EDITORIAL: Japan's World Cup feat

The Samurai Blue came to life and advanced.

Japan's national soccer squad defeated the Danish side soundly on Thursday, clinching a berth in the knockout stage of a World Cup held overseas for the first time.

A huge number of Japanese must have given a scream of delight in front of TVs as Keisuke Honda's stunning free kick sailed into the left corner of the goal in the first half.

This World Cup has already offered some big surprises. Defending champion Italy has been eliminated. France, which faced Italy in the 2006 World Cup final, self-destructed amid bitter feuding between the coach and players and went home without winning a single game.

The Japanese team, in contrast, has shown remarkable solidarity and steady performances.

A draw with the tall and powerful Danes would have been enough for Japan to reach the round of 16, but Takeshi Okada's squad played aggressively throughout the game and earned a well-deserved victory.

The performances of teams and players can offer precious lessons that help people deal with various problems they face in life. That's one of the benefits of watching sports.

Watching World Cup matches is particularly rewarding in this respect.

The Japanese team's brilliant performance also offers various lessons.

One is the importance of organizational strength. When players performing at their full potential work as a strongly united and highly motivated team, the 1-plus-1-equals-3 arithmetic of group synergies can add up. Japanese players appear to have strong faith in the dynamics of teamwork.

Another useful lesson is about an effective combination of instructions and judgments.

Four years ago, Zico, Japan's coach at that time, didn't put players in a tactical straitjacket as he respected individual initiative.

But Zico's approach didn't work, leaving the team directionless and confused. Japan performed miserably in Germany, failing to chalk up a single win.

This time around, the Japanese footballers have demonstrated great flexibility as they assess the situation on their own and make good offensive and defensive moves based on effective mutual communication while playing according to Okada's strategic and tactical instructions.

The Japanese team has also displayed an amazing ability to adjust.

As he started coaching the national team, Okada envisioned the traditional Japanese-style soccer that relies on accurate and short passes for attacks. But he found that this formula doesn't work when Japan faces a major soccer power in the world even if it is effective in games against other Asian teams.

This grim reality was brought into sharp relief by warm-up matches immediately before the World Cup, forcing Okada to change his tactics drastically at the last moment.

But this sudden change of tack didn't disconcert the players. They calmly accepted the change of policy and carried out their jobs diligently and steadily.

Soccer is a highly globalized sport that knows no national boundaries.

Nearly half of the members of the Japanese national team either have played for or currently belong to foreign clubs, including those of European leagues.

They have apparently acquired the flexibility and strength required to play well in such a big arena through their experiences of working hard to adjust themselves to widely different environments while making constant efforts to improve their skills.

Japanese goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima, handpicked by Okada immediately before the World Cup, has been upgrading his performance through the matches in South Africa. The great progress the player has made in the past two weeks has underscored the huge potential of young athletes.

Many Japanese have been encouraged by their national soccer team, which, in pursuit of a lofty ideal, has been trying hard to realize their dream while adjusting themselves to reality.

Their stellar performance in the World Cup has been a great gift for Japanese society, which has been mired in a hopeless sense of stagnation for some time now.

We can and should glean more useful lessons from the team's attempt to move ahead to play in the quarter-final games.

--The Asahi Shimbun, June 26