Japan coach Okada blasts Scotland no-shows

YOKOHAMA —

Japan coach Takeshi Okada has voiced frustration over Scotland’s decision to make a raft of late changes to their squad ahead of Saturday’s friendly in Yokohama. ‘‘When they announced the squad, we were expecting them to bring their best players. They made some changes and it is very disappointing for us,’’ said Okada, who only found out Scotland were bringing a makeshift side before Thursday’s Asian Cup qualifier against Hong Kong.

Ten players have withdrawn from the squad Scotland coach George Burley originally named last week. Manchester United midfielder Darren Fletcher and Tottenham fullback Alan Hutton pulled out before Scotland were set to fly out to the Far East on Wednesday, following Scott Brown, Shaun Maloney, Danny Fox, Kevin Thomson, Steven Naismith, Robert Snodgrass, Garry O’Connor and Scott Robertson.

‘‘At this time of year is difficult to arrange friendlies against strong opposition. I could sort of understand that they would send a second-string squad but we want to be informed before they come. It is hard for us to believe that all those players got injured all of a sudden,’’ said Okada. ‘‘I had thought about playing the best team I had against Scotland. Now we don’t care who we are playing against, we are just going to worry about ourselves.’’