiest in Australia, with rank outsiders Palestine competing at the top table of Asian soccer for the first time. Palestine coach Ahmed Al-Hassan started with Ashraf Al-Fawaghra, who was the tournament top scorer when they won the AFC Challenge Cup last year to qualify for Australia, and Swedish-based Mahmoud Dhadha in a lineup expected to sit deep and counter. The coach was hoping the element of surprise could unsettle the holders and tournament favourites. "Japan don't have much information about us, only in the AFC Challenge Cup they saw us, but that's not enough," he said. Japan - 1-Eiji Kawashima; 21-Gotoku Sakai, 22-Maya Yoshida, 6-Masato Morishige, 5-Yuto Nagatomo; 17-Makoto Hasebe, 7-Yasuhito Endo; 18-Takashi Inui, 10-Shinji Kagawa, 4-Keisuke Honda; 9-Shinji Okazaki Palestine - 21-Ramzi Saleh; 4-Ahmed Mahajna, 15-Abdallatif Al-Bahdari, 18-Musab Battat, 14-Abdallah Jaber; 7-Ashraf Al-Fawaghra, 20-Khader Abuhammad, 23-Murad Said, 19-Abdulhamid Abuhabib, 10-Ismail Alamour; 16-Mahmoud Dhadha (Writing by Patrick Johnston; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)