But one thing that has him particularly excited is the prospect of facing off with former Vanuatu national team coach Carlos Buzzetti, now in charge of Fiji.
Iwai made 32 appearances for the Vanuatu senior national team and notched up an impressive 19 goals and for much of that time Buzzetti was his coach.
But times have changed and as Fiji and Vanuatu go in pursuit of a berth at Rio 2016, Iwai says opening the campaign against his former coach adds something extra to the encounter.
“Carlos was coaching me when I was U-20, U-23 and in the national team. When I left to go to Australia and play, that’s around the same time he left to go to Fiji,” Iwai recalls.
“He’s a very strong coach. He knows what he is doing, he understands the experience and he knows the game very well.”
Having played under Buzzetti’s rule for a number of years, Iwai says he’s well and truly schooled in the nuances of the Uruguayan’s style.
“I think I know every tactic and every system of how he plays because he coached me since I was 20 years old. That’s why when we played them during the Four Nations Friendship Cup in Vanuatu we beat them 1-0.”
While that win less than a month ago will certainly add some confidence to Iwai and his side’s approach, there is no sense of complacency.
“Sure it gives us a bit of an edge over them, but he’s the kind of coach who doesn’t like to lose. He will have gone back, regrouped and assessed what happened.
“But my young squad is very strong. I believe in my boys and I think they’re good enough for this competition.”
Buzzetti has fond memories of coaching Iwai and his compatriots.
“All the coaches now in Vanuatu are my ex-players in the national team from Etienne Mermer to Richard Iwai and Moise Poida. It’s good to see them all grow up,” Buzzetti says.
But now leading Fiji forward in this competition, Buzzetti says sentiment will only go so far.
“It was only a penalty that saw Vanuatu beat us, and even if they did play a good game I think we had some chances to score and everybody missed.”
With a revamped side that now includes several players who had been on national duty with the U-20s at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in New Zealand, Buzzetti believes his side could surprise.
“We’ve had a chance to see everybody but nobody has had a chance to see us because it’s essentially a new team,” he says.
“We hope the players can perform and we can do one better than we did in Vanuatu, but we remain very respectful of them as they play good football.
“We know how they operate and we know how Richard operates too so we will see what is more convenient for us to do in respect to how we approach the match.”
Fiji U-23 play Vanuatu U-23 at 2pm on Bisini Field 3 tomorrow (Friday 3 July) in the sides’ opening XV Pacific Games/OFC Olympic Qualifiers match.

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