Japanese football started late, entered the World Cup for the first time in 1998, entered the World Cup in 2002 as the host, and our national football team entered the World Cup for the first time in 2002. At that time, the gap between China and Japan was not big. Now 20 years later, it is hard to describe it and a sigh.
Some people say that Japan's victory over Germany cannot be called an unpopular one. Japanese team main lineups play for European League , such as Europa League championship, Bundesliga Kamada Dadi , Ligue 1 Monaco's Takumi Minami , Portuguese Super Portuguese Sports Hidemasato Morita , Premier League Arsenal Fu'an Kenyo , etc.
20 years, Japanese football has made great progress. There are some sayings that Japan is the only one in Asia, with South Korea, Australia, Iran and Saudi Arabia in the second level, Syria , Iraq , Qatar , and the United Arab Emirates rank in the third level.
The power of Japanese football is about two points:
1. A strong mass base, that is, the football population is large. There are about 800,000 registered players in Japan, while there are only 8,000 registered players in major countries with a population of 1.4 billion. There is also a school football system in Japan. If you have watched the Japanese cartoon "Football Boy", you will know.
2. Japan takes the Brazilian technical route and has Spanish transmission according to its own racial characteristics (such as height and strength). Instead of studying Italy today, Germany tomorrow, and Yugoslavia the day after tomorrow, they eventually became the four-dimensional one.
Japan participated in the 1998, 2002 (local), 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022 World Cups in succession. Japan no longer looks down on the World Cup qualifiers, and Japan's football goal is to win the World Cup championship in 2050. Before this, we must maintain the basic results of reaching at least the semi-finals of the World Cup.
Japanese football was not as good as our country. The national football team in the 1970s was stronger than Japan and was a first-class team in Asia. 1982 Spanish World Cup qualifiers, the national football team defeated Japan 1-0, and Japan was later eliminated by North Korea. At that time, South Korea was better than the national football team, and North Korea was stronger than Japan.
1990 Italian World Cup qualifiers, Japan defeated its strongest opponent North Korea 2:1 in the group stage, and defeated Indonesia 5:0. Although North Korea qualifies, Japan already looks like a strong East Asian team.
After years of hard work, Japanese football has made great achievements in 1992 and won the championship of the Asian Cup held in the local area for the first time. In 1993, 28 years ago, Japan implemented the professional league, namely the J League, which started almost the same as the professional league in my country.
1998 World Cup qualifiers, Japan won 1 win and 1 loss against South Korea in the second stage of the group stage, and its strength is equal. Although Japan ranked second in the group to play the playoffs, it defeated Iran 3:2 overtime and entered the World Cup for the first time in history. From then on, Japanese football ushered in spring and later won three Asian Cup championships (not counting the 1992 class).
Picture - Mount Fuji, Japan
In 2002, I thought it was the starting point of the Chinese national football team's World Cup. In 2022, seeing Japan reverse the four-time World Cup champion Germany, hey, a sigh.
