By Anthony Sloan
I am in a soccer pool. The scoring process and drawing process was and is convoluted and overly complicated. It was thought out by an Englishman, so I guess it’s to be expected. Essentially, everybody drew a “good” team and a “bad” team, as I believe was determined by the FIFA world ranks. I was the only participant to draw the country of which I am a citizen.
But I don’t need to discuss the stars and stripes, as much has already been written and there will be much more to come. I am going to give you a quick breakdown on Japan, my B team, based on some lazy internet research. Let’s change it to lazy googling. Research is a strong word.
Japan burst onto the global soccer scene in 1968 with a third place finish at the Olympics. However, the team would not make the World Cup until 1998, where the team’s best finish is the round of 16. The national team has had the most success at the Asian cup, where they have been crowned champions 4 times. Fun Wikipedia fact: their worst lost came in the early 1900’s to the Philippines. Japan would have their revenge 50 years later in their biggest win as a national club.
The Japan kits are either a blue that is somewhere between royal and navy or neon yellow. Orange and pink are the accent colors. Yellow recently replaced white as the alternate kit. Another fun fact, Japan wears blue instead of red due to a superstition that dates back to the 30s. Japan’s nickname is either Daihyo, Zac Japan (coach’s name abbreviation) or Samurai Blue. Am I the only person that thinks Samurai Blue is about 113 times cooler than the other two?? At any rate, that’s the name I will be using.
Now to the actual football: The “Blue” are a fun team to watch on the attack but have lost some of the defensive discipline that gave them success in past years. Japan lacks physicality across the board. Joji Sakurai of the Associated Press and Andrew McGirdy, Japan soccer writer, are both of the opinion that they are a confusing team that can amaze you one match and confound you the next. As a Tottenham supporter, this is par for the course, so I should have no problem cheering for them. SB will need to dominate possession in the middle of the field to minimize the opposition’s scoring chances. Wait… this is exactly like Spurs! I wonder if they also have a keeper that will terrify me any time he touches the ball with a body part other than his hands. I can only hope.
Key players: Keisuke Honda – attacking midfielder, Shinji Kagawa – midfielder, Shinji Okazaki – striker, Yuyo Nagatomo – back
Check back for my observations from their first World Cup match against the Ivory Coast. In the meantime… Nippon Ole, Nippon Ole.
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