Kreza23 comments

papasmurfinjapan - Fair enough, BUT (and I'm not trying to say the A League isn't a good league, so don't get me wrong)an average of less than 10,000 a game for only 11 teams still isn't a great figure.

And when you factor in total attendance for both leagues (and obviously there are people who went to more than 1 game) it was 5.8 million for the J League and 1.3 million for the A League, so that figure is closer to being equal to the 6 times population discrepancy than it seems at first glance. And this doesn't even factor in figures for J2 teams and JFL teams.

smithinjapan -

Personally I'm cheering for Australia because I would like to see them win, and because I believe the passion of the fans and said soccer rage are realer than in Japan, where it tends to be a trend to like a sports team or athlete. Still, I hope both teams make it interesting and soccer grows as a result in both nations.

In 2009, before Japan's somewhat successful run at the World Cup, Japan's average league attendance record for the J League was around 19,000 fans per game, while in the A-League, it was less than 10,000. Attendance figures don't mean everything, but you're really underestimating Japan's passion for the game.

vg866 - Is it Japan's fault that Korea decided to send those three players to take the penalties? Why didn't Park step up and go for it? He was there in line with the rest of the team.

Koo, Lee and Hong are very solid young players. You keep saying that they weren't good enough to be on the 2010 World Cup squad, but neither was Kagawa for Japan, and he's one of the central players for Japan now.

Injuries suck and they're a part of the sport, but everybody deals with them. Japan's staple at the World Cup was Honda and their defending. Japan is missing their top two central backs in Nakazawa and Tulio, plus their next choices Kurihara and Makino. So you're basically getting Japan's "C-class" defenders.

Korea is a fantastic team, and I don't see them making excuses, so why are you?

On another note, there's big news about Ki Sung-young because he made mocking monkey faces after his PK in the first half, and it looks like FIFA might step in because of their hard stance on racism.

Who was it that said that Japan was lucky to make it because their group was easier? Well, the two semi-finalists from Japan's ended up (Russia and Japan of course) ended up winning 3 of 4 games against the two semi-finalists in the other (Brazil and the US, the only loss obviously was Japan going down to Brazil 3-2). Anyways, congrats to all the teams, especially the three medalists!

Believe it or not, this gives Asia a SLIGHTLY better chance for 2022, though still not much as I think we'll see it in either Qatar or the US.

Qatar IS an Asian country (or at least it is in the eyes of FIFA). And given there is now one less competitor, saying that the Asian countries have a better shot now is simply stating the obvious. Simple mathematics will tell you that. It's not exactly a "believe it or not"-worthy statement.

sfjp330 - You couldn't be any more wrong. I grew up on baseball and captained my high school baseball team. Your views on intentional cheating vs. subtle cheating confuse me, because you can be subtle about the way you cheat but intend to do it. What exactly constitutes subtle cheating to you, that isn't intentional? And why is cheating OK to you if it's subtle?

If you think the other team is stealing signs, you can throw them a brush back pitch. If that's not your style, you get your pitcher to talk to the catcher and change the signs up. If you're worried about location, and not pitch selection, you get your catcher to set up outside, and have the pitcher throw inside. There are a lot of things you can do about it, and they happen often. If I were a coach, I wouldn't encourage sign stealing, but it's a lost art, and if people can do it, I don't see anything wrong with it. You just have to do a better job of hiding your signs.

If stealing signs was seen as such a serious offense, then why would catchers hide their signs so deep between their legs and try to hide what they want their pitcher to throw? Why would third base coaches develop a complex system of signs for the hitter to take in? If baseball were such a gentleman's game, why wouldn't they just leave their signs out in the open and assume the other team wouldn't look to gain an advantage?

sfjp330 - "In baseball, there is the official rulebook, which teaches kids how to play. And there is the unofficial, unwritten rulebook, stored in players' heads and psyches, with boundaries determined only when crossed. And there is one more rule in baseball: The unwritten is always more important than the written. There is a saying in baseball that if you aren't cheating, you aren't trying. What this means is that manager of the Japanese teams approved what their kids were doing and teaches kids that cheating (unofficial) is ok to get ahead. Japanese team should've forfeit from this international competition."

I see you're not crazy about stealing signs, but what's the rule on stealing material, cuz the first bit of your post is totally from a website. I felt like I had read that somewhere before and looked up, and sure enough, word for word.

ElJeffeEnJapon - "How many LL teams are there in Curacao or Chinese Taipei? Granted Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka will have proportionally larger numbers of teams fighting for the right to represent Japan but how many inaka prefectures are there where the number of LL's are much lower? Thus making their route to a national championship and a ticket to the LLWS that much easier? Baseball is America's national sport. LL's are everywhere in every state, including Alaska (they get to play a lot of baseball up there due to the extra sunlight in summer). My point is that there is a lot more baseball being played in the US and usually at very high levels. That's why we have a separate tourney and get an automatic birth in the LLWS championship game."

Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) used to dominate the Little League World Series when I was growing up, so I have no idea how many teams or little leagues there are there, but I do know that baseball is immensely popular there and that they are extremely strong, especially for that age group.

The little league world series is made up of 16 teams, 8 from the US and the other 8 from around the world. So to make the LLWS, a team from the US has to be the best team in a group of about 5 or 6 states. For a Japanese team to make it, they have to be the best team in the entire country. For a team from Taiwan to make it, they have to be the best in Taiwan, plus make it out of another group of countries including Korea and China. That team from Curacao had to beat teams from all over Latin America. I'm definitely not saying that it is easy to make it to the LLWS for a team from the US. Like I said, I'm not trying to downplay the accomplishments of these kids. But it DEFINITELY isn't much easier for a lot of these other teams to make it. You are completely underestimating how popular baseball is in these countries, and you are underestimating the process they have to go through to make it to the tournament.

Branded - This team from Tokyo, Edogawa Minami is one of MANY teams representing one of the many leagues in Tokyo. So they don't simply have their choice of players from all over the prefecture. In fact, over the past decade, there have been three different teams from Tokyo that have represented Japan. If you really believe that the population base was such a big factor, why wasn't there a team from New York city in the finals for the American side? How about a team from California? Why is it so hard for you to simply congratulate the Japanese team without making any snarky remarks? All the kids in this tournament played hard, and they should ALL be proud of themselves, no matter where they are from.

ElJeffeEnJapon　－"Then you get state regionals, state championship, regionals and THEN you get a ticket to Penn. to play the best in the country before facing the international champs. No discredit to Japan but countries like Japan, SK, Curacao and other Latin American countries definitely do not have it as tough to get in."

And I certainly don't mean to discredit all of the hard work that it takes for American teams to make it, but what makes you think that it was any easier for the other teams to qualify? I'm sure there were tons of tournaments that the Japanese team (as well as the other teams involved) had to advance through to even qualify for this event.

Branded - "Gee- where to begin ? How about, well... Tokyo has a population of well over 12 million compared to Waipahu at just under a million. Considering the huge talent base to draw from its hard to imagine how Japan hasn't won this for better than 7 years now !"

Gee, where to begin? If you are considering population and talent base, then the population of the US is higher than that of Japan, which I'm sure you were well aware of. So you might want to re-think that point.

But then again, the population of Tokyo compared to Waipahu is completely irrelevant as well. They didn't choose the best players from all over Tokyo to compete. These are club teams, and this team had to beat other teams from Tokyo as well as the rest of Japan (and the world) to make it this far. A larger Tokyo population probably means they had to face more teams to qualify, rather than having more players to choose from.

Wow, I didn't think the term "hafu" was that awful. I grew up in Toronto (which for a while was regarded the most multicultural city in the world), and when people would meet, they would always ask "What's your background?" and you would get replies like "I'm half Scottish and half Chinese" or "I'm half Irish, and a quarter Swedish and a quarter Filipino". It was like asking people their sign. I grew up using the terms "half" and "quarter" and I never thought it was racist at all.

Branded - "Many of you, horsefella, kreza23,roomtemperature, etc seem to think Americans are in agony over "winning" the Silver."

When did I ever say anything about the US being in agony? I congratulated Team USA and haven't made a single negative comment towards them. Nor have I been here trying to rub it in anyone's face. All I've said is that you were wrong in blaming Miller for being out of position on the goal. I said that he had very good position, and that Crosby just shot it sooner than expected and snuck it between Miller's legs. That's just the way the game goes sometimes. You can have perfect positioning and still get beat.

And again, your comment about the World Championships determining anything is just plain ridiculous. A lot of the best players in the world can't play in that tournament because it goes on during the NHL playoffs. If you're looking for another tournament outside of the Olympics that means anything, the World Cup of Hockey is where it's at. The States won in 96, and Canada in 2004, and the next one will be held in 2011. This tournament is organized by the NHL, so all the best players are eligible for this one.

"ha- hardly Buddy ! We got NBA playoffs, The Final Four, The Masters, The WC soccer tournement, ML baseball, and of course the NFL ! See why Americans have no time for this "Own the podium" BS ?"

I don't know what kind of preconceived notions you have about Canada, but TV's DO exist there. There are plenty of Canadians (including myself) who have grown enjoying some, or all of those sporting events you've mentioned.

"Seems things in Canada haven't changed much; you all can dish it out but hey, can't take much of your own medicine."

Again, I haven't done any trash-talking, but judging by your comments, it looks like it goes both ways.

Branded - Please, you've already said previously that you're a hockey newbie, and now you're claiming to know how a goalie is supposed to play? Miller had good position, he had his angles well covered, but Crosby just snuck it five-hole.

And these World Championships you speak of? Are you serious? This tournament goes on every year, and it's right in the middle of the playoffs, so only players from NHL teams that didn't make the playoffs, or have been eliminated early can participate. Nobody brags about winning that tournament.

Branded - I'm no goalie, but you're supposed to hug the post when the puck is behind or at the side of your net. Miller was positioned well for that goal, he was square to the shooter and was covering a lot of net. Crosby just shot it sooner than he expected and he wasn't completely set.

xpompey8 - "USA will be a dominant force in 2014. Just look at the Chicago Blackhawks right now - an amazing group of young talented players who will bring them the Stanley Cup in due time."

What do the Blackhawks have to do with anything? They're a great team, but they have about two American players on the entire team, and only one of them was on the Team USA roster. Patrick Kane is great, but Team Canada had 3 members of the Blackhawks (Toews, Seabrook and Keith) on their team.

Branded - "Cover yer near"???? What are you on about? The puck went five-hole.

A little late, but just wanted to give a big "Hell yeah!!!" to the boys in red and white. I got up at 5 to watch the game, and had to get to work by 8:30, so I was dreading the game going to overtime because of time constraints, and was dreading a penalty shootout even more, because there would have been no way I could've watched it and made it to work on time. Thank goodness for Sidney Crosby for not only winning it for Canada, but also for allowing me to get out the door just in the nick of time.

And congrats to the U.S. as well for a hard-fought game and tournament. Your speed was scary, and Patrick Kane had me sweating bullets every time he touched the puck. What a great game, and what a great tournament overall for hockey!

smithinjapan - I think you're correct in voicing concerns about the Japanese media, but in my opinion, you're a little off in your assessment. It's not like the media blames these athletes for "failures", in fact, seeing footage of medal winners over and over again will tell you that it's the exact opposite. They eat that stuff up (as they should) and celebrate any medals they receive.

The questioning of Mao after her performance, which I was also disgusted with, has nothing to do with disappointment from the media, but rather the infatuation of having an athlete cry on television because it's believed to add drama. You can see it in other interviews, where the athlete doesn't cry, but the interviewer tries his/her (usually his) best to trigger the tears by basically asking the same thing in a number of different ways. I defend Japanese media on this site quite often, because I think there is a lot of unfair criticism from foreigners because they are misinterpreting what they hear on TV, but an absolute pet peeve of mine is how poor the quality of questions are after a sporting event. Nakata was a real jerk to journalists in Japan after he went to Italy, but without knowing him at all, I would venture to guess that it was because he realized how stupid a lot of the questions he was being asked were, and he felt that it was an insult to his level of intelligence. Sometimes, the athletes are just too nice and respond to the crap they're being asked.

paulinusa - "That said, love him or hate him, how many of you were aware of short track skating until he came along."

Oh gimme a break. Despite what you may think, the entire world doesn't revolve around America and it's athletes. I, as well as many others, were well aware of short-track speed skating long before he became enemy number one in South Korea. I'm sure he did a lot to make it more popular in the States, and I respect all of his achievements, but that comment is ignorance at it's worst.

okapake - This isn't only directed at you, as there are MANY others making the same claim, but show me an article or clip where the Japanese media has GUARANTEED a medal. I watch quite a bit of TV, and I read quite a bit as well, but I have never seen a guarantee of any sort. They may call some of their athletes "medal hopefuls" which is commonplace in other countries as well, but no guarantees. I really question the Japanese proficiency of a lot of the people making these claims on JT, as I think there is a lot being lost in translation that is putting a negative slant on your views. I'm not trying to put anyone down if you don't understand a lot of Japanese, I'm just saying that if you're gonna mock something, you should be sure that your claims are correct.

Anyways, these girls have impressed me. They've shown that they're capable of playing with some of the best, like narrowly losing to Canada, but you could see from the beginning of this game that they were all a little off.

pinch hitter - A team has to set an order (from 1-9) for their hitters. A pinch hitter is someone who is substituted for a player in the original 9 hitters. Kawakami, I assume, would've been set to hit 9th in the order, but was replaced by somebody else to hit for him (a pinch hitter).

day to day - When a player is hurt (but it isn't a severe injury), and the team chooses to decide whether the player is fit to play the next day. If not, they'll decide again the day after that, etc. They're observing whether an injury would prevent a player from playing on a day-to-day basis.

clubhouse - Is the change room area, locker room area, whatever you want to call it, for the players.

"Yao, at 7-foot-6, is the tallest active NBA player along with Shawn Bradley."

Shawn Bradley hasn't been in the league for years.

Blue Tiger - My apologies. I just looked at the clip again, and it's showing the Korean players lining up after they get their medals, and Japan waiting their turn to receive theirs. Not after the entire Korean team received their medals. My mistake.

Blue Tiger - For goodness sakes. Why don't you talk to Bobbafett about the line up. He/she gave Team Korea grief about it. I didn't. I don't know why "proof positive" was in quotes, because I never said that. I couldn't find the TV broadcast of it, so I gave you that link which was the best I could find without spending a lot of time doing it. And I didn't say it was a "Congrats line-up" either. After getting their medals, they each lined up on their respective baselines. That clip was after Korea got their medals, and the Japanese players were getting waiting to get theirs.

As for Jojima. WHERE in my first comment did I imply he was being sportsmanlike? All I've said from the beginning is that he didn't like the call, so he protested it. He deservedly got thrown out for the manner he did it in. End of story.

"Etiehr defend Jojima for being professional and sportsmanlike or accuse him for being a spoiled brat who didn't get a call he felt he was supposed to get."

Are there no other options? Love him or hate him? You said he should've been tossed from the entire tournament, and that's what I disagreed with you about. He disagreed with a call and he showed that. But he didn't get up in the face of the umpire like many others have, and he didn't take a "hissy fit" and go back to the dugout and throw the Gatorade cooler around like others have. And even then, I don't think it would've meant he'd get thrown out of the entire tournament. Do you follow baseball? Is this not something you've seen before? Why are you making such a fuss about this Jojima incident? Basically what I'm saying here is, if we were to put this into soccer/football terms, you're saying he deserved a red card, I say yellow was fair, but for some reason you're asking me to choose between a red card or no card at all. I don't get it.

Really, I don't remember ever seeing teams line up to shake each other's hands after a professional game, but if you say it happens, can you find me a clip? And while you're at it, can you find a clip of a World Series win and the teams lining up before any celebration occurs? Honestly, if you can find one, I am completely willing to admit that I was wrong, but I do think that you're being unreasonable about Japan celebrating without shaking hands with the Korean team first. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that Team Korea was made up of players in Korea's professional baseball league, weren't they? I don't think their team was made up of " a LOT of amateur players".

I have no doubt that Japan feels like they deserved to win this tournament, but I don't know why you insist that they "look down their noses at the competition in (a.) Asia, and now (b.) the rest of the world." I'm not sure, but I really do think you're reading into things a little too much here.

smithinjapan - I appreciate your comments. But I really don't know where you've gotten the idea that I've said anything to disrespect Team Korea. Admittedly, I've been here trying to disprove that Japan is the root of all evil, so perhaps that's where you've misinterpreted me, but if you look at my comments, not a single negative comment was directed towards Korea. Not one.

"They definitely said 'Yappari'. I don't really think it's a big deal at all... in fact, I never mentioned it until some posters (nudge) decided to come on and complain about bad plays and calls, or how 'unsportsman-like' some teams can be, etc."

Is that nudge directed towards me? Because I've said from the beginning that there were questionable calls but that they went both ways and never complained about that. And how does what a commentator says have anything to do with how unsportsman-like a team is or isn't? I agree with a lot of what you say, and respect your opinion, but I continued to be puzzled at some of what you say to me. I think you're grouping me in with some other posters, because you keep accusing me of saying things that I haven't.

Bluetiger - Like I said, it wasn't me who originally brought this line up thing, so I don't know why you insist on me giving you proof, but here you go. Copy and paste this into youtube. WBC 2009 メダル授与. There is your line up.

When did I change my tune about Jojima? Here's what I said in my first post to you.

"And Jojima didn't have a hissy fit. He put his bat down and left it there. He was pissed off, and he showed it (very calmly). And he got thrown out of the game. Nothing more, nothing less. People argue calls in baseball all the time. That's not really much of an incident."

Here's the second one.

"Jojima laying the bat down was not sportsmanlike. I didn't disagree with that. But you're reading far too much into that, and you said that he should've been banned from the rest of the tournament, which is ludicrous. This may just be a matter of semantics, but to me, putting the bat down (not even throwing it) and walking away doesn't equal a "hissy fit". I don't think that had anything to do with a sense of "entitlement", and even less to do with the fact that they were playing Korea. Just protesting a call. He got thrown out of the game, and that's the end of that."

I think I'm being very consistent there. I don't know what you found to be different in both of those comments. But again, this is a matter of semantics, but I wouldn't consider muttering to oneself a hissy fit anyways. Whatever, what I'm saying here is that you're making a big fuss over absolutely nothing. I haven't seen anybody else here support your claim that Jojima should've been thrown out of the tournament for that. He got thrown out of the game, which I said was deserved, and that should be the end of it.

"Anyone also knows that before you line up, after a baseball game, and congratulate your own team, your winning team libnes up and walks across the field to congratulate the losing team on a good effort. Haven't YOU ever seen that (obviously not)?"

After any professional baseball game, after the game, players line up and the bench players line up while the starters go down the line and they each shake hands or give high fives. At least that's how it is during the regular season. After winning game four of the World Series (or whatever championship you are playing for), you go ballistic and everybody runs to the pitcher's mound and goes nuts. I didn't say the same rules applied for volleyball. Maybe at Koshien where there is a long tradition and set rules, but watch a professional game and tell me if you ever see that. Especially after a championship win? No way. I could care less if you don't believe that I played high school sports, but we certainly didn't line up right after winning our championship games.

smithinjapan - OK, you've changed when the commentators said "Yappari Samurai Japan" in your posts, unless by "trying to steal second", you mean when the guy tried to stretch a single into a double. If that is the case, it again tells me you don't know baseball very well, which is fine, no problem.

And maybe they did say "Yappari...", I don't know, I'm not gonna check on that, but even if they did, I don't see what the big deal with that is. It's just showing some faith in their players. The "doushiyou kana?" though, I'm willing to bet that they didn't say that, and that you misheard it. It doesn't make any sense. I remember the "Seifu to omotteita ga..." from Kiyohara, and the "hmmmmmm", and there is nothing wrong with that. I agree that there were questionable calls going both ways, and I've never said anything to suggest otherwise. And the commentators voiced their opinion on that particular call, but there is nothing wrong with that. But like I said, "doushiyou kana?" is a very strange comment to make there, and goes back to my point that people mishear or misinterpret things and give media unwarranted grief sometimes (although there are many times where it is deserved as well).

Anyways, it was a fun tournament, and I hope it grows to be an even bigger event the next time.

thorgrimfile and mecchasuki - Thank you for your posts. Good points from both of you.

Blue Tiger - "that turning of the back thing seems to have been a major offense in the eyes of the J-media. Amazing that I could find that offense absolutely NOWHERE on the internet. Big offense obviously."

I just want to clarify further on that point. I didn't bring this up originally, and I didn't make a big fuss out of it either. You were answering somebody else, and you countered that Japan should've gone right over to the Korean players to shake hands after the last out. I simply said that isn't the norm in baseball, and told you when this back turning incident occurred because you didn't seem to know.

smithinjapan - "The thing about Kreza is he shows up when Japan wins, and hides when they lose, and can't praise another team except Japan if his life depended on it -- which makes him fall exactly into the category you name when talking about Japanese being unable to congratulate any of the Korean players whatsoever"

After both of Japan's losses to Korea, I came on here and congratulated them. You can click on my name and see that for yourself. And the commentators never said "YAPPARI, SAMURAI JAPAN! YAPPARI!" after that play, nor did they say "Doushiou, kana? Hountou ni seifu to omotteita ga, doushiyou kana?!" Why would they say "Doushiou, kana?" What would they be able to do about it? I'm not sure how good your Japanese is, but it seems that you're hearing what you want to hear.

Bluetiger - I have listened to the comments. Give me one exact quote to support what you claim. On the contrary, I thought Hoshino was a bone-head at the Olympics and was hoping for a player to have the guts to call him out, but obviously that never happened.

Jojima laying the bat down was not sportsmanlike. I didn't disagree with that. But you're reading far too much into that, and you said that he should've been banned from the rest of the tournament, which is ludicrous. This may just be a matter of semantics, but to me, putting the bat down (not even throwing it) and walking away doesn't equal a "hissy fit". I don't think that had anything to do with a sense of "entitlement", and even less to do with the fact that they were playing Korea. Just protesting a call. He got thrown out of the game, and that's the end of that.

"And what line-up? When?" - The teams lined up after the celebration, the Korean team on the first base line after they accepted their medals, and the Japanese team on the third base line. Obviously you missed that.

"Finally, you've obviously neverp layed any knd of organized sport at any level." - Was captain of my high school baseball team and volleyball teams. Care to make any more assumptions? In baseball, you line up and shake hands with your own teammates. Have you not seen that?