“Fall down seven times, get up eight times”

Monday 5th December later in the day….

The Japanese have many famous sayings. And for some reason, four of them *could* be pretty relevant to this World Cup. For me, Japan’s football team seem to live by the last one. Fall down seven times, get up eight times.

• “People judge things by their own experience, not knowing of the wide world outside.”
• “Wherever you live, you come to love it.”
• “Ten people, ten colours.”
• “Fall down seven times, get up eight times.”

I have been lucky to have travelled to Japan many times, mainly on business but twice to see World Cups. One was the football World Cup in 2002 and one was the Rugby World Cup in 2019. Both times I and many others had been enthralled by the Japanese national teams. They always attacked, always played positively and their players always leave everything on the field, whilst their fans ensure that nothing is left in the stadium, picking up every blade of litter around them.

I can’t tell you how excited I was to don my Japan 2002 World Cup shirt, which some how still fitted me and head off to their last 16 game against a very tough Croatia team. This Croatia team were very impressive in their qualification group and latterly in their Nations League campaign. So I felt they would be favourites to win the tie.

We headed to the Al Janoub Stadium which lies to the south of Doha on the super efficient, box fresh Metro. Much like the England vs Senegal match the night before, the atmosphere was pretty subdued. This is no real surprise given that Japanese fans are amongst the most respectful around and will generally only sing and chant when in the ground itself.

Kirsty and I decided to sport our rainbow gear again and take our chances with the security guards at the stadium. The stadium is another architectural work of art, and highly impressive, we’ve come to expect nothing else out here. Money is no object out here, remember.

As we went through the main security check point, I saw Kirsty get pulled over by one of the security guards who had objected to her rainbow head dress and wanted her to take it off her and hand it over, essentially confiscating it. Kirsty was led off to a separate room because she refused to take her rainbow gear off. I had got through security easily enough and just happened to bump into a Scouse copper. He was one of the English liaison team in Qatar who was there to work with the Qatari security forces. I decided to ask him what the score was He told me to not take any pictures, but to go over to Kirsty and tell her to insist that she did not give her head dress up. He also told me that FIFA had not banned the wearing of any rainbow gear and it was not against the law. So, he said be insistent and be firm.

By the time I got over to Kirsty, she had already been firm and made her intentions clear to the security guards and was actually on her way through, complete with rainbow head dress. Brilliant and typical.

The singing of the national anthems was incredibly moving with both sets of players and fans highly charged and incredibly emotional. I must admit I was pretty emotional too.

The game was another cracker. Japan typically played on the front foot and pressed Croatia all the way. I had had a chat with a senior figure at the Japan Football Association and he had told me that Japan had a 30 year plan to ensure that they built a comprehensive and sustainable pyramid from schools through grass roots all the way to the professionals. They wanted their key professionals to play in top global club sides in Europe and South America to gain insight and experience. He felt that Japan were on course to deliver that plan.

Japan took the lead with a proper team goal and for a time, looked like they could win the game. As we know, though, this Croatian team were a mix of six battle hardened pros who were in the squad who played in Russia knocking England out in Moscow in the semi finals of the 2018 World Cup and a lot of new, exciting talent. So it was no surprise when Croatia got their equaliser.

We had an American Chinese fan sitting in front of us. Bless him, he was pretty new to football. When Japan were banging their drums and chanting ‘Nippon’, he asked me what they were chanting. When I told him ‘Nippon’ he asked me what that meant, so I told him, which seemed to take him by surprise. It took me by surprise too.

All this chap wanted, from pretty early on in the game was to see a penalty shoot out. It was almost blood lust. If this game was being played back in time to say, the Reign of Terror in France in 1789, he would have been one of the gawkers on the front row, in the box seats, at a public execution really enjoying the efficiency of the Guillotine.

Needless to say, our American friend’s wish was granted. I said to the lads next to me who were from London and San Francisco, that surely the Japanese would have prepared every which way for the penalty shoot out. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Japan’s penalties were all hopeless and Croatia bar one penalty kick were exemplary. Japan lost 1-3 on penalties.

Poor Japan. They did not deserve to lose. But someone has to. You have to wonder if they will ever make the same mistakes again at the crucial stage of a knock out game. For their sake, I hope their 30 year plan delivers and ensures more success next time around.

Getting out of the match was easy. As usual, organisation was pretty smooth. We had to take a shuttle bus back to the station and then the Metro back into town. But I spotted a bus service direct to the Souq Waqif and said to Kirsty let’s take that. We were desperate to get back to watch the Brazil vs Switzerland game.

Sadly for us, our bus driver wasn’t an expert. We got back into Doha only to do three, three point turns having got stuck down dead end streets and managed to circumnavigate the Souq at least once. I felt sorry for the driver. He was clearly not from Doha and had literally no idea where he was going. When we eventually arrived back at our stop,all of us on the bus gave him a very loud and somewhat ironic round of applause. The whole thing reminded me of an episode of the BBC TV spoof based on the 2012 Olympics called W1A. That episode when the Olympic delegation from Rio fact finding mission in and around the Olympic Park. The delegation’s coach driver insisted on taking short cuts and going his own way, resulting in everyone being terribly late and somewhat frustrated. That was us.

By the time we got to a bar to watch the game, Brazil were already three nil up against Switzerland. The bar was a surreal experience for sure. Everyone seemed to be smoking and random slogans adorned the wall, which seems to be de rigeur out here. Little did we know that we would be back in this bar again, and next time we would have a very, very good time.

I for one will hope to see the Japanese pick themselves up at the next World Cup and go again. Their players and fans are a credit to the world and their fans always set out to pick up more litter than is dropped in the ground after the game. That is something we can all learn from, can’t we?