**External link to the website except written in Japanese
In the final of Asian Cup 2011 Japan defeated Australia at the score 1-0 after extra time!
Congratulations, Zac Japan!
The score was tied at 0-0 when the second half of extra time kicked off.
It was a fourth-generation Korean-Japanese substitute forward Lee Tadanari (李忠成) (No. 19) who relieved Maeda Ryoichi (前田遼一) (No. 11) at 8 min. of the first half of extra time (98 min. in total) and shot the winning point (very beautiful direct volley shoot!) assisted by defender Nagatomo Yuto (長友佑都) (No. 5),
[Read more] (Partly added Feb. 3, 2011.)
By the way, Lee was born and grown in Japan but was of South-Korean nationality until 2007 and had been called up for Korea Republic team in 2004 (see here*.)
He said with an interview after the final match that he hoped strongly "I'm a hero, I wanna be a hero!" when he was warming a bench (see here**, here* or his blog*.)
Considering a Korean player against Japan in the semifinal Ki Sung-Yong (キ・ソンヨン, 奇誠庸) who performed a racismic mimicry of monkey, in other words, in spite of the fact that not all of but some of Korean people hate Japan for the historical background, it would be great and proud for the Japanese, or at least for me as one of them that Lee made a big contribution to Japan team's triumph, became a hero and got the spotlight.
Also a South-Korean daily newspaper the JoongAng Ilbo (チュンアンイルボ, 中央日報) celebrated him upon the winning shot (see here*.)
In this tournament Japan substitute or (starting but) non-regular players took important roles to make a winning goal in every match; as well as Lee, Inoha Masahiko (伊野波雅彦) (No. 2) (vs. Qatar, quarterfinal), Hosogai Hajime (細貝萌) (No. 13) (vs. Korea Republic, semifinal.)
And in Japan the coach Alberto Zaccheroni (アルベルト・ザッケローニ) is sometimes called "magical commander" (魔術的な指揮官; 采配の魔術師) because in this tournament he completely manipulated substitute players in order to win a game as if he had managed invisible strings.
In the final also Nagatomo who assisted Lee to make the winning point was a starting member but changed his position from left side-back (defender) to left wing-back (midfielder) with the relief from midfielder Fujimoto Jungo (藤本淳吾) (No. 14) to defender Iwamasa Daiki (岩政大樹) (No. 3.)
As a result Nagatomo's position shift brought the great win and the Cup to Japan.
In my opinion in this tournament Japan had no super star player like Maradona (マラドーナ) with Argentina in World Cup 1986.
Honda Keisuke (本田圭祐) (No. 18) had been selected as MVP of this tournament but scored only 1 goal on penalty-kick (vs. Syria, group B.)
Kagawa Shinji (香川真司) (No. 10) left the team after the match against Korea Republic because of his right leg's breaking.
Goalkeeper Kawashima Eiji (川島永嗣) (No. 1) showed a lot of super saves in the match against Korea Republic or Australia and had been selected as man of the final match (see here**) but in the match against Syria he was dismissed because of Red Card, which could have been however caused by the misjudge and in the match against Qatar because of his bad play he easily allowed the rival team to score a goal on a free kick after Yoshida Maya's (吉田麻也) dismissal on 18 min. of the second half (63 min. in total.)
And Japan experienced very hard games (e.g. fighting with 10 players in 2 matches or to the finish on penalty-shootout), which could have been caused by the absence of super players.
However, it might be possible that in Japan people sympathized with and eagerly cheered up the team through TV, radio or the internet because they had no star and had to survive from hard matches.
As the coach Zaccheroni had emphasized again and again, Japan team has a "great solidarity" ("grande compattezza" in Italian) (途方もない団結力) and it brought wins to the team. Not only regular players but also non-regular, substitute or bench-warming members, the team staffs and of course the coach were united tightly with each other.
In union they stood. In union they made a final stand.
In view of individual technique, some players of Japan team in Asian Cup 2004 or World Cup 2006 (e.g. Nakata Hidetoshi (中田英寿), Nakamura Shunsuke (中村俊輔), Ono Shinji (小野伸二) and others) might have had more technical skill than the present team.
But generally speaking, the team which survives from hard matches is sympathized by fans more than the team which wins games easily with super stars. In other words, hard matches thrill spectators much more than easy matches.
As for myself, I feel deep sympathy for the present team because many players of the team are close to me in age; Honda (2 years younger than I), Okazaki Shinji (岡崎慎司) (No. 9) (2 years younger), Nagatomo (2 years younger), Lee (1 year younger), Hasebe Makoto (長谷部誠) (No. 17) (1 year older), Kawashima (2 years older) etc. while unfortunately no players (born between April 2. 1984 and April 1. 1985) are as same old as I (my birthday is June 23. 1984) (see here*.)
Next it is planned on July that Japan will participate in Copa America 2011 Argentina (サッカー南米選手権アルゼンチン大会) by being invited by its organizer CONMEBOL (South America's football governing body) (南米サッカー連盟).
In South America there are a lot of very strong teams so it is expected that Japan will have hard matches but I hope that Japan would fight very well!
And we must not forget that next year Summer Olympic in London will be held!
It took me 4 days (Jan. 30 to Feb. 2) to write this article.
I have not been used to writing in English or other foreign languages yet.
Especially it is hard for me to write in a foreign language about a theme except my daily life, for example, sports.
Very tired...
He said with an interview after the final match that he hoped strongly "I'm a hero, I wanna be a hero!" when he was warming a bench (see here**, here* or his blog*.)
Considering a Korean player against Japan in the semifinal Ki Sung-Yong (キ・ソンヨン, 奇誠庸) who performed a racismic mimicry of monkey, in other words, in spite of the fact that not all of but some of Korean people hate Japan for the historical background, it would be great and proud for the Japanese, or at least for me as one of them that Lee made a big contribution to Japan team's triumph, became a hero and got the spotlight.
Also a South-Korean daily newspaper the JoongAng Ilbo (チュンアンイルボ, 中央日報) celebrated him upon the winning shot (see here*.)
In this tournament Japan substitute or (starting but) non-regular players took important roles to make a winning goal in every match; as well as Lee, Inoha Masahiko (伊野波雅彦) (No. 2) (vs. Qatar, quarterfinal), Hosogai Hajime (細貝萌) (No. 13) (vs. Korea Republic, semifinal.)
And in Japan the coach Alberto Zaccheroni (アルベルト・ザッケローニ) is sometimes called "magical commander" (魔術的な指揮官; 采配の魔術師) because in this tournament he completely manipulated substitute players in order to win a game as if he had managed invisible strings.
In the final also Nagatomo who assisted Lee to make the winning point was a starting member but changed his position from left side-back (defender) to left wing-back (midfielder) with the relief from midfielder Fujimoto Jungo (藤本淳吾) (No. 14) to defender Iwamasa Daiki (岩政大樹) (No. 3.)
As a result Nagatomo's position shift brought the great win and the Cup to Japan.
In my opinion in this tournament Japan had no super star player like Maradona (マラドーナ) with Argentina in World Cup 1986.
Honda Keisuke (本田圭祐) (No. 18) had been selected as MVP of this tournament but scored only 1 goal on penalty-kick (vs. Syria, group B.)
Kagawa Shinji (香川真司) (No. 10) left the team after the match against Korea Republic because of his right leg's breaking.
Goalkeeper Kawashima Eiji (川島永嗣) (No. 1) showed a lot of super saves in the match against Korea Republic or Australia and had been selected as man of the final match (see here**) but in the match against Syria he was dismissed because of Red Card, which could have been however caused by the misjudge and in the match against Qatar because of his bad play he easily allowed the rival team to score a goal on a free kick after Yoshida Maya's (吉田麻也) dismissal on 18 min. of the second half (63 min. in total.)
And Japan experienced very hard games (e.g. fighting with 10 players in 2 matches or to the finish on penalty-shootout), which could have been caused by the absence of super players.
However, it might be possible that in Japan people sympathized with and eagerly cheered up the team through TV, radio or the internet because they had no star and had to survive from hard matches.
As the coach Zaccheroni had emphasized again and again, Japan team has a "great solidarity" ("grande compattezza" in Italian) (途方もない団結力) and it brought wins to the team. Not only regular players but also non-regular, substitute or bench-warming members, the team staffs and of course the coach were united tightly with each other.
In union they stood. In union they made a final stand.
In view of individual technique, some players of Japan team in Asian Cup 2004 or World Cup 2006 (e.g. Nakata Hidetoshi (中田英寿), Nakamura Shunsuke (中村俊輔), Ono Shinji (小野伸二) and others) might have had more technical skill than the present team.
But generally speaking, the team which survives from hard matches is sympathized by fans more than the team which wins games easily with super stars. In other words, hard matches thrill spectators much more than easy matches.
As for myself, I feel deep sympathy for the present team because many players of the team are close to me in age; Honda (2 years younger than I), Okazaki Shinji (岡崎慎司) (No. 9) (2 years younger), Nagatomo (2 years younger), Lee (1 year younger), Hasebe Makoto (長谷部誠) (No. 17) (1 year older), Kawashima (2 years older) etc. while unfortunately no players (born between April 2. 1984 and April 1. 1985) are as same old as I (my birthday is June 23. 1984) (see here*.)
Next it is planned on July that Japan will participate in Copa America 2011 Argentina (サッカー南米選手権アルゼンチン大会) by being invited by its organizer CONMEBOL (South America's football governing body) (南米サッカー連盟).
In South America there are a lot of very strong teams so it is expected that Japan will have hard matches but I hope that Japan would fight very well!
And we must not forget that next year Summer Olympic in London will be held!
It took me 4 days (Jan. 30 to Feb. 2) to write this article.
I have not been used to writing in English or other foreign languages yet.
Especially it is hard for me to write in a foreign language about a theme except my daily life, for example, sports.
Very tired...
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