Behind Japan’s reversal of two world championships: Why must players be “sent out”?

In the early morning of December 2, Beijing time, when the final whistle of the World Cup Group E match between Japan and Spain sounded, thousands of Japanese fans could no longer contain their excitement.

The Japanese team, which was not expected to be optimistic, came back and defeated two former world champion teams in three group games, and entered the top 16 as the group leader for the first time in history.

In the first game against Germany, the two players who scored goals both played in the Bundesliga. Early this morning, Tanaka Aoi, who scored the winning goal for the Japanese team, also played in the Bundesliga 2. It can be said that it is the foreign players trained in Germany who have "sent them home" alive.

What makes the Japanese team what it is today? What is the story behind the rise of Japanese football? On December 1, a reporter from the "Daily Business News" met in Chengdu with coach Keisuke Amano who was sent to China by the Japan Football Association. He believed that Japan has been trying to send players to Europe for training for more than ten years, and Europe represents The highest level and top system in football today. "Letting Japanese players go to Europe to play football will not only allow Japanese coaches and players to gain fresh knowledge, but they can also help verify whether Japan's previous ideas for developing football are correct and how to correct the direction."

As a professional coach who holds the Japan Football Association’s A-level coaching certificate and the Asian Football Confederation’s A-level coaching certificate, Keisuke Amano has been engaged in football youth training for more than 20 years, and has taught in the echelon of the Japanese J-League giant Kashima Antlers. Kiryo Ueda, who was selected into the Japanese team roster for this World Cup and currently plays in the Belgian First Division, was taught by Keisuke Amano at Kashima Antlers.

There are more than 450 Japanese players in Europe, and half of them play in Germany

The Japanese team defeated the "four-star" German team 2:1 in the first game of the World Cup in Qatar. People’s own words to comment on this game are “borrowing the roof and knocking down the main house”-for this World Cup, 21 of the players selected for Japan’s 26-man roster are playing in leagues outside Japan, creating a record for participating in the tournament. A new record for the number of Asian World Cup players who have studied abroad, with as many as eight playing in German leagues at various levels.

What needs to be pointed out is that Japan reversed the victory over Germany 2:1 in the first game. The goals scored by Ritsu Don'an and Takuma Asano were both from the Bundesliga. Defender Itakura_, who assisted Asano Takuma's winning goal, is also from Schalke 04 in the Bundesliga. Japan reversed the Spanish game 2:1. Ritsu Dongan scored the equalizing goal. Tanaka Aoi, who scored the winning goal, currently plays for Dusseldorf in the German second division.

Last year, the German transfer market website conducted a survey and found that the number of Japanese players in Europe has reached 451. Among them, the largest number of Japanese players playing in German leagues at all levels is as high as 250. It can be said that the German league has become the largest training ground for Japanese football strength.

Mapping the distribution of Japanese players in Europe: Editor Gao Han

NBD: After a large number of Japanese players went to Europe, what role did it play in promoting the development of Japanese football as a whole?

Amano Keisuke: There are currently many Japanese players playing in Europe. They have been exposed to the world's highest level of professional football and understand what the world's top standards are.

Players who have experienced their teenage years in Japan can integrate into the environment of the world's top leagues, allowing them to understand the most cutting-edge changes in world football. Through them, they can also bring many of the latest things, which in Japan A new football culture has also formed in the country.

Not only that, Japanese players studying abroad also give coaches and players involved in football greater self-confidence, allowing Japan to display the characteristics of Japanese football on the World Cup stage.

Although Japanese football has entered the World Cup finals many times in a row, many people can see that Japanese football is improving. However, in terms of the game process, it is generally difficult for Japan to overtake or even tie after falling behind. All are more difficult.

However, through this World Cup, we can see that no matter what the situation is on the field, even against a relatively strong team like Germany, the players can still adhere to the characteristics of Japanese football. This is also Their results after challenging themselves and accumulating experience on the World Cup stage many times also prove to a certain extent the accumulation of Japanese football over the years.

Why does Japanese football want to “go global”? Keisuke Amano: Football is a global sport

The first time Japan participated in the World Cup was the 1998 World Cup in France. In the six World Cups from 1998 to 2018, the Japanese team reached the top 16 three times, but the top 16 is also the best result of the Japanese team in the World Cup so far.

Drawing: Every editor Gao Han

Before the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, although Japan lost all the warm-up matches, relying on utilitarian "anti-counterattack" tactics, Japan Defeated Cameroon and Denmark in South Africa and successfully entered the top 16. Since then, the Japan Football Association has strategically used the opportunity of the top 16 of the World Cup in South Africa to send a large number of players to Europe. From this point of view, the development of Japanese football after 2010 is very similar to the fact that during the Meiji Restoration, "a large number of non-commissioned officers were sent to study in German and British military academies."

Since the World Cup in South Africa, Japanese players such as Shinji Kagawa, Keisuke Honda, Atsuhito Uchida, Yuto Nagatomo, Makoto Hasebe, Shinji Okazaki, Maya Yoshida, etc. have played in the five major European leagues. The main top players. Under the pavement of the "glorious" experience of their predecessors studying abroad, Japan has sent an endless stream of players to major European leagues in recent years. Nowadays, players like Takehiro Tomiyasu of the current Japanese team have also established a firm foothold in the world's top leagues such as the Premier League.

NBD: Why did the Japan Football Association take the 2010 World Cup in South Africa as an opportunity to send a large number of players to Europe?

Amano Keisuke: The core thing here is that football is a global sport after all. We want to prove ourselves on the world's highest level, continue to improve ourselves, and no longer lose to opponents who were stronger than us in the past. The most basic thing is to be able to compete with the world's top teams and be able to compete in a better environment. to improve your football skills. Therefore, pursuing the top and core part of this field should be the foundation of all growth.

As more and more players enter Europe's top leagues, through their daily experience and what they feel in training life, on the one hand, Japanese coaches and players can gain fresh knowledge, and on the other hand, they can gain fresh knowledge. On the one hand, they can also verify whether our previous approach was good and how we should correct the direction next.

If these players can show their strength on the top stage, it will also be a confidence boost for Japanese coaches and players, proving that our domestic environment can also cultivate good players. If we continue in this direction, we will definitely achieve better results.

This is a mutually reinforcing result. Not only has the competitiveness of Japan’s J-League improved, but also the domestic competitions in Japan at all age levels including U18, U16, U15 and below U12, all because of these, those who have stayed abroad in the top league have The players' experience and their efforts to verify their strength abroad can make Japanese football develop in a better direction.

I think that Japanese players who play in Europe also feel that what we do in Japan is no worse than what we do in Europe, and we are basically on an equal footing with them.

The goal of our next challenge is to surpass them and do better than them. This is the next stage of development goal that we will realize after passing a certain stage of development and accumulation.

Vigorously improve the training environment for youth football and create opportunities to compete abroad

With a large number of Japanese players going to Europe one after another and achieving excellent results, regardless of business and other factors, they cannot do without their past. The development of campus football for hundreds of years has laid a solid foundation for these players.

The Japan National High School Football Championship began in 1918, three years before the founding of the Japan Football Association.

Different from the professional and market-oriented model in Western Europe, Japan has maintained a traditional development model centered on campus football. As one of the most common slogans in Japanese campus football - "Mind, Skill, Body" shows, spiritual cultivation and personality shaping are placed first, which also highlights the importance of Japanese traditional culture in football. core position in the field.

In the past few decades, the Japan Football Association has spent a lot of effort on youth training, bringing in coaches from Basala Masia. World-famous coaches such as Troussier have also come to Japan to participate in youth training.

Japanese domestic league structure mapping: Edited by Gao Han

NBD: Can you share in detail some practices and experiences in youth football training in Japan?

Amano Keisuke: In the past ten years or so, the entire Japanese football environment has been improved, especially the training environment for youth football.

For example, Japan has very careful analysis of competitions of all ages from U12 to U18, and can create a very detailed competition environment based on the growth of children, so no matter how old they grow, they can It can ensure a very healthy competition environment.

At the same time, the U22 age group is quite unique in Japan and belongs to the age group of college students. There are also many players in U22 who entered professional football after graduating from college, so the level of competition in this age group is very high. There are also many players from the Japanese Olympic team and even the Japanese national team who came out of the league.

In addition, Japan actively participates in competitions of all ages held in various countries around the world. From U12 to the national team, it actively participates in these international exchanges and is able to challenge powerful opponents on the highest international stage. To verify one's own strength, this is also an indispensable element in the growth process.

Japanese Football Association official website celebrates Japan’s victory over Spain Picture source: Japan Football Association official website screenshot

Although Japan is an island country, transportation to other countries/regions may be inconvenient, but In the past ten or twenty years, we can see that various clubs in Japan, including the entire national team of all ages, are actively creating conditions so that teams of different ages and levels can have more international exchanges. Chance.

Before the outbreak of the new coronavirus pneumonia, data around 2019 showed that there were about 300 opportunities for all ages in Japan to compete abroad every year, with different teams for different age groups. , this number is amazing. I used to teach at the Kashima Antlers echelon. Each echelon of the club basically has the opportunity to go abroad for competitions 1 to 2 times a year. The entire youth training echelon of Kashima Antlers has the experience of going abroad for competitions about 10 to 15 times a year.

If there are many opportunities to compete with strong teams in first-class football environments in Europe and South America, including Brazil and Argentina, both coaches and players will be more motivated to challenge themselves, so this kind of competition The form can play a big role in improving Japanese football.

The entire certification system for Japanese coaches is very complete. Japan can be more detailed in these aspects. In many aspects, it allows coaches to constantly sort out their ideas and receive them from a continuous learning perspective. Gain new knowledge and be able to improve yourself in the process of cultivating the growth of young players.

These coaches can improve themselves through actual coaching experience, and at the same time allow children to enjoy a better training and competition environment, which is also an important environment for both parties to grow.

The popularity of football is the key. 6.3 million people in Japan play football at least once a year

The vigorous development of Japanese high school football is naturally inseparable from the hundreds of thousands of registered young players— —According to statistics from the Japan Football Association, there are more than 930,000 registered football players in Japan, and there are more than 730,000 football players under the age of 18. According to statistics from Japan's "Leisure White Paper", the number of people in Japan who play football at least once a year is 6.3 million.

Chart of the number of registered football players in Japan: Edited by Gao Han

NBD: Football has a huge mass base in Japan. How does this develop?

Amano Keisuke: After all, Japanese football does not have a particularly long history of development. It has also been in the past few decades, especially through naturalized players and outstanding foreign coaches.

The Japan Football Association has directionally determined four contents. The first is the strength of the national team, the second is the training process of young people, the third is the coaching ability of coaches, and the fourth is the quality of football. universal.

To achieve sustainable development in these four areas, everyone needs to be clear about what we are doing and what the purpose is during the investment process. The four areas are not just about shouting slogans and setting goals. There must be sustainable and constantly adjusted measures, and only through unremitting efforts can we see results.

In the history of the development of Japanese football, there have been many naturalized players and foreign coaches. Of course, the strength of the Japanese people is also a key factor that has allowed Japan to get to where it is now. It will not be the same in the subsequent development process of Japanese football. This period of history should be forgotten.

For the healthier development of the entire sports world in Japan, we must be able to utilize the available forces. We respect the diversity of the environment and allow people with different backgrounds to participate, so that Japanese football can develop better.