JAPAN CLEANS UP AFTER LOSS
Japan may have lost its chance at the World Cup quarterfinals, but won something else in return.
The team suffered an upsetting loss to Belgium: Japan seemed to be a shoo-in in the first half of the match when it led by two goals. But Belgium made a major comeback in the second half, with the last of three goals scored in the final minute of added time.
Despite the heart-
break, Japan’s team and fans showed dignity in their defeat. Though Japanese fans are well known to clean up stadiums and leave in a disciplined manner, the fact that they continued to do so after a loss— with some teary-eyed as they picked up trash—made them a sight to admire.
For its part, the national team left the locker room in pristine condition. Italian journalist Tancredi Palmeri shared a picture of Japan’s spotless dressing room, which included a note in Russian that said: “Thank you.”
Twitter post
Palmeri said the photo was taken by a Fifa delegate who later deleted her own Twitter post.
By midafternoon on Tuesday, Palmeri’s tweet was retweeted more than 9,739 times and won 23,448 likes.
The Blue Samurai’s performance with a Fifa world ranking of 61 versus Belgium at No. 3 was already impressive enough. But their gracious exit puts Japan on the world stage for something more worthy than a trophy: respect.
Back home in Japan, an octopus that successfully “predicted” all of Japan’s World Cup group stage matches has been killed and turned into sashimi, local media reported.
Oracle octopus
The mollusk, named Rabio, chose the winners of Japan’s matches during an experiment in a paddling pool.
Despite gaining national attention for its success, however, the fisherman who caught Rabio, Kimio Abe, sent him to market before Japan’s third match against Poland.
The giant Pacific octopus had successfully predicted Japan would lose that match but he was unfortunately not around to see his prophecy come true.
“I’m glad all the forecasts turned out correct and Japan moved on to the knockout stage,” Abe told Mainichi Shimbun newspaper before Japan’s loss to Belgium in the last 16.
Rabio is not the first oracle octopus to predict World Cup matches. German invertebrate Paul the octopus correctly predicted six World Cup games in 2010.