Japanese Football Changed by Animation

　　Guangming Daily reporter Wang Dong

　　When the fans were still immersed in the discussion that Saudi Arabia beat Argentina, the favourite to win the championship, the Japanese team took the lead and beat Germany, another powerful team, 2-1.

　　The same score is 2-1, and the same is a reversal victory. The victories of Saudi Arabia and Japan not only make the qualifying situation of their groups different, but also make the world feel the rise of Asian football.

　　Speaking of the development of the Japanese team, we can’t help but mention an anime work more than 40 years ago: "Football Young".

　　In 1981, Soccer Kid made many Japanese children turn their interest from baseball to football. In 1993, the Japanese professional football league started, which also marked the change of Japanese football from specialization to professionalism, and most of the players were the children who changed from baseball field to football field under the influence of Soccer Young. It was also in this year’s World Cup qualifiers that Japan lost the ball at the last minute and was blocked from the World Cup finals.

　　In 1997, Japan defeated Iran 3-2 at the last minute and qualified for the first time from the Asian regional qualifiers. In the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, the host Japanese team qualified from the group for the first time and reached the top 16 of the World Cup. In the next 20 years, Japan never missed the World Cup finals. What supports the Japanese team to become a frequent visitor to the World Cup is the increasingly strong football atmosphere in Japan and the substantial increase in the domestic football population.

　　How many football people are there in Japan? In 2005, the Japanese Football Association issued the "2050 Manifesto", saying that by 2050, they will win the World Cup and have a football population of more than 10 million. Only five years later, the Japanese Football Association revealed that their football population had reached 4.8 million.

　　In addition to the increase in the football population, in recent years, more young players have gone abroad to join overseas high-level professional football clubs: in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, 14 of the Japanese team played overseas; 2018 fifa world cup, a total of 18 people in their squad play for European football clubs; This year, 20 players have played for European clubs.

　　Over the years, Japanese football has cultivated a number of players who have traveled to Europe through unremitting efforts, and accumulated experience in fighting against strong teams and high-intensity confrontation skills.

　　In the last World Cup, Japan, which qualified from the group for the third time and entered the knockout stage, met Belgium, the favorite team to win the championship in the eighth final. They once led by two goals and entered the quarterfinals with one foot, but they were finally reversed by the "European Red Devils" with three goals.

　　This time, the Japanese team that participated in FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 has a stronger lineup in Europe, and their style of play is very advanced. From the match with Germany, we can see that today’s Japanese team is becoming more mature and sophisticated.

　　The victories of Saudi Arabia and Japan are tantamount to a shot in the arm for the weak Asian football as a whole. However, unlike Saudi Arabia’s defeat of Argentina, which is generally regarded as a "shocking surprise", the Japanese team has long regarded defeating Germany and other world powers as the goal before the game, and even threatened to complete a big victory. This is by no means an individual’s imagination, but a reflection of their strength in becoming a football power.

　　40 years ago, in "Young Soccer Players", there was also a scene in which Japan and West Germany confronted each other. In that cartoon, the Japanese team led by Tsubasa Oozora finally defeated the West Germany team led by Schneider. Today, Schneider’s prototype, rummenigge, is only 67 years old, and the story that was regarded as a myth by fans in the past has been turned into reality by the Japanese team.