Football resumed in Japan after the country sufficiently recovered from the tsunami as Vegalta Sendai played their first home J-League match.

Their long-awaited re-appearance at the Yurtec Stadium came 50 days after the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami devastated Miyagi prefecture and other areas along Japan's northeast coast.

Standing on the pitch before the game against Urawa Red Diamonds -- which finished in a 1-0 win for Sendai -- prefecture governor Yoshihiro Murai declared the contest "the kickoff towards reconstruction".

The Japanese Football Association is set to appeal against the red card given to Eiji Kawashima. The Samurai Blue goalkeeper was shown a red card for a last-man foul but replays have since shown that Sanharib Malki, the Syrian player brought down by Kawashima, was offside.

The document speaks of a “clear misjudgment” on behalf of the referee, Mr. Torki, and asks for cancellation of Kawashima’s suspension.

The JFA’s indignation may be fueled by another refereeing error that cost Japan a goal in their recent 1-1 draw with Jordan.

New Zealand has annouced a friendly with Japan in the coming months. They will play China in the southern city of Nanning on March 25 and Japan on March 29. The venue for the Japan Football match - likely to be Tokyo - was due to be announced by the Japan Football Association at a press conference in the Japanese capital tonight.

Japanese football officials visited Wirral as part of cultural exchange. Sixteen executives from the country's J-League spent two days at Tranmere Rovers' Prenton Park before watching the team play Peterborough United on Saturday.

On Friday the group, including senior officials from 12 teams, met manager Les Parry and watched the team train. They then visited the club's refurbished recreation centre before receiving presentations from Tranmere's Learning Centre, Youth department and Rovers in the Community.

New Japan coach Alberto Zaccheroni says that he is impressed with his team's performance in the World Cup. Borussia Dortmund midfielder Shinji Kagawa netted the only goal in Japan's 1-0 win against the South Americans, who defeated the Blue Samurai on penalties in their last-16 clash in South Africa.

"It's the beginning of a new adventure. Please always stay with us," the Italian coach told a sellout crowd of more than 65,000 people in Yokohama after Japan's first game since the South African showpiece.

FIFA praised the Japanese stadiums while inspecting Japan's 2022 World Cup bid. On the third day of a four-day visit to Japan, the delegates were also treated to a dinner by Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who said his government was fully supporting the bid.

A five-member team from the sport's world governing body earlier visited the 64,000-seat stadium in the satellite city of Saitama, north of Tokyo, after spending two days in the western city of Osaka.

Former Celtic midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura has been named in Japan's 23-man squad for the World Cup finals after recovering from an ankle injury.

Nakamura, 31, missed the friendly against England on Sunday but played all 90 minutes of a behind-closed-doors match on Monday.

The Yokohama Marinos playmaker should feature in Japan's final warm-up game against Ivory Coast on Friday.

Coach Takeshi Okada's named four European-based players in his squad.

They are Wolfsburg's Makoto Hasebe, CSKA Moscow's Keisuke Honda, Grenoble's Daisuke Matsui and Catania's Takayuki Morimoto.

Shunsuke Nakamura revealed that he moved back to the J-League because he wants to be fit for the 2010 World Cup.

Arguably one of Japan's top players in the last two decades along with Hidetoshi Nakata, Nakamura became a Celtic legend as he thrilled the Scottish crowd with his wonderful free-kicks and passing ability.

However, his move to La Liga outfit Espanyol in the summer proved to be a wrong one as he failed to settle down and has subsequently moved back to the J-League to play for Yokohama F Marinos last month.

England will play Mexico and Japan in friendly internationals as part of their final preparations for next summer's World Cup in South Africa.

Fabio Capello will name his 23-man squad for the finals on June 1, but ahead of that date there will be a pre-tournament training camp in Austria.

Capello will name the provisional squad which travels to that camp on May 16, the day after the FA Cup final.

Any players involved in the FA Cup final or May 22's Champions League final will follow a differen itinery.