新年明けましておめでとうございます。 Happy New Year to everyone. Hope that 2008 will go well for the men's national team. Here's the schedule for 2008 right now. 26 January, 19:10 -- Japan v Chile - National Stadium, Tokyo - KIRIN CHALLENGE CUP (Friendly) 30 January, 19:20 -- Japan v Bosnia-Herzegovina - National Stadium, Tokyo - KIRIN CHALLENGE CUP (Friendly) 6 February, 19:20 -- Japan v Thailand - Saitama Stadium, Saitama - FIFA WC 3rd Round Qualifier 17 February, 18:15 - Japan v DPR Korea - Chongqing Olympic Sports Center, China PR - EAFF Finals 20 February, 18:15 - China PR v Japan - Chongqing Olympic Sports Center, China PR - EAFF Finals 23 February, 18:15 - Japan v Korea Rep - Chongqing Olympic Sports Center, China PR - EAFF Finals 26 March, ??:?? ---- Bahrain v Japan - Bahrain National Stad, Manama - FIFA WC 3rd Round Qualifier ?? May, ??:?? ------ Japan v ??UNKNOWN TEAM 1?? - UNKNOWN - KIRIN CUP (Friendly) ?? May, ??:?? ------ Japan v ??UNKNOWN TEAM 2?? - UNKNOWN - KIRIN CUP (Friendly) 2 June, ??:?? ------ Japan v Oman - (Yokohama) - FIFA WC 3rd Round Qualifier 7 June, ??:?? ------ Oman v Japan - Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex, Muscat - FIFA WC 3rd Round Qualifier 14 June, ??:?? ----- Thailand v Japan - (Thailand) - FIFA WC 3rd Round Qualifier 22 June, ??:?? ----- Japan v Bahrain - Saitama Stadium, Saitama - FIFA WC 3rd Round Qualifier VN
With the Olympic Games nearing, It will be interesting to see if the Chinese fans will humiliate themselves by booing Japan's anthem, or if they'll show some sportsmanship... I hope common sense and love for soccer will prevail.
i don't think thats going to happen. They want to get a clean image. And if the Japanese team get them wired up, I suppose that image of them would not happen.
it would be a really funny but excruciating game to watch. Apart from that, if the chinese fans don't repeat the behavior shown from the 2004 asian cup that all means, that their government can do anything.
Ok, this should not degrade into a political discussion; however, the Chinese government can do ANYTHING. It is a totalitarian, one-party state. I think what they want/need now it is a clean "olympic" image, thus this time the level of tolerance will be very low. Well, we'll see...
Takahara's main reasoning for coming back to J.League is so he can play in all of the Japan NT games. That's brilliant. ---------- Also, first qualifying opponent Thailand are going to Manchester for 2 weeks to train with Manchester City cause the guy that owns Man City is from Thailand and they're gonna improve tactics apparently there. ----------- And Takeshi Okada said that his aim is to place better than South Korea did at 2002 WC Korea/Japan. so 3rd or up.
Is he securing the services of Southamerican referees as South Korea did? C'mon if they took Hyundais they would probably take aLexus, uh?
Is he securing the services of Southamerican referees as South Korea did? C'mon if they took Hyundais they would probably take a Lexus, uh?
come on Gora, we've been through this before! hehe u're italian, and i understand ur nationalism plays a part here... but still IF we counted the dubious calls for and against Italy im sure the box with the calls for ITaly would be quite much bigger than the one against. It was just payback time! ( and by that i means the calls were dubious, and came from poor refereeing, and was NOT the result of crooked koreans).
Hey we don't know for sure, anything can happen. I read about how Roy Jones Jr. was screwed. Most likely it is just Hiddink's magic luck in this case though..
Chile Name Squad For Japan Friendly: GK: Miguel Pinto (Universidad de Chile), Cristopher Toselli (Universidad Católica) DF: Roberto Cereceda (Colo-Colo) Osvaldo González (Universidad de Concepción) Gonzalo Jara (Colo-Colo) Hans Martínez (Universidad Católica) Gary Medel (Universidad Católica) MF: Marco Estrada May (Universidad de Chile) Gonzalo Fierro March (Colo-Colo) Manuel Iturra (Universidad de Chile) Pablo González (Universidad Católica) Fernando Meneses (Colo-Colo) Pedro Morales (Universidad de Chile) Carlos Villanueva (Audax Italiano) FW: Jean Beausejour (Cobreloa) Fabián Orellana (Audax Italiano) Eduardo Rubio (Colo-Colo) Mathias Vidangossy (Almería)
Which game are we talking about...? Which World Cup? The Koreans wanted Italy out even before meeting us... TWO REGULAR GOALS called off against Croatia... One against Mexico... phew... Yeah, sure. What about the game with Spain? If Japan would have bought refs the same way Korea did, they would have been in the semifinal as well... That Japan, with Inamoto and Nakata at their top, was much, muuuuuch better than that South Korea.
were they? A team with players like Toda, Ichikawa, Alex,Yanagisawa,Myojin,Suzuki etc as starting members. Don't get me wrong, I prefer Japan over Korea, and I think the last couple of years ahve shown that Japan is better than Korea. But regarding the 2002 versions of the teams i have to disagree. Japan VS South Korea Best: GK: Seigo Narazaki vs Lee Woon Jae Korea DF: Tsuneyasu Miyamoto vs Hong Myong Bo Korea DF: Naoki Matsuda vs Choi Jin Cheul Japan DF: Daisuke Ichikawa vs Kim Tae young Korea DF: Alex/Koji Nakata vs Song Chong Goog Korea MB: Shinji Ono vs Lee Young Pyo Japan MB: Hidetoshi Nakata vs Park Ji Sung Japan MB: Junichi Inamoto vs Yoo Sang Chul Korea MB: Kazuyuki Toda vs Kim Nam Il Korea FW: Takayuki Suzuki vs Ahn Jung Hwan Korea FW: Atsushi Yanagisawa vs Seol Ki Hyeon Korea Result: Korea 8 - Japan 3. But say, if Japan had Takahara, Nakamura etc with them they would perhaps have been better on paper, but I really think Korea was superior to Japan back then ( which is NOT the case today).
Ok, can you now count how many of the Japanese players actually had played in Europe, and how many of the Koreans...?
The Korean team of 02 was many many times better than the Japanese team. Don't fkc with me. But it's different now, the Japanese team is much more interesting.
well, 2 koreans if im not mistaken ( Seol and Ahn), and 3 japanese ( Inamoto, Ono and Hide Nakata) among the starters. Nishizawa and Kawaguchi played in Europe all right but that doesn't mean they were any better than the ones playing in K.League or J.League. Come on, why is it european clubs only buys korean players? especially not because korean players are superior to japanese ones. When a good but not great striker as Cho Jae Jin gets a call from Newcastle and other Premier LEague clubs while other equally as good or even better japanese strikers are being "overlooked" it don't have much to do with quality I think. Now we're off-topic here so we should be careful not to be yellow-carded
you know, in most cases it's actually the mass that's got it wrong and that poll just underlines that ^^ What about when Japan were humiliated 3-0 by Norway then a mere month prior to the World Cup?
Yeah, South Korea was good enough to tie at home against the US (a soccer powerhouse...) in the only non-rigged game they played.
Kawaguchi, Nakata Hide, Nakata Koji, Inamoto, Ono, Miyamoto, Toda, Yanagizawa, Nishizawa, Alex... Plus Takahara and Nakamura. It's almost the whole team!! Oh, by the way you forgot Park... who grew up in Japan as a soccer player... C'mon, be fair. I understand that the Koreans want to live in the illusion they had a great team and they won deservedly, but neutral observer have stated the truth in more than one occasion: South korea cheated. It is a known fact in the history of world soccer. amen.
nah, i disagree, I still think its black Hiddink magic. Seeing what htye did to Australia, yeah, South Korea were the better team in 02.
Yeah, his living and growing up in Korea and Guus Hiddink's assistance in development at PSV isn't worth mentioning. Many people, including Koreans, would agree those calls were questionable, but to call all of us cheaters is another thing. ps And you're an asshole.
going into the world cup, I actually thought Japan were the better team, having gotten to the final of the confed cup, and done well in friendlies, etc. maybe that inspired South Korea right before the world cup though.