Japan won their first game in the 2010 World Cup (being played in South Africa now until 11 July, in case you didn’t know).
Japan defeated the African country of Cameroon with a score of 1-0 in the first soccer match for both countries’ teams in this years soccer World Cup.
The Japanese player Keisuke Honda was voted as the game’s MVP as he scored the only goal in the match.
Keisuke Honda (of Japan's "Samurai Blue" soccer team) scoring the only goal in Japan's match against Cameroon, 2010 June 14.
In other World Cup related news…
Islamic militants in the African nation of Somalia are apparently in charge of parts of that country and have imposed numerous, strict and outrageous laws…including making it a capital offense to watch the World Cup soccer matches on TV.
A group of the militants forced their way into private homes of people who were watching the Germany-Australia match.
The executed two of the soccer fans and arrested thirty others!
No country should oppress people like that.
Tokyo Five 
These World Cup Theme songs sucks ! I think these are a few of the worthy kind of songs that sounds good. Check out this song poll :
http://worldcup2010.2b1g.com
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You don’t have any of the Japanese World Cup songs on your poll.
I haven’t heard any of those other ones.
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I have to admit, I just don’t understand the worldwide appeal of soccer. I have friends that LOVE it and have been “forced” to watch games. I’m a pretty open minded guy but just couldn’t get into it.
I wish I could. It’s obviously THE biggest sport on the planet. (Americans like to think it’s football or baseball.)
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Save yourself, Sir Pent. Before it’s too late 😀
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Are you implying soccer’s like a zombie apocalypse or something?
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Yup! 😀
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Having lived outside of America for so long, I don’t act very “American” anymore.
But…I still can’t get into soccer.
>just couldn’t get into it.
Same with me.
When Japan (co)hosted the 2002 World Cup, Tokyo went soccer crazy. I figured that I must be missing something and tried to get into it.
But…soccer, tennis, golf and baseball are boring to watch, in my opinion.
>Americans like to think it’s football
Outside of America, that game is called “American Football”.
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I love soccer except for one thing, the acting. Whenever a player gets even brushed by a whiff of air from an opponent, they go flying and writhing on the ground as if they’ve been in a terrible car crash and have broken several bones. Even after a replay on TV shows they never even got hit. This happens constantly in every single soccer match and I can’t stand it.
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Don’t the games ending in a tie-score bother you?
Why don’t they continue to “sudden death” and have a “winner”?
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Yes, ties always suck. But with soccer you can’t play sudden death until someone wins. Some games would literally go on for hours and hours or all day before a tie was broken. It’s not like hockey where there is higher scoring. But even in hockey they sometimes have 3 or 4 overtimes which is brutal.
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I believe that when they tried starting a pro-soccer league in the U.S. in the late 70s / early 80s, they eliminated “tie-games” to appeal to Americans.
But I’m not sure of the details.
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No, it started at like 4am here. And the later games I’m at work but I am following the games online and watching on the weekend.
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You’re American but you watch soccer?
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Did you watch the game live (I know it started late local time)?
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I don’t watch soccer. Not even the World Cup.
I don’t think it’s a fun sport to watch.
I see the final score of the games on the morning TV news.
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I don’t want to seem anti-Muslim but you just don’t hear these types of stories about other religions.
Anyway, great game for Japan. Netherlands will be really tough. Hope they can also beat Denmark and advance.
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Stories not being reported because they lack interest to the western world, and events not taking place, are two separate things 😉
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Yeah, don’t the Christians kill each other in Ireland.
Personally I don’t like any religion.
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Is Netherlands a strong soccer team?
I have no idea…I don’t pay attention to soccer.
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Yes, they have a very good team this year. They are the top seeded team in Japan’s group.
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If Japan doesn’t win their game against the Netherlands, will they still have a chance to the World Cup champion team?
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After Netherlands, Japan plays the final team in their group Denmark which will also be very tough. If they lose to Netherlands, they probably will have to beat Denmark to advance to the knockout round.
Soccer is bigger in the United States then a lot of people believe. The US-England game had good TV ratings and sports bars and pubs were packed with soccer fans around the country. I read that many were over capacity several hours before the match started.
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I remember when I was a kid in Florida, they tried to bring pro-soccer to the U.S.
They even had cheerleaders!
But no one there really cared.
Maybe it’s changed since then. Or maybe California and Florida are just very different.
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Although banning football here in the UK would make me a happy bunny, I’m not sure beheading is the correct punishment 😉
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I would why the people of Somalia don’t rise up and demand “real” leaders.
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Because the people of Somalia don’t have guns. Their army does.
I don’t think the religion is what’s important here. Somalia is an odd mixture of communism, radical islam, poverty, corruption, and Africa’s most successful free market economy. It’s a complex country in a state of political and social upheval, and football is merely an excuse as to why these people were shot, not a true reason.
Anyway, that’s enough nonsense from me 🙂
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Well, it seems that that country is a mess in need of an overhaul.
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Executed the soccer fans just because?!!! Thats outrageous absolutely outrageous, these are what we call fanatics. I hate the idea of oppressing someone of their rights worse to use the religion as the reason. Matters like these just get to me ..sorry.
Japan’s got the Netherlands next ..tough team to play against but football is so unpredictable.
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Imprisoning people simply for watching TV is terrible enough…but executing them for it is unspeakable.
Is Japan scheduled to play the Netherlands (オランダ) next? When?
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Its inhuman and against all beliefs! They’re the worst of the worst. YEP!! Its on June 19th, its prolly 830pm your time because Japan’s an hour ahead of Kuala Lumpur isnt it?
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>830pm your time because Japan’s an hour ahead of Kuala Lumpur isnt it?
I don’t know what time it is currently in Kuala Lumpar…so I don’t know what the time difference is there from Japan.
If you want to know Japan’s current time…write a comment on my blog and the time stamped on your comment is Japan Standard Time (JST).
(Or look at my main website… http://www3.ocn.ne.jp/~tokyo5/index.html …the top page tells Japan’s current date / time.
Anyways, it doesn’t really matter. I won’t watch the soccer game no matter what time it’s on.
I’m not really into soccer.
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