Saitama Stadium: Urawa v Newcastle United

Newcastle United are set to face Urawa at the Saitama Stadium.

Transcript

00:00Hello from the Saitama Stadium in Yoroa, where Newcastle United are playing the Yoroa Red

00:07Diamonds in their first of two pre-season friendlies over here in Japan this week.

00:14The game is taking place at the Japan National Stadium in Tokyo on Saturday, so yeah it's

00:21about 5 o'clock local time here, I hope you can hear me, stadium announcement music going

00:27on in the background.

00:28It'll be about a half-eleven kick-off UK time, half-seven here later on.

00:35In terms of team news, I wouldn't expect to see the likes of Lloyd Kelly, Sean Lonstaff,

00:41Joe Willock, who are just working up their fitness in pre-season, they should be available

00:47and should play in the Saturday game against Yokohama, could feature today but Eddie Howe

00:52said that probably later in the week would be more fitting for them.

00:58Should also see Bruno Gemmereich back for the first time playing, Sandro Tonnoli will

01:05be here today obviously for on-play, but yeah also six goalkeepers here, so it'll be interesting,

01:10would expect Epico to start and go, potentially Montevravka or Odysseus Blackademos come on

01:16for the second half, but we'll see what happens overall though.

01:21Really impressive venue here, obviously built for the 2002 World Cup, hosted I think the

01:26semi-final game against, between Brazil and Turkey, so yeah, stadium with, it's not that

01:34old but still quite a bit of history here, and just in and around the stadium all set

01:40up, Newcastle United fans, Japanese fans, fans flying from all over the world to be

01:46here this afternoon, or this evening rather, and yeah, the Newcastle shops popped up and

01:54everything like that, so nice atmosphere, building around the ground as you can see,

01:59only a few fans in at the moment, but yeah, you are a well-supported Japanese club in

02:05the middle of the season and sweltering conditions here, so even though you could argue a difference

02:10in technical quality, it should be a real physical test between the sides this evening

02:15here at the Saitama Stadium.