Showing Some International Love: Olympic Pre-Qualification - Group J

The last of the Olympic qualifying previews. Japan host Group J (how appropriate) and would like to do better after a mediocre World Championship earlier this year.

Note: Most data from the IIHF website.

World Rankings

21. Great Britain
22. Japan
27. Romania
28. South Korea

Rosters

Rosters as of November 6

Great Britain

Goalies: Ben Bowns (Hull Stingrays), Stephen Murphy (Belfast Giants), Geoffrey Woolhouse (Sheffield Steelers)
Defense: Stephen Lee (Nottingham Panthers), Daniel Meyers (Sheffied Steelers), Ben O'Connor (Arlan Kokshetau), David Phillips (Belfast Giants), Kevin Phillips (Braehead Clan), Mark Richardson (Arlan Kokshetau), Mark Thomas (Sheffield Steelers), Jonathan Weaver (Nottingham Panthers)
Forwards: David Clarke (Nottingham Panthers), Benjamin Davies (Cardiff Devils), John Dolan (Fife Flyers), Robert Dowd (IF Troja-Ljungby), Robert Farmer (Braehead Clan), Mark Garside (Belfast Giants), Jason Hewitt (Sheffield Steelers), Phillip Hill (Cardiff Devils), Leigh Jamieson (Milton Keynes Lightning), Robert Lachowicz (Nottingham Panthers), David Longstaff (Guildford Flames), Matthew Myers (Nottingham Panthers), Aaron Nell (Swindon Wildcats), Gregory Owen (Basingstoke Bison), Craig Peacock (Belfast Giants), Jonathan Phillips (Sheffield Steelers), Rodney Sarich (Sheffield Steelers), Colion Shields (Sheffield Steelers), Ashley Tait (Sheffield Steelers)

Japan

Goalies: Yutaka Fukufuji (Nikko Ice Bucks), Masahito Haruna (Oji Eagles), Michikazu Hata (Tohoku Free Blades), Yuta Narisawa (Oji Eagles)
Defense: Yosuke Haga (Oji Eagles), Ryo Hashimoto (Oji Eagles), Makoto Kawashima (Oji Eagles), Aaron Keller (Oji Eagles), Hideyuki Osawa (Nippon Paper Cranes), Kazumasa Sasaki (Oji Eagles), Jun Tonosaki (Nippon Paper Cranes), Kotaro Yamada (Waseda University), Takafumi Yamashita (Oji Eagles), Shinya Yanadori (Nippon Paper Cranes)
Forwards: Masato Domeki (Oji Eagles), Yoshinori Iimura (Nippon Paper Cranes), Takeshi Ishizuka (Nikko Ice Bucks), Takuma Kawai (Tohoku Free Blades), Shuhel Kuji (Oji Eagles), Kohel Mitamura (Oji Eagles), Masahito Nishwaki (Nippon Paper Cranes), Daisuke Obara (Nippon Paper Cranes), Takeshi Saito (Oji Eagles), Tetsuya Saito (Oji Eagles), Motoki Sakagami (Nippon Paper Cranes), Hiroshi Sato (Nippon Paper Cranes), Sho Sato (Oji Eagles), Masahito Suzuki (Tohoku Free Blades), Takahito Suzuki (Nikko Ice Bucks), Seiji Takahashi (Oji Eagles), Go Tanaka (Tohoku Free Blades), Ryo Tanaka (Tohoku Free Blades), Hiromichi Terao (Oji Eagles), Hiroki Ueno (Nikko Ice Bucks), Takuro Yamashita (Tohoku Free Blades)

Romania

Goalies: Adrian Catrinoi Cornea (Steaua Bucharest), Rajmond Fulop (Corona Brasov), Gellert Puczuj (HSC Csikszereda)
Defense: Tibor Basilidesz (Corona Brasov), Otto Biro (HSC Csikszereda), Attila Goga (HSC Csikszereda), Endre Kosa(HSC Csikszereda), Csaba Nagy (Corona Brasov), Szabolcs Papp (HSC Csikszereda), Daniel Tranca (HSC Csikszereda)
Forwards: Zsolt Balint (Corona Brasov), Tihamer Becze (HSC Csikszereda), Catalin Berdila (Steaua Bucharest), Attila Borsos (Corona Brasov), Botond Flinta (HSC Csikszereda), Mihail Georgescu (Steaua Bucharest), Roberto Gliga (Tingsryds AIF), Attila Imecs (Corona Brasov), Ede Mihaly (HSC Csikszereda), Ervin Moldovan (HSC Csikszereda), Szabolcs Molnar (HSC Csikszereda), Zsolt Molnar (HSC Csikszereda), Leonard Pascaru (Steaua Bucharest), Levente Peter (HSC Csikszereda), Magnor Petres (HSC Csikszereda), Szabolcs Szocs (HSC Csikszereda), Csanad Virag (Corona Brasov), Levente Zsok (Corona Zsok)

South Korea

Goalies: Hyunseung Eum (Anyang Halla), Sungje Park (HC Keski-Uusimaa)
Defense: Donghwan Kim (Anyang Halla), Hyeok Kim (High1 Chuncheon), Wooyoung Kim (Anyang Halla), Yoonhwan Kim (Anyang Halla), Don Ku Lee (Anyang Halla), Seungyup Lee (Anyang Halla), Hyonho Oh (High1 Chuncheon), Kyungwon Yoon (Anyang Halla)
Forwards: Hyun Min Ahn (High1 Chuncheon), Min Ho Cho (Anyang Halla), Bungchun Jung (Anyang Halla), Geunho Kim (Anyang Halla), Hyung Joon Kim (High1 Chuncheon), Kisung Kim (HC Keski-Uusimaa), Sang Wook Kim (HC Keski-Uusimaa), Won Jung Kim (Anyang Halla), Yuwon Lee (High1 Chuncheon), Woosang Park (Anyang Halla), Sangwoo Sin (Anyang Halla), Wooje Sung (HC Keski-Uusimaa)

Schedule

November 9
Great Britain - South Korea
Japan - Romania

November 10
Romania - Great Britain
Japan - South Korea

November 11
South Korea - Romania
Great Britain - Japan

Last 5 International Matches

Great Britain: Win (Hungary) - Loss (Japan) - Win (Ukraine) - Loss (Austria) - Loss (Slovenia)
Japan: Loss (Ukraine) - Win (Great Britain) - Win (Austria) - Loss (Slovenia) - Loss (Hungary)
Romania: Win (Australia) - Win (Lithuania) - Loss (South Korea) - Loss (Poland) - Loss (Netherlands)
South Korea: Win (Poland) - Win (Netherlands) - Win (Romania) - Win (Lithuania) - Win (Australia)

Predictions

1 (Qualify) - Japan
2 - Great Britain
3 - South Korea
4 - Romania

I see the Asian teams doing well in this group. Japan shutout Great Britain last time they met. I don't see Great Britain getting any redemption, meaning Japan will move on. On the other hand, Great Britain also had a bad World Championship and will want to get back on the right track. The Japan-Great Britain game will be closer than last time, but the result stays the same. Japan moves on in qualifying. In the bottom half, South Korea beat Romania in their last World Championship matchup, and I don't see a reason for that not to happen again. Romania has a tendency to either win close or lose big, and one of those big losses was against South Korea. South Korea doesn't have the skill to hang with the top half of the group, but will be seated comfortably in third. Romania finishes fourth.