Back to Baseball

In Japan, it's back to baseball.

For the past two weeks, the free-spirited Japanese soccer team has cast a little sunshine on a dispirited nation. The boys in blue mesmerized a public that had not yet endeared itself to the sport of soccer, with exciting wins against Russia and Tunisia and a tie against Belgium in preliminary matches that put Japan through to the knock-out stage of the World Cup. It was a stunning feat for a team that failed to win a match four years ago.

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Then, on Tuesday, the rains came down and washed away Japan's unlikely World Cup quest. In pouring rain in Sendai, the team's play looked as soggy as their trendy haircuts. Turkey turned an early mistake into the only goal it needed when Umit Davala (what is it about mohawk-wearing players in this World Cup?) headed a corner kick into the goal in the 12th minute. That opportunity came after an errant pass from defense player Koji Nakata (Japan's "other" Nakata) headed inexplicably right into the clutches of a pair of his Turkish opponents.

That's the kind of day it was for Japan. The crisp passing, peripatetic ball-handling and creative play of the past two weeks was replaced by sluggish, uninspired, nervous and distracted play on Tuesday. The 46,000 fans who withstood the rain to cheer on their team (except, noticeably, for about 500 fans with the best seats in the house who didn't show up) couldn't muster the same unbridled enthusiasm they had for Japan's other three games. And unlike Japan's other opponents, the Turkish side seem unperturbed by the hometown crowd.

Coach Philippe Troussier shook things up a little bit, by inserting two new starters. Brazilian-born Alex, who immigrated to Japan as a high-schooler with the professed hope of playing in the World Cup, and Akinori Nishizawa, who was felled with appendicitis just a few weeks ago and had not yet played in the tournament. The decision to start Alex looked like an inspired one, as he set himself up for a pair of scoring opportunities in the first half. Nishizawa, on the other hand, looked at times like the anesthesia from his appendectomy might not have worn off. Hidetoshi Nakata (Japan's "real" Nakata) fed him a pair of nifty passes that Nishizawa failed to convert.

The team made a frantic effort in the final minutes to salvage the match, but it was too late. A stunned crowd, no doubt expecting Japan to pull off a miracle, was silent. The players left the field in tears. "Our great adventure is over," Troussier said after the match. He, too, choked back tears. "I think the players have proved they are great players and I'm convinced that in the next 10 years we will see a very high level of Japanese football."

In the meantime, there's always baseball.