Japan’s long and desperate search for a consistent and quality striker may at last be over. How FIFA will react to the news is as yet unknown, but the Japanese Football Association must barely be able to control their glee.
The Sony produced Qrio certainly looks the part, although programmers are apparently having problems getting the young upstart to gesticulate wildly at officials, and dive at the slightest hint of contact.
Kev says
Isn’t he a little fella? Wouldn’t work well in defence, and he’s not nippy enough to play on the wing…
Lee says
“Isn’t he a little fella? Wouldn’t work well in defence, and he’s not nippy enough to play on the wing…”
That just about describes the rest of the Japanese squad!
Nah, that’s not fair. They do have a decent midfield, but as strikers go…
Kev says
A big deal was made out of Hide during the World Cup, and he did almost nothing. The problem Japan has is that they’ve few big name internationals. There’s only a couple in England, isn’t there? Inomoto is one… he’s a Fulham now, isn’t he?
Lee says
Yeah, I think Inamoto is the only Japanese player in England now. Toda was at Spurs for a bit, but that didn’t work out. And we (Bolton) had nishizawa for a while a few seasons ago, but he just warmed the bench (if he was lucky).
Once you get past Nakata, Ono, and Inamoto, real quality is a bit hard to find. A pity, as the potential for the game here is huge.
Kev says
I think the Japanese understand the game (as proven by the quality of the Winning Eleven/Pro Evo Soccer games!), they just lack the passion like Europe and South America have. Japan seems to be keen on being passionate about an individual, since so much focus in their life is on the “team” ethic. When an individual, or a select few, shines they go mad for them – but I don’t think you’d get that with a whole team.
Or maybe I’m reading too much into it 🙂
Lee says
It’s strange. When the national team play, the tickets sell like hot cakes, and the stadium is always sold out. Regardless how pointless a friendly it is. And everybody puts on their replica kit for the occassion.
But then when it’s over nobody mentions the team again, or wears their Japan top. Until the next time they play.
So the passion is there, but not all the time.
The old national team coach Troussier once said that he couldn’t understand the team, as in the hotel after a game nobody talked about the match. He said it was as though it never happened.
Kev says
I suspect that’s the problem. None of the Japanese, players or fans, can be continually passionate about the game. It explains why the J-League will never be comparable to other leagues, if you don’t have so many people permanently following their team.