Japan's World Cup Progress

[Claude_Dreyfus]

I'm sure there are a few on here that have been taking a passing interest in what has been happening in South Africa. Whilst there have been a few interesting results - one in particular being somewhat galling depending on your point of view - one result has been relevent to this forum. Japan have just won.

 

This is, I believe, their first world cup victory away from home soil. Watching their progress with interest!

[Bernard]

Not really being a Football fan (too many sports in the USA to cover) I just came back from South Korea where I interviewed some of their soccer players, Ji-Sung Park and Chung-Yong Lee. Park plays for Manchester U., Lee for the Bolton Wanderers. Both were very nice to interview.

 

But Claude...aren't you rooting for England

[Martijn Meerts]

I've watched pretty much all games so far, most of them have been insanely boring though.

 

Hopefully some better ones coming up next week, some countries will HAVE to go all out in order to advance to the next stage of the world cup.

 

All in all it's been disappointing though, much rather watch the Stanley Cup, but those games usually start around 3 or 4 in the AM over here =)

[Lawrence]

Fantastic result for Japan tonight beating Denmark 3-1, their next game against Paraguay should be a cracker

[bikkuri bahn]

Fantastic result for Japan tonight beating Denmark 3-1, their next game against Paraguay should be a cracker

 

Yes, it's a pity I missed the game (it was a very early AM broadcast here in Japan), but I saw the highlights on the morning news programs.  Many of my students were sleepy in class today....

[Kabutoni]

Altogether with my home team of the Netherlands, I had a great night with my Japanese friends here in Bonn. Just returned from an all-nighter with beer, beer, jägermeister and beer. Time for beds. It's already 日の出 times.

[Fat Al]

It was pretty crazy here in Tokyo this morning when I woke up. Apparently people were still celebrating at 7 a.m.

[Martijn Meerts]

Eurosport has compiled a list of the best 11 players from the group stages of the world cup. It's based on the average scores over the 3 matches from both experts and viewers.

 

There's 3 Japanese players in the list, which is more than any other country. There were no Brazilian players at all =)

 

I don't have a link, I only saw it in the Eurosport iPhone app.

[Martijn Meerts]

Call me crazy, but I just ordered the official Japanese home jersey =)

 

(It sure beats the bland, orange Dutch jersey ;))

[bikkuri bahn]

There's 3 Japanese players in the list, which is more than any other country.

 

One of the by-products of Japan's surprising performance in the World Cup is the exposure the players get to the world media.  Those 3 may be getting interest from European clubs.  Certainly CSKA Moscow may not be able to hold on to Honda much longer (or they may be tempted to sell him?)

[Martijn Meerts]

Not sure what'll happen to Honda. I live in the city where he used to play in the Netherlands, so I've heard a lot of talk about his possible transfers to big clubs (the big ones in the Netherlands for example were all interested.) A lot of players go to big clubs too early, or go from a small club where they're a star player, to a big one where they have to fight for a spot.

 

I think Honda actually did quite well going to Moscow. He would've done well at Ajax as well, but they couldn't afford the asking price. In Moscow he'll likely get experience in a European cup as well, which should be good for him.

 

My personal favorite in the Japanese team was Tanaka though. I thought he looked a lot like a samurai, even though he's only like 1/4th Japanese, and he's one hell of a defender =)