Women’s World Cup

The final match of the 2015 Women’s Soccer World Cup was played today.

It was Japan vs USA.

The USA won, so they are the 2015 Women’s World Cup champions!
Japan got silver (2nd place), and England won third place!

おめでとうございます！（Congratulations!）

Coincidentally, in the previous Women’s World Cup (in 2011), the final match was played between Japan and America then too. Japan won that time.

America has a strong women’s soccer team. They currently hold the record for the most World Cup champions (three times), and they’re the only team that have been in the top three in every World Cup since the first one in 1991!

World Cup 2014

The FIFA soccer championship World Cup matches are currently being played in Brazil.

The first game was yesterday.  Home team Brazil beat Croatia, 3-1.

This is the first World Cup with any Japanese referees. Three Japanese referees officiated yesterday’s Brazil – Croatia game.

The games that Japan and the games that America are scheduled to play are here:

Dates / times shown are Brazil time (Japan Standard Time is twelve hours later)

Do you watch the World Cup?

I’ve never been very interested in soccer. I watched a few World Cup games when Japan co-hosted the games with Korea in 2002. I think I’ll give it another try, and watch some of the games that Japan and America play. Maybe I’ll become a soccer fan. 😉

The World Champions

I wrote this post about the Women’s Soccer World Cup championship game being played by Japan against the USA today.

As you probably already know, Japan won the game in penalty kicks.

Here’s a video I found on Youtube that shows the penalty kick attempts by both the USA and Japan.
The announcers in the video sound English. I don’t often watch TV in English anymore…so what mostly got my attention when I watched this video was the way the announcers butchered the Japanese players’ names! 😉

The video ends before it has a chance to show Japan’s team celebrating their win as the 2011 Women’s World Cup Champions.
But here’s what it looked like:

Did you watch the game?
It started at 3:45AM Japan time so I didn’t stay up to watch it. I saw the highlights on the news this morning.
On the news here, they also had a Japanese reporter and cameraman in a sports-bar in New York during the game to get the American fans’ reactions.
Each time the U.S. team scored a goal, the Americans in the bar erupted into a “USA! USA! USA!” chant.  I guess I’ve been living in Japan so long that I was taken by surprise a bit by that. It was like a culture shock! 😉

This Sunday’s showdown: Japan vs USA

From 2011 June 26 until this Sunday (July 17th), the Women’s World Cup international soccer championship games is being held in Germany.

On Wednesday (July 13th), two semi-final matches were held.
America played against France and Japan played against Sweden.

The U.S. and Japan each won their games with a score of 3-1.

So, now the final match for the 2011 Women’s World Cup Championship will be held on this Sunday, 2011 July 17th.
Japan will play against the U.S.

I’m not sure which country to support!
I’m American. I was born and raised in America. But I’ve been living in Japan since 1990…most of my life now. Japan has become my home.

Well, I’ll support both teams. 😉

Have you watched any of the 2011 Women’s World Cup matches? Will you watch the championship game on Sunday?
Did you watch the Japan vs Sweden game last Wednesday? After Japan won that game, the team members held up a banner thanking the world for supporting Japan after the 2011 March 11 disaster.

Their banner said:

“To Our Friends Around The World
Thank You For Your Support“.

The Japanese Womens soccer team holding their banner

World Cup news

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.

How to improve the World Cup…use binoculars

The 2010 World Cup has begun. The World Cup is the international soccer championship games.

(I wrote this post about a drink Pepsi-Japan released recently in honor of the World Cup.)

I don’t think soccer is a very exciting game. But I remember seeing on TV here about ten or so years ago a soccer game organized by the famous Japanese comedian Beat Takeshi that was much more entertaining than how the game is usually played.

He made all of the players wear binoculars strapped by their faces. It was quite funny. Beat Takeshi always has excellent shows even today.

Of course someone put it on YouTube.

This is how soccer should be played:

Samurai Blue ガンバレ！

First of all, my blog reached the 400,000 hits point today. At the current rate of over 2,000 daily hits, my blog should reach the half-million hits mark by late July.

Thank you to everyone who visits my blog.

+++++

Do you like サッカー (soccer)?
Personally, I don’t care for it much…but I know the “World Cup” is like the “Olympics of Soccer”.
The World Cup is an international championship soccer competition and it’s very popular around the whole world (except America 😉 ).

The 2010 World Cup is scheduled to begin on 2010 June 11. But currently there are some kind of “pre-World Cup” international soccer matches going on.

Tonight the Japan soccer team (nicknamed: “Samurai Blue“) is scheduled to play a game against the Korean soccer team in Saitama, Japan.

Ad for Japan's "Samurai Blue" team's soccer match against Korea this evening.

Here’s an Adidas Japan TV commercial for the Samurai Blue / World Cup:

ガンバレ日本！ (Good luck Japan!)

Japan’s newest Pepsi flavor

Both Pepsi and Coca-Cola in Japan often sell their products in unique “Japan only” flavors (so does Kit-Kat in Japan).

I’ve written posts about:
Pepsi Azuki,
Pepsi Shiso
and a couple other flavors of Pepsi and Coke in Japan.

Well, Pepsi is an official sponsor of the “2010 Soccer World Cup” which will be hosted by South Africa this summer.
I’m not a big soccer fan. In fact, the first time I had even heard of the “World Cup” was when Japan co-hosted it with South Korea in 2002.

But in honor of the 2010 World Cup, on 2010 May 25, Pepsi will be selling a new product here in Japan called 「ペプシ・バオバブ」 (“Pepsi Baobab“).

「ペプシバオバブ」 ("Pepsi Baobab")

According to Wikipedia, the Baobab is an unusual looking tree (a picture of one is on the “Pepsi Baobab” label) native to Africa.
Supposedly, the fruit is extremely healthy.
I’ve never heard of it before and I have no idea how the fruit tastes…but maybe I’ll try this new Pepsi flavor once it goes on sale just out of curiosity.

The ad for 「ペプシバオバブ」 (“Pepsi Baobab”) has eight soccer players named ロシアのアルシャビン (“Arshavin” of Russia), ドイツのバラック (“Ballack” of Germany), スぺインのトーレス (“Torres” of Spain), コートジポワールのドログバ (“Drogba” of Côte d’Ivoire), ブラジルのカカー (“Kaka” of Brazil), フランスのアンリ (“Henry” of France), アルゼンチンのメッシ (“Mercier” of Argentina) and イングランドのランパード (“Lampard” of England).

Ad for 「ペプシバオバブ」 ("Pepsi Baobab")

Also, 「マウンテンデゥー」 (“Mountain Dew“) is owned by Pepsi and in Japan they’re currently selling their drink in cans decorated with characters from the 「メタルギアソリッドピースウォーカー」 (“Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker“) game series.

Ad for the "Mountain Dew" / "Metal Gear" limited edition cans

And, I have written posts about the cell-phone straps that often come with purchases of “Pepsi NEX” in Japan.
For example…
the Samurai straps,  the Snoopy straps,  and the Star Wars Be@rbricks.

(I have written posts about other Be@rbrick characters in Japan besides the Star Wars ones before:
the MOS Burger Be@rbricks,  and the KISS Be@rbrick).

Well, Pepsi NEX has teamed up with Be@rbrick again.
Now, with purchases of Pepsi NEX in Japan, they’re offering bear cell-phone straps in the likeness of famous characters from “Paramount Studios” movies.

Such as: 「ヒックとドラゴン」 (“How To Train Your Dragon”), 「シュレック」 (“Shrek”), 「マダガスカル」 (“Magadascar”), 「モンスターVSエイリアン」 (“Monsters vs Aliens”), 「トランスフォーマー」 (“Transformers”), “Top Gun”, 「サタデー・ナイト・フィーバー」 (“Saturday Night Fever”), 「フラッシュダンス」 (“Flashdance”), 「ビバリーヒルズ・コップ」　(“Beverly Hills Cop”), 「レッド・オクトーバーを追え!」 (“The Hunt For Red October”) and “The Godfather”.

Ad for "Pepsi NEX" / Paramount Japan Be@rbricks