“There is no opponent for Japan in Asia,” and “Our opponent is Vietnam..”
Chinese soccer fans are looking at the Japanese national team's recent moves with envious eyes.
On the 15th, 'Football Zone', which specializes in Japanese soccer, covered a report by 'China News Network', a Chinese digital news site, after Japan defeated Canada 4-1 in an international friendly match.
'Japan has a global scale. Fans in mainland China are also lamenting that 'there is no Japanese rival in Asia,'' said 'Japan's major news network'.
Regarding Japan scoring 22 goals in the last 5 A matches and running a 5-game winning streak, the media said, "Samurai Blue's offensive power is strong. Japan shows a confident play," and "Japan can defeat European teams." “However, China is still researching ways to defeat Vietnam,” he said, conveying the atmosphere in China regarding Japanese soccer.
He then conveyed the voices of Chinese fans who said, "Japan aims to win the World Cup by 2050. It may be realized sooner than that."
Japan, which has grown to a new level under coach Hajime Moriyasu, started with a 6-0 win over El Salvador and then defeated Peru (4-1), Germany (4-1), and Turkye (4-2). He scored 22 goals in 5 games and gave up only 5 goals.
As of September, it was ranked 19th, the only country in Asia to be in the top 10 of the FIFA rankings. Iran ranked 21st and Korea ranked 26th.
In Japan, the friendly matches held from last March to this month are considered the ‘first step’ in laying the foundation for the team. The World Cup Asian qualifiers, which will be held for 20 months starting next month, are the second stage of the ‘Fight with Asia’. Japan pulled off a 4-1 win without having Kaoru Mitoma (Brighton) selected from the list to protect his physical condition and without using Takefusa Kubo (Real Sociedad). Locally, favorable reviews are pouring in, saying, ‘No matter who comes out, the performance does not decline.’