Courtesy: The AFC.com


Ogura: Japan not resting on laurels

Thursday, 24 November 2011

Kuala Lumpur: While 2011 will be remembered for the catastrophic effects of the Tohuku earthquake and tsunami in March it was also the year that Japan enjoyed unprecedented success in football, with no less than five major trophies now residing in the trophy cabinet at the Japan Football Association (JFA).

The year started with the Samurai Blue defeating Australia 1-0 in the final of the 2011 AFC Asian Cup as Japan won Asian football's most coveted trophy for a record fourth time before the Japanese women's national teams lifted the spirits of the country after March's natural disaster after the Nadeshiko put in a series of scintillating performances to win the FIFA Women's World Cup in July before the U-19s and U-16s won AFC Championships in Ho Chi Minh City and Nanjing respectively.

And for good measure, Nagoya Oceans became the first club from Japan to win the AFC Futsal Club Championship.

Not surprisingly, this success was reflected at the AFC Annual Awards ceremony where the Land of the Rising Sun shone brighter than all as nine of the 19 awards went to Japanese winners.

"The level is certainly up and the icing on the cake is these feats were achieved on the 90th Anniversary of JFA," Japan Football Association President Junji Ogura told www.the-afc.com during Wednesday's ceremony at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

"But we are not being carried away with these successes as next year we have world and continental challenges coming up while there are also a couple of FIFA tournaments as well.

"We are very happy with our performance in 2011 but if we look back we can see there is always room for improvement.

"Our clubs did not do well in ACL competition and the AFC Asian Cup win was not easy with us struggling against Korea Republic in the semis, while the final against Australia was also fifty-fifty.

"Having said that, I am not criticizing as we are on the right path to achieve the Dream 2015 target, where we want to see the Japanese national team in the Top 10 of the FIFA Ranking."




Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com