I knew we made a good impression in Japan, but a petition to get a friendly organised......this has got to be a first!! Anyone for a second visit to Roppongi??? Taken from Soccercentral.ie Message Board From August to October,We collected about 1,000 signatures about Ireland VS Japan,the friedly match.. You can look at the scene in the web site of Asahi Newspaper.(*) http://mytown.asahi.com/chiba/news01.asp?c=4&kiji=223 Today,we have deliveryed the signatures to Irish Embassy in Japan by hand, will delivery Japan Football Asociation at 11.10 in hand and send to FAI by air mail. Win the match, vs Switzerland! See you again,in the World Cup Germany! //////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (*) The follwings are translations from the topic of Asahi Newspaper. Boys in Green Again! Japanese supporters looking for a Friendly Match with the Irish (Tokyo, 18th of September 2002) In Tokyo, two voluntary groups started a signature collection campaign for a friendly match of Japan vs. Ireland. Irish squad did impress the Japanese football fans by their never-give-up sprit which they showed throughout their games in FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan 2002. By the end of September, the two groups are planning to hand in the collected signatures to organizations such as Japan Football Association, Irish Embassy in Tokyo, Football Association of Ireland and so forth. In Chiba-city where the Irish squad stayed while the World Cup period, people are also joining this signature collection campaign. About 20 members of voluntary groups from both 'Boys in Blue and Green' (BBG) and 'C-Link' based in Tokyo started this signature collection campaign. The both groups are founded after the World Cup for the purpose of cultural communication of Japan and Ireland. These two groups are planning to make a demand to invite Irish team to Kirin Cup, towards both Japan Football Association and Kirin - the official sponsor of Kirin Cup. Kirin Cup is being held annually for the purpose of strengthening Japanese squad. In World Cup Korea/Japan 2002, Irish squad progressed to the best 16 just as same as Japanese squad did. Despite Roy Keane broke away from the squad, Irish squad did very good job by getting a goal from MVP goalkeeper Oliver Kahn during the loss time in the first round of their match against Germany. Such a play style of Irish squad became popular among Japanese football fans. Happy and friendly Irish supporters were also the part of popularity of the Irish squad in Japan. Both groups, BBG and C-Link started their activity from middle of August and they had collected about a hundred signatures so far. Some are from places like Izumo where Irish squad stayed for the first half of their stay in Japan, and also from Niigata where the Irish had a match during the World Cup. 33 years old businessman from BBG whom in charge of the signature collection campaign says "We are collecting signatures by asking people in Irish pubs and also by emails. Our goal is to collect a thousand of signatures by the end of the campaign". Chiba Ireland Support Club - the supports from Chiba-city are also cooperating with this campaign. Public relations of Japan Football Association state "This is first time for us to have this kind of demand from supporters. It will be a good opportunity to have a large number of request from supporters". For inquiry, you can email to: mr_broken english@yahoo.co.jp If you wish to join the signature collection campaign, you can send an email to above address with your name, residential address (county and area. No street name is necessary).
Now that's what football should be about - can't help smiling as you read it It'd actually be a good game as well, and just imagine the atmosphere!
I was in Brazil in late July, before Paraguay had been picked as their first game after the Final. What I found very interesting was that there was a strong belief in the press that Ireland would be and should be that opponent, and by and large this was met with approval, on the basis that the press were very impressed with Ireland's run in the WC. Some articles went so far as to say that Ireland might have been the team Brazil would not/might not have beaten at the WC. One article said that Brazil were fortunate to have played Belgium and not Ireland in the 2nd round. All were really impressed by the heart shown by the boys in green and believed that they had more than Brazil, but Brazil had more skill. Speaking to people there, some were pretending/trying to sympathize with me, I'm sure, but many said they had Ireland as their 2nd team and many people were very interested to know more about the team and country. The reports of the Irish fans had reached there also, and there was huge respect for the size of the traveling army and the passion they brought with them to Japan and Korea.
Next you will tell us they had a statue erected in honour of Richard "Samba Football" Dunne! As for flying to Japan to play a friendly... Sounds a bit like that mad Latin American tour Ireland did under Eoin Hand. (Still shivering!)