The 2012 Olympic Games: France & Japan Light Up Wembley
There has been quite a lot written over the last few days on the subject of the Olympic Games and its various interactions with association football. A lot of this...
Posts Tagged: "Japan"
The 2011 Womens World Cup Final: USA 2-2 Japan (Japan Win On Penalties)
It started slowly, before rising to a beautiful tumult and ended with a penalty shoot-out which ended in a victory for the team of the aesthetes. And then, on top...
The 2011 Womens World Cup: England 2-0 Japan
Coming into form at the right time is a critical aspect of tournament football, but it is one that occasionally feels as if it is overlooked. This evening, against a...
At Last, The Penalty Shoot-Out Arrives
Although so many of the normal constituents of a World Cup finals – complaints about the ball, Sepp Blatter contradicting himself in public, Cristiano Ronaldo’s pained expression & enormous Adam’s...
World Cup 2010: Paraguay 0-0 Japan (Paraguay win 5-3 on penalties)
They say that consistency helps in football. Especially in terms of number of players you use. This seems to be one of Japan’s tactics, as they enter this game with...
World Cup 2010: Japan 3-1 Denmark
Japan v Denmark has to wait until the boys on the Beeb can get Italy’s exit out of their system. But this is probably fair enough. Earlier group results have...
World Cup 2010: Netherlands 1-0 Japan
Patrick Viera’s role on ITV’s panel is increasingly to give reassurance to the others that France are worse than England, which should be money for old rope but, after the...
World Cup 2010: Japan 1-0 Cameroon
Sloppy, unprofessional, boring, unimaginative. And that was just Guy Mowbray and Mark Lawrenson in the BBC commentary box. Whilst not personally agreeing with the decision, I could see reasons for...
World Cup Preview: Group E
With the 2010 FIFA World Cup now just four weeks away, you should by now be able to visualise those wretched pull-out "Come On England" St. George's flags which come...
Good Hosts and Bad Hosts
Until someone figures out how to astroturf the moon and stop the corner flags floating away, all major sporting events have to take place somewhere. And when you have...
The World Cup Of National Anthems (Part Three)
For many people, major sports tournaments are the only occasion that national anthems are heard. These peculiar tunes have become a genre of their own, transcending the mere hymns that...
Brazil Nuts
Brazil 4-1 Japan / Australia 2-2 Croatia What, exactly, possessed the BBC make Brazil-Japan their featured match? Anyone looking at the schedule after the draw would have been able to...
Syonara?
Croatia 0-0 Japan After all the excitement of Saturday’s three frankly insane matches, we were back to something approaching drudgery as Japan took on Croatia. It’s worth congratulating Japan for...
Advance Australia Fair
Australia 3-1 Japan What a terrific game. Best of the tournament so far, in my humble opinion. Australia, as I said before, are a capable team, and are a decent...