Silent Lonesome Man

It's just two matchdays so it was too early to decide who can book places in Qatar. Yet the expectation people wanted to see, instead, came out with tons of surprise. One among them is shockingly Japan. The qualifying route for Qatar was initially smooth, the Japanese conquered the second round with no flaws, eight straight wins to reach the third round in a comfortable fashion. There, a wrong impression was created: Japan would go and occupy the no.1 spot in the third round, easily heading for Qatar. However, after just two games, Japan is facing a major danger of not qualifying for the World Cup. This came amidst the way how Japan showed up in the qualification. So, why should Japan's supporters be worried about such a scenario like this? This came when Japan started its campaign in the group containing Oman, Vietnam, Australia, China and Saudi Arabia. Among all of them, Japan was ranked the highest. This created a sentiment that Japan would go to take the first place, with a...

Japan is the last team I mentioned about, not because of any prejudice against Japan. Rather, I'd say the final mention of Japan was the result of extreme difficulties. Well, all we can realise is Japan's position in Asia is unquestionable. It's currently Asia's most formidable, as seen by its rapid development since the 1990s. It's far, far run from the previous amateur status of this country before the foundation of J.League. It's, even more, to say when Japan's rise to prominence came despite a great lack of football background - Japan's most popular sport has been baseball, a legacy of American influence in the nation. So how has a baseball-dominated country turned so powerful in football? It's about ambitious projects to implement. From the 1980s, Japanese sporting investors realised baseball would not bring the needed revenues due to the lack of popularity in other nations from outside the United States. This forced the Japanese to rethink its ...