Monday, 8th March 2010

Japan veteran Shunsuke Nakamura reveals that his side are not just happy to have qualified for their fourth consecutive World Cup, but are gunning to make the tournament’s semi-finals. The Asian giants will first have to navigate through a daunting group consisting of the Netherlands, Denmark and Cameroon though, if they are to have any hope of their high aims being reached.

“Everybody thinks the Netherlands are going to take first place in the group and that the other three teams will have to fight it out for second, but we’ve got to look further ahead than that,” the former Celtic player said on Fifa.com. “Our coach Takeshi Okada thinks we can reach the semi-finals and the team has to be able to live up to those expectations and achieve that goal, which would clearly be a huge success for us and our country.”

Japan’s goals will be considered lofty by many, as the nation has not progressed further than the Round of 16, and was eliminated in the group stages in 2006.

 

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