The Japanese national team wakes up from the dream of being “unbeatable in Asia”

Moriyasu Japan finished the year with an unprecedented record of 8 wins, 1 loss and 1 draw in 2023. Following the Qatar World Cup in 2022, the team also had a 4-1 victory over the powerful German national team, and after a fulfilling year that has been called the “strongest in Japanese football history,” there were high expectations for the Japanese national team to win the Asian Cup for the fifth time in three tournaments.

However, once the tournament began, they lost 1-2 to Iraq in the second group stage match, and advanced to the final tournament in second place in the group. Despite playing against stronger opponents such as Vietnam and Indonesia in the group stage, they conceded five goals in three matches. The current Japanese national team’s results were far from the atmosphere before the Asian Cup, when they were “unbeatable in Asia.”

“The Japanese national team has begun its journey to the next stage, heading towards the world.”

Japan’s players, football officials, and fans all believed this, given their success in 2023, having beaten world-class powerhouses such as Germany and Spain at the Qatar World Cup.

That is why their elimination from the Asian Cup was such a shock.

The Japanese national team is already playing soccer on a different level to other Asian countries, and can confidently compete with the soccer powerhouses of Europe and South America with their own style of soccer, and at the next World Cup they will finally make it to the quarterfinals for the first time, or even achieve even greater results… The national team was filled with such premonitions, but suddenly they woke up from their dream.

In an interview immediately after the loss to the Iranian national team, head coach Hajime Moriyasu reprimanded himself for his own poor management, saying, “The reason we lost was because I didn’t use my substitution cards well.” Players such as defenders Ko Itakura and Takehiro Tomiyasu, who made mistakes that led to the winning goal in the Iran match, also spoke of their own “responsibility” in their post-match interviews.

Every time the Japanese national team loses, people start looking for someone to blame, asking, “Who is to blame for the loss?” But who is to blame in this year’s Asian Cup?