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February 2, 2011, 5:47 pm
Asian Cup: Japan Is on the Up
By TOM BYER
Osama Faisal/Associated Press Yuto Nagatomo after Japan defeated Australia to win the Asian Cup in Qatar last Saturday.
TOKYO — Japan has just won the Asian Cup, moved into the top 20 in the FIFA rankings and is clearly the best team in Asia. And if you think it was a fluke, think again.
A few months ago in China, Japan sent its young players to the Asian Games tournament and won both the men’s and women’s titles. And last summer Japan had its most successful World Cup showing, missing out on the quarterfinals only after being eliminated by Paraguay in a penalty-kick shootout.
As recently as 1988, Japan failed to win a game or score a goal in the Asian Cup.
So how did Japan become so good?
There are several factors that played a role.
I had a short stint at Hitachi Football Club in 1987. And after I stopped playing I decided to become involved in youth development. I pitched the idea of a nationwide soccer clinic program to Nestlè Japan, which would travel to the 48 states of Japan putting on clinics for children, parents and coaches. I did this from 1989 to 1998, traveling throughout the country, putting on these events to help both popularize the game while at the same time teaching skills I thought were needed for players to enjoy the game more. And then came what I call the perfect storm.
Japan’s Professional League, the J-League was formed in 1993 and at the same time the Japan Football Association submitted a bid to the 2002 World Cup.
Also that year, I introduced to Japan a technical teaching program that would be used to develop the largest technical soccer school business in Japan. In 1998 I was cast on the No. 1 children’s television show with a segment called “Tom-san’s Soccer Technics Corner.”
Karim Jaafar/AFP — Getty Images Shinji Kagawa
Nearly all of the current young players who are playing on the national team grew up watching my show before going to school and practiced many of the skills on their own. I’ve also had many of these same young players pass through my clinics over the years, most notably, Shinji Kagawa. I identified him at a young age and singled him out from several hundred players. Keisuke Honda was another fan who watched the show, his coaches have told me. Yasuhito Endo, who scored one of the amazing free kicks in the World Cup game against Denmark, was also a student of mine when he was a boy. And the current captain of the under-23 national team, wearing the prestigious No. 10, Kota Mizunuma, was a student when he was a fifth and sixth grader.
Many factors contributed to Japan’s current success. The federation has dedicated resources to youth development, for men and women. It has created national training centers throughout the country dedicated to soccer and has a well-organized scouting program to track the most-talented young players. There are nine training regions that have been set up that are made up from the 48 states, or prefectures. I have worked at all of these centers over the years, focusing on the technical development of both players and coaches. The federation also has two full-time academy’s for junior and senior high school players called the J.F.A. Academy.
Marwan Naamani/AFP— Getty Images Keisuke Honda (in blue)
All 38 J-League teams from both the first and second divisions are required to have U-12, U-15 and U-18 teams as part of their organizations. The clubs are trying to develop players from a young age. Also, there are national tournaments in all the age groups, which are extremely popular. The national high school tournament attracts more than 40,000 spectators for the final, which is held in Tokyo’s National Stadium. The -U12 final is carried on TV nationally. Winning can often be a life-altering experience, a cherished badge of success.
There is no off-season for soccer in Japan. Whether youth, amateur or professional, games are played all 52 weeks of the year. The technical development goes hand in hand with Japanese discipline. The Japanese mentality rooted in teamwork before the individual translates perfectly to the soccer field.
The game is also ingrained in Japan’s popular culture. In the early ’80s, a new comic strip, Captain Tsubasa, told the tales of a soccer player and was made into a TV series and video game, and played an important role in helping to popularize the sport in Japan. It has been followed by another comic strip/TV show called Inazuma Eleven.
Finally, with the success of Kagawa and Honda in Europe, and the victory in the Asian Cup, there will be even greater interest from overseas for Japanese players. In fact, defender Yuto Nagatomo moved from Cesena to Inter Milan in Italy’s Serie A earlier this week. Young players have taken notice and are even more motivated to fulfill their soccer dreams.
I am very fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time. Before the soccer boom started in Japan, I traveled the country as a kind of soccer evangelist starting in 1989. I’m proud of my contribution to Japan and humbled that my instructional DVDs remain best-sellers on Amazon.com’s Japan site.
Tom Byer, the former director of Coerver Coaching Asia, was born in the Bronx, N.Y. He has lived in Japan for more than 25 years, where he is known as Tom-san, and has conducted more than 2,000 soccer events for more than 500,000 children. He also appears on a nationally televised, daily show for children.
http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/0...-is-on-the-up/
Asian Cup: Japan Is on the Up
By TOM BYER
Osama Faisal/Associated Press Yuto Nagatomo after Japan defeated Australia to win the Asian Cup in Qatar last Saturday.TOKYO — Japan has just won the Asian Cup, moved into the top 20 in the FIFA rankings and is clearly the best team in Asia. And if you think it was a fluke, think again.
A few months ago in China, Japan sent its young players to the Asian Games tournament and won both the men’s and women’s titles. And last summer Japan had its most successful World Cup showing, missing out on the quarterfinals only after being eliminated by Paraguay in a penalty-kick shootout.
As recently as 1988, Japan failed to win a game or score a goal in the Asian Cup.
So how did Japan become so good?
There are several factors that played a role.
I had a short stint at Hitachi Football Club in 1987. And after I stopped playing I decided to become involved in youth development. I pitched the idea of a nationwide soccer clinic program to Nestlè Japan, which would travel to the 48 states of Japan putting on clinics for children, parents and coaches. I did this from 1989 to 1998, traveling throughout the country, putting on these events to help both popularize the game while at the same time teaching skills I thought were needed for players to enjoy the game more. And then came what I call the perfect storm.
Japan’s Professional League, the J-League was formed in 1993 and at the same time the Japan Football Association submitted a bid to the 2002 World Cup.
Also that year, I introduced to Japan a technical teaching program that would be used to develop the largest technical soccer school business in Japan. In 1998 I was cast on the No. 1 children’s television show with a segment called “Tom-san’s Soccer Technics Corner.”
Karim Jaafar/AFP — Getty Images Shinji Kagawa
Nearly all of the current young players who are playing on the national team grew up watching my show before going to school and practiced many of the skills on their own. I’ve also had many of these same young players pass through my clinics over the years, most notably, Shinji Kagawa. I identified him at a young age and singled him out from several hundred players. Keisuke Honda was another fan who watched the show, his coaches have told me. Yasuhito Endo, who scored one of the amazing free kicks in the World Cup game against Denmark, was also a student of mine when he was a boy. And the current captain of the under-23 national team, wearing the prestigious No. 10, Kota Mizunuma, was a student when he was a fifth and sixth grader.
Many factors contributed to Japan’s current success. The federation has dedicated resources to youth development, for men and women. It has created national training centers throughout the country dedicated to soccer and has a well-organized scouting program to track the most-talented young players. There are nine training regions that have been set up that are made up from the 48 states, or prefectures. I have worked at all of these centers over the years, focusing on the technical development of both players and coaches. The federation also has two full-time academy’s for junior and senior high school players called the J.F.A. Academy.
Marwan Naamani/AFP— Getty Images Keisuke Honda (in blue)
All 38 J-League teams from both the first and second divisions are required to have U-12, U-15 and U-18 teams as part of their organizations. The clubs are trying to develop players from a young age. Also, there are national tournaments in all the age groups, which are extremely popular. The national high school tournament attracts more than 40,000 spectators for the final, which is held in Tokyo’s National Stadium. The -U12 final is carried on TV nationally. Winning can often be a life-altering experience, a cherished badge of success.
There is no off-season for soccer in Japan. Whether youth, amateur or professional, games are played all 52 weeks of the year. The technical development goes hand in hand with Japanese discipline. The Japanese mentality rooted in teamwork before the individual translates perfectly to the soccer field.
The game is also ingrained in Japan’s popular culture. In the early ’80s, a new comic strip, Captain Tsubasa, told the tales of a soccer player and was made into a TV series and video game, and played an important role in helping to popularize the sport in Japan. It has been followed by another comic strip/TV show called Inazuma Eleven.
Finally, with the success of Kagawa and Honda in Europe, and the victory in the Asian Cup, there will be even greater interest from overseas for Japanese players. In fact, defender Yuto Nagatomo moved from Cesena to Inter Milan in Italy’s Serie A earlier this week. Young players have taken notice and are even more motivated to fulfill their soccer dreams.
I am very fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time. Before the soccer boom started in Japan, I traveled the country as a kind of soccer evangelist starting in 1989. I’m proud of my contribution to Japan and humbled that my instructional DVDs remain best-sellers on Amazon.com’s Japan site.
Tom Byer, the former director of Coerver Coaching Asia, was born in the Bronx, N.Y. He has lived in Japan for more than 25 years, where he is known as Tom-san, and has conducted more than 2,000 soccer events for more than 500,000 children. He also appears on a nationally televised, daily show for children.
http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/0...-is-on-the-up/
Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 
05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015
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