Match Report: Japan vs. Denmark –Japan advances to the knockout round!

Congratulations to Japan! This is Atsushi.

Japan beat Denmark 3-1, and advanced to the knockout round for the first time on foreign soil!

I was there at the stadium when Japan made history!
I’m so proud that I was there to see history being made.

I’ll send some video from the match later, but first of all I’ll upload some pictures from this memorable day!

We arrived in Rustenburg while it was still light out, and were interviewed by Fuji TV, a Japanese major TV network.

Second from the right is Mr. Omura of Fuji TV

We were interviewed by the same reporter 4 years ago at the World Cup in Germany.

Here’s a photo of us with some Denmark supporters near the stadium.

I borrowed a Viking hat for this pic.

When we got to the stadium, we bumped into Japan national team’s defender Nagatomo’s sister again.

Nagatomo’s brother was also there, so we all took a photo together.

Nagatomo’s brother is in the middle, his sister is 2^nd from the left.

I told Nagatomo’s sister that we got several hundred thousand hits on our blog. She was really surprised.

The pictures after the game are much better, so let’s fast-forward to the end of the game.

The man of the match, Keisuke Honda (CSKA Moscow) came over alone to salute the crowd.

After letting out a triumphant yell, us supporters took a picture together.

We took a photo with the “bowling pin” supporters, 

who are popular with the locals.

I twitted that the “bowling pins” had gone home, but it seems that just the people inside went home, and they passed on their costumes to their friends.

A picture of all of us.regular supporters

It’s hard to believe this is South Africa! We’re here with our fellow supporters who we see all the time in Japan. We all came in different ways under different circumstances, but still, we are all here!

A photo with my buddy Ken. Libero is celebrating Japan’s advance to the knockout round.

Our supporter friend Ebi-san who we only see at away games, always has a great flag. This once says “First we get through to the knockout round .We’re not going home to Japan yet!”

Here’s a photo with a supporter of Endo. 

He scored a great goal this game!

A photo explaining this game’s result.

Royal Bafokeng Stadium was so quiet after the game

The game ended at 10:30 local time. We headed off for our home 130km away, and finally arrived at 3am.

Since we’re going to see Spain vs. Chile tomorrow, I thought I should sleep, but I realized that the supporters in Japan pulled an all-nighter to see the game, so I stayed up as well to write my blog entry.

Now it’s 6am in South Africa, so I’m going to go to sleep. Tomorrow I’ll post the videos, and Ken will post the “Miss World Cup” blog.

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