JOHANNESBURG // When Japan qualified for their first World Cup finals in 1998, the hopes of the island nation rested on Hidetoshi Nakata, the creative midfielder named the Asian Football Confederation's Player of the Year for the two previous seasons. Twelve years ago, the Blue Samurais, even with the talented playmaker pulling the strings in the centre of the field, crashed out of the competition without winning a single point with only a solitary goal to show for their endeavours.
Today, facing Paraguay in Pretoria and bidding to reach the quarter-finals for the first time in their history, Japan will rely on a new creative general. Like Nakata, Keisuke Honda's blonde hair helps him stand out on the field, but it is his dangerous left foot, his ability to turn quickly and his remarkable ability to render quality defenders helpless that makes him a more potent threat than his predecessor.
The CSKA Moscow midfielder scored a fabulous free-kick against Denmark - his second goal of the tournament - and, like Takeshi Okada, his coach, believes his side can progress further than ever before. "I am happy," said Honda after helping his country overcome the Danes 3-1 in their final Group E match. "But less happy than I had expected. I fully recognised the importance of [the] match and I had expected to be really jubilant if we won.
"Why is that not the case? Maybe because we have not finished the competition. We have to go further; step by step I want to go higher." Having been grouped with Denmark, Cameroon and Holland, Okada was mocked when he predicted his side could reach the semi-finals of the tournament. Arsene Wenger, the manager of English Premier League club Arsenal who once managed the Japanese side Nagoya Grampus Eight, former employers of Honda, told Okada before the tournament that, such were his side's deficiencies, if he were to successfully negotiate the group stages, he should have a statue erected in his honour in the centre of Tokyo.
Okada succeeded in progressing and while no stonemason has yet been organised, there is no denying something is being developed in East Asia. Along with South Korea, Japan are helping disprove doubters who say Asian teams are lightweight and fitness-reliant. Both teams were impressive on home soil at the 2002 tournament, but before this month, Japan had never won a World Cup match on foreign soil, while South Korea had only ever progressed to the last 16 at their own tournament.
Both records have now been banished. South Korea may have showed inexperience in their 2-1 second-round defeat to Uruguay - their goalkeeper Sung-ryong Jung's immature mistake allowing Luis Suarez to open the scoring - but their quick, counter-attacking football in the group stages won them many plaudits. And Okada said that the exit of his Asian neighbours will only make his side fight even harder to progress.
"Of course, I think we have to play with extra pride as we are now the only Asian representatives," the coach said. "My desire to beat Paraguay is even more resolute." Japan have never beaten a South American nation at a World Cup, having lost to Argentina in France and being humbled by Brazil four years ago. But, with Honda the driving force and Paraguay struggling for cohesion in attack, they have never had such a great opportunity to emerge victorious.
If they manage that, a quarter-final tie with Spain or Portugal beckons. @Email:gmeenaghan@thenational.ae
