Chinese fans praise Japanese team at FIFA World Cup

As China’s national soccer team did not qualify for the FIFA World Cup, Chinese fans’ devotion has flooded to other Asian teams including Japan, despite nationalistic sentiment of many against the country.

A surprising free-kick defense tactic by Japan against Senegal during Sunday’s FIFA World Cup match sparked gasps on China’s social media platforms.

A Sina Weibo user under the name of “lexibai” referred to Japan as “the light of Asia” in the comment section under a post showing the Japanese team’s offside trap tactic against Senegal during their match.

“I was totally shocked. They are all like Tsubasa Ozora (the protagonist of a famous Japanese soccer manga) in the game,” Weibo user “yunzhiyuan” wrote.

A Beijing-based soccer fan surnamed Zhao said he was not in favor of Japan but agreed that Japan could be a model of developing soccer for China.

Since the 1990s, Japan has adopted a modified playing style learned from Brazil and played tenaciously in every game, Zhao told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Japan’s national soccer team qualified for the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 1998, and since then has never missed qualifying for the tournament, in contrast with the performance of Team China, which only qualified once in 2002 with zero goals.

Consecutive participation in the World Cup has given Japan crucial experience and made it one of the strongest teams in Asia, Zhao said.

Japanese soccer fans are famous for collecting spectators’ waste after games, a move also praised by Chinese netizens on Sina Weibo.

Sarcastically, some Weibo users said Chinese fans would also clear spectator stands after games but the national team has not given them such opportunity.

Japan has one win and one draw in the first two matches of this year’s World Cup with a good chance to reach the last 16.