Reuters Soccer Blog
World Soccer views and news
from Raw Japan:
Japan coach Okada too bubbly?
As expected, Japan booked their place in next year’s World Cup soccer finals with two games to spare, sparking wild celebrations after a 1-0 win over Uzbekistan on Saturday.
Perhaps he had celebrated too much on the flight back from Tashkent, but less than 24 hours later Japan coach Takeshi Okada was talking about reaching the World Cup semi-finals in South Africa. It is hard to imagine Spain's Vicente del Bosque or England's Fabio Capello losing much sleep.
The Japanese have had a bit of a bee in their bonnet ever since South Korea stole their thunder by becoming the first Asian side to reach the last four in 2002, when the two countries co-hosted the tournament.
An embarrassing flop at the 2006 finals in Germany under Brazilian coach Zico stung even more – so much so that Japan’s best player Hidetoshi Nakata lay sobbing on the pitch after their last match and promptly quit the game. Japan have done little since to suggest they are on the verge of breaking into the world’s top four.
