A few people asked me why I had not reviewed day 3 to my surprise. So, despite time contraints, I will try to review as many days of the World Cup as I can from now on even though the posts might be a bit delayed.

Australia vs Japan 3-1

With Croatia and Brazil the other two teams in the group, the team which lost this match could say the world cup good bye. So when Japan scored that goal, which most Aussie supporters won’t even call a goal (as it wasn’t), Australians were enraged. It has taken many years for the Socceroos to qualify and it would have been a shame if they went out this way. So, I felt delighted when Australia pulled back the game with three quick goals in eight minutes. The game saw short passes and plenty of opportunities for both teams. It was quite hot but I wasn’t impressed be either team to be honest. The Australian date with destiny in the match versus Croatia is set though.

Czech Republic vs USA 3-0

When asked who will win the world cup, most people would say Brazil including me. Some would opt for Argentina, Holland, France or even Italy. How many people will give Czech Republic a chance? Despite the FIFA rankings being a joke (proven by the thrashing USA got), you have to stand up at take notice of the Czech Republic. They have a solid mid field and excellent attacking options. Apart from Nedved, they now have the young star - Rosicky!

Read the rest of this entry »

I caught up with Nicholas Watanabe for part 28 of the series. Nicholas is half Japanese half American, born in U.S. but went to Middle school and High School in Japan. He started playing football in Japan and has attended many J League matches in person.

I thank Nicholas for agreeing to the interview.

Tell us a bit about the Japanese football history and the football culture which exists.

The first notable date in Japanese football history was in the 1968 olympics where Japan won the bronze medal. Since then its been a rough road, winning Asia Cup for the first time in 1992. In 1998 they made their first appearance in World Cup. The last few years have shown Japanese soccer come to light and evolve as they have won the last two Asia Cups (2000 and 2004) and have made the knockout stage of the World Cup in 2002.

Tell us a bit about the Road to the World Cup – the qualification, and the emotions the fans went through at the time.

This time the road to World Cup was quite tense. Though Japan was the first to qualify their play throughout the qualifiers was quite poor. In many cases Japan beat countries that they had easily handled in the past by margins of only a goal or two. A lot of the blame was placed on the new coach Zico, who has been criticized by fans since day one. I think many fans were unhappy, and some even demonstrated outside of the Japanese Football Association offices in Tokyo.

Read the rest of this entry »