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It was not to be the dream start Japan's Samurai Blue had been hoping for in the decisive opening game of their World Cup campaign that saw them fall to a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Cote d'Ivoire Sunday local time.
Golden boy Keisuke Honda fired Japan into the lead on following a flowing, sharp move from defense to attack and saw him drive the ball off his trusty left boot from quite an angle to see it rocket into the top right-hand corner, much to the jubilation of the local fans, some who'd gathered early at the popular spots bar in central Tokyo to watch the game, others who's been out all night in preparation.
"Of course it would be Honda (to score first), he's looked so sharp in training and is the backbone of this team, in terms of ability, tenacity, experience and respect," Takeshi Suma, who traveled from Osaka to enjoy the weekend games, stating that, "Tokyo is the spiritual home of football here."
He also told Xinhua he saw many positives from Japan's game, despite the scoreline, things that had been missing in training matches, running up to their first game. He said he saw a good balance between individual skill, matching strength in 50-50 situations against bigger stronger players, overall aggression and decisiveness going forward and a hunger to score
Pundits here were feeling some of those key aspects were missing from the national team, but it would seem that Alberto Zaccheroni's men finally got the message, but just couldn't quite deal with the intensity of the Cote d'Ivoire's game.
This is something Zaccheroni's will have to get his players to deal with, if he hopes to qualify from the group stages, which will now take cool heads on and off the pitch, as the level of intensity only intensifies and the competition progresses.
"When you win your first game like the Netherlands, especially against the top team in the world like Spain and former champions, it doesn't matter if the score is 1-0 or 5-1," said a slightly inebriated Japan fan, called Masahiro Taguchi, himself clearly a football expert of high pedigree with some wisdom to impart.
"All that matters is you've secured those first 3-points, it's a weight off your shoulders and rather than worrying what the other teams are doing in the opening stages, they have to worry about you. It's purely psychological. 3-points ideally, But I'd have taken a draw and 1-point before the game if I'd have known how dominant Cote d'Ivoire would be going down the flanks," Taguchi said.
With half time announced, the packed fans, a veritable sea of blue, with all of them wearing all the official merchandise, especially the famous shirts with their favorite player's names printed on the back, and even scarves -- a bit much considering it was around 30 degrees Celsius in there -- but maybe it was a bid to recreate something approaching a Brazilian atmosphere or climate in the heart of Tokyo -- which would explain why people were increasingly drinking bottles of Corona and Sol (both South American beers) with slices of lime.
The one thing the Japanese football fans do well together is really get into the games, of course they hope Japan will win any and every game they're playing in, and with their constant almost relentless cries of"Nippon, Nippon", throughout the game are pleading the team on with every fiber of their being. With every free kick, corner, and shot, as the deadball specialist Keisuke Honda steps up the bar we're in falls deathly silent, but rather than admonishing him if he misses a free kick, or one of his corners is cleared by an opposition defender, the fans all shout words of encouragement in unison (albeit at the TV and not the player),"Don't mind, don't mind!" "Next one, next one."
From every fiber of their being, Japanese fans are willing their players to do their best at all points in the game and regardless of the eventual scoreline.
But two minutes after the restart Cote d'Ivoire upped their intensity and as pundits before that game had predicted former Chelsea favorite Drogba who was introduced in the second half was instrumental for the Elephants who drew the score level with a spectacular flying header from Wilfried Bony in the 64th minute after a neat cross from from Aurier to pick him out.
Japanese fans even in times of adversity just cranked up the decibels when it comes to the cheering. With the belief that doing so en mass, with everyone in the bar (on this occasion, or in a stadium) both friends and strangers are responsible for cheering for their team as a united front.
But despite the great efforts being consistently made by the emphatic fans, by young and old, male and female, Cote d'Ivoire had other plans for Zaccheroni's men and scored almost from an identical move in the 66th minute that saw Gervinho beat Japan's keeper Eiji Kawashima's at his near post, heading in a Aurier's cross.
It will be uphill work for Japan now to get through to the Group stages, as Cote d'Ivoire have now joined Colombia on three points after the South Americans battered Greece 3-0 earlier in the day.
"I thought we would win tonight and the team would play as it normally does," Zaccheroni was quoted as telling local media.
"Tonight we were not able to perform as normal. Now we really have to take stock of the situation, set things back in motion and try to understand what it was that went wrong so that we can work out what we have to do in the next two games."
While Zaccheroni and his boys in blue will be taking stock, the fans here remain fairly upbeat and basically once the final whistle's gone, the decibels return to normal.
"If it were the knockout stages, there'd be more of a sense of disappointment and plenty of tears," said Hiroaki Wada, a member of Tokyo FC's coaching staff.
"But it's still early in this competition, they've already been huge refereeing controversies with the Brazil-Croatia game and the Mexico-Cameroon game, a huge upset by the Netherlands over Spain and after a lot of hype as many of us though England could beat Italy,"the pundit says.
"But long story short, we have to beat Colombia, who are never to be underrated and are as technically as good as us (Japan) if not better. The Colombia game could be made or break for us. But this is the great thing about football, despite the nerves and tension, trials and tribulations, it's the one global sport that can really unite people and bring the world together," Wada said.
