Japanese media say Blue Samurai must toughen up for World Cup

Is it just me, or is the media being really hard on the home side? I don't think i've seen or heard this much criticism of the team. I understand they got thumped by Brazil, but it was Brazil! The played an exciting attacking style against Italy, the world Cup runner up, and almost beat them. Japan is starting to sound like Canada when we fail to win everything in ice hockey!

I think they're just being realistic.The players are their own biggest critics and this is what you want to hear fro a side that I'd really love to see do well next year to give it greater development possibilities.

MarkX, it's not just you. They played an exciting, attacking brand of football against Italy and were very unlucky in the end. The Japanese media should be focusing on that.

There's certainly a lot more positives to be had from that game against Italy than the game against Brazil.

Well, they do fall apart in the second half compare to the first half.

Is it just me, or is the media being really hard on the home side? I don't think i've seen or heard this much criticism of the team. I understand they got thumped by Brazil, but it was Brazil!

Probably just you, as the main stream media hasn't been that rough on the team really. Plus take into consideration that the media here have an appalling record of building up everyone's expectations for victory(ies)!

The media built the team up so high that people actually thought they had a great chance to beat Brazil. The media here does this with all athletes or teams that perform on the world stage. They make them appear as being the best in the world and then pout when the results don't equal the hype.

If you follow along long enough you either learn to take the hype with a grain of salt, or you allow it build your own expectations up (like the general public seems to do) and then be depressed and disappointed when the results are not what you "expected".

The media built the team up so high that people actually thought they had a great chance to beat Brazil.

The truth is that no one expected Japanese NT to beat Brazil...

The media here does this with all athletes or teams that perform on the world stage. They make them appear as being the best in the world and then pout when the results don't equal the hype.

Well, I haven;t hear of a Japanese football player who said he's best in the World. But I heard about some wanting to aim at it.

then be depressed and disappointed when the results are not what you "expected".

....no one exepected Japan to be world-beaters... And it's not hyping up because football takes the main place in the nation...

There's plenty of quality in there with Karawa, Nagatomo, Hasebe and even Okazaki regularly making dangerous runs into the box. Now if Honda would only learn how to pass instead of taking wild off-target shots whenever he gets within 25 yards of goal I think they'll be alright.

Well, I haven;t hear of a Japanese football player who said he's best in the World. But I heard about some wanting to aim at it.

Did you actually comprehend what you are quoting and responding to? I never said anything about the players themselves, I was writing about how the MEDIA over-hypes the team, and any and all athletes here in Japan that perform on the world stage!

.no one exepected Japan to be world-beaters... And it's not hyping up because football takes the main place in the nation...

Outside of Japan maybe, but if you actually live here and watch any news or talk shows you would intimately understand otherwise.

If you discount Uchida's own goal, then there were two costly lapses of concentration.

One was when Japan was two up and you could feel them beginning to relax, as of they had somehow built up an impossible wall for Italy to get over. But those two points were achieved on nervous energy and it was no time to rest on their laurels.

Secondly, and I haven't been able to see the replay properly, but that last goal was set up by a wild clearing kick away from the goal by one of the Japanese players. You could see what was going to happen, as if in slow motion. If that kick had been a better judged and executed pass as throughout the rest of the match, the ball would not have been taken by Italy and driven into Japan's net at the last minute.

They're still guilty of trying to walk it in BUT credit where it's due, Japan were very impressive. It was a massive improvement on their recent mediocrity. So many times they had the Italians chasing shadows. Football doesn't always reward the better team with a win so in this case I think anyone critical of them should get off their backs.

Criticism is OK, but the media should learn to criticize when Japan wins as well.

Japanese media need to toughen up and stop bleating and hand-wringing the way they were doing after the Brazil game.

@Yubaru,

Some gave you thumbs down, but you were right about the media being ridiculously optimistic in initially before every World Cup.

Some gave you thumbs down, but you were right about the media being ridiculously optimistic in initially before every World Cup.

lol, you probably haven't been in Japan before the last WC when the team lost badly few friendlies and the mood was nothing but gloomy over Okada's Japan... Where did you got it?

Did you actually comprehend what you are quoting and responding to? I never said anything about the players themselves, I was writing about how the MEDIA over-hypes the team, and any and all athletes here in Japan that perform on the world stage!

What mythical 'media'? I know that Honda, Nagatomo or Kagawa can say they aim at the top as they're top-class players playing in big European clubs, but media? What kind of? Nikkan, Sponichi?

Outside of Japan maybe, but if you actually live here and watch any news or talk shows you would intimately understand otherwise.

In news they report, in talk shows football is rarely a matter of discussion there. Aside from few (name me two biggest shows about Japanese football in TV as it seems like you don't know what you're talking abou btw) football dedicated shows late in the evening/night there's not much but still they show football (not only Japanese) nicely.

Criticism is OK, but the media should learn to criticize when Japan wins as well.

I'd rather concentrate on writing what happened and explain why rather than criticize... There's 2ch to bash everyone.

Japan doesn't need to 'toughen up', they just need a couple of good strikers, instead of having a coach switch them around constantly to see if one will get lucky. The media here is shameless, and takes a LOT of the blame for when Japanese teams/athletes fall so hard because the media puts them on too high a pedestal before they can actually prove themselves. You see this time and again, in pretty much any sport, and even with organizations like the JOC ("We will get FIFTEEN gold medals, guaranteed!").

The media has no right to bash anyone but themselves.

Despite the disappointing results of the game against Italy, I truly enjoy watching this game. It was fast paced, great passing, goals and near misses and I could go on and on! Japan has truly improved from their World Cup experience three years ago.

It was about this time 4 years ago when the media was begging for Coach Okada to be let go and fans were booing him at all of the games. He gets the team through a few wins in the World Cup and the fair-weather fans and media act like Okada is a God.

@Shankun...it's not worth replying to your post, your "information" seems nothing more than a attempt to elicit a response that is argumentative.

Your information is incorrect that's all I will say. Have a nice day!

Shankun - I have been saying the same thing for years. I think people look at the pop-style presentation of Japanese morning news game highlights, or the Jay Kabira pre-game comments and misinterpret that as actual media optimism. If they're guilty of anything, it's cheerleading, in the "Go team!" sense, which I'm not a fan of. But when you ask people to give you ACTUAL quotes of where there has been any sort of guarantees of a Japanese victory made by the media, they come up empty. When people watch TV with preconceived notions, they tend to hear what the want (or don't want) to hear, and don't hear what is actually being said.

smithinjapan - You say this all the time, but what is the exact quote for the guarantee of the 15 gold medals? Giving an optimistic prediction and guaranteeing it are completely different things. Canada and other Olympic committees do the exact same thing before every Olympics. Japan is no better or worse than these countries. I have asked before, but you have never been able to give the exact quote.

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