soccer

[Hideo]

I like to keep up with the J-League too, having lived for a while in Shimizu I'm naturally enough a fan of the mighty Shimizu S-Pulse.

As for the World Cup...Japan are most certainly in that next summer, in a group with Holland, Cameroon and Denmark. It's not an easy group at all, and Japan will need to do very well if theya re to have any chance of progressing. The Japanses coach Takeshi Okada has stated that he thinks Japan can reach the semi-finals!! This seems a bizarrely over-optimistic idea, and to me is just setting themselves up for a fall. The last 16 is a more realistic and potentially achievable target, although like I say it would be a huge achievement if they managed that.

I'm one of many writers for a World Cup Blog which covers countries from all over the world, and any of you interested in keeping up with Japan's national team affairs and leaving comments and debate should have a look at this link Japan World Cup Team Blog and have a read leave a few comments. It's updated regularly so is always worth a read.

[StueyT]

Japan has some really awesome stadiums.
I really want to visit Oita's stadium next time I go to Japan. It looks fantastic. But first, The Sapporo Dome! I'll never forgot how awesome it looked on TV in 2002 when England played Argentina.

[JasonTakeshi]

World Cup 2010: Japan Line Up Portugal Friendly - Goal.com

Looking forward to this.

[Hideo]

Of course Japan are in the World Cup...and in a shameless bit of self-promotion, if you want to read about the Japanese national team and what they are up to have a look at my Japan blog on the World Cup Blog site Japan World Cup Team Blog leave comments, discussions and so on, or just get to know more about the Japanese national team.

As for the Japanese league, well baseball is the number one sport I think, but football is right there too. The new J-League season starts next weekend (first weekend in March), and of course many of the players will be hoping to grab a spot in the World Cup squad. Having lived in Shimizu (Shizuoka Prefecture) I am completely biased in favour of Shimizu S-Pulse, and utterly biased against Jubilo Iwata. Gambatte S-Pulse!!!

[Kageboushi]

Nakamura's back at Yokohama Marinos. Wonder how that will work out for him.

Can anyone post some more pre-season facts. Like, does anyone know who the favorites for the title are this year?? Which team is definitely going to have to fight to stay up?? Any shared knowledge is appreciated.

[siokan]

When I read the article of the commentator.....

high rank
Kashima Antlers/Nagoya Grampus/Gamba Osaka

fight for demotion
Montedio Yamagata/Shonan Bellmare/Vegalta Sendai

I refrain from my expectation

[chrisleeds]

Hey, I'm English and i live in leeds, Is it true that leeds united have a big fan base out there in Japan?

[StueyT]

Hey Chris, I was out in a cheap shop (Thank you Mart) in Fukuoka and did spot this!

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4070/...381bd1bf_b.jpg

Not sure about the support but it was a pretty random thing to find!

You form Leeds btw? I grew up in Batley...

[chrisleeds]

Hey, Yeah I live right next to batley hehe.(Wakefield,Stanley) if you heard of it. So you live in Japan now ? I heard there was a good fan base in Japan for leeds united so if they sell the products in some shops it must be true that there are fans out there

[siokan]

There may be little Japanese Leeds fans now.....

Because a soccer program in Japan was only one, as for the times when Leeds had good condition, the slightly old soccer fan thinks that there are many people knowing it.
(The TV station edited program "Match of the Day" of the BBC and broadcasted it once a week for one hour.)

There was such a site when I searched it
J-LEEDS.COM

There is Leeds thread in biggest bulletin board "2ch" afterward in Japan.
http://schiphol.2ch.net/test/read.cg...ll/1227420012/