Japan has a solid history of participations in World Cups, but they never managed to reach too far on the competition. They are one of the best national teams from Asia, but when compared to the European and South American national teams, they end not being so competitive. The strongest teams are still the European and South American ones. They are the most likely to win the competition in 2026.
Japan is well know for displaying disciplined, organized, methodical and obedient traits. However, in soccer you also need some creativity, play by ear and authenticity to surprise the adversary and advance in the field. That is what they lack, I suppose. At same time, it's admirable to see how organized Japan's plays are during the matches.
Japan is well know for displaying disciplined, organized, methodical and obedient traits. However, in soccer you also need some creativity, play by ear and authenticity to surprise the adversary and advance in the field. That is what they lack, I suppose. At same time, it's admirable to see how organized Japan's plays are during the matches.
The funniest part of all this is that Japan manages to score a lot of goals when they play against Asian opponents, as for example in the case of yesterday's game in which Japan managed to score 4 goals. Anyone who watched the game could say that Japan is very strong, but in reality what happens is that the Asian national teams are extremely weak. That's why when Japan plays in the World Cup against teams with average strength, they don't manage to score many goals and lose. I believe that Asia needs to change some things in the sport if they want to evolve more to the point of competing with European teams. We see, for example, the case of South Korea, which has had good players in the big European teams. If more Asian national teams have players in big European teams, then Asian teams could be stronger in the World Cup.
Japan is placing at the top 15 of FIFA Men's world club ranking.
In the World Cup qualifiers, Japan far superior to their opponents. It's no surprise they dominated the qualifier group. They faced many weak countries from SEA. Japan is equally to the top football countries in EU. It's no way SEA countries can win against them.
That's why they have dominated the group qualifier so easily. The southeast asian countries are not match for them.
As for how weak SEA countries are . The reason is that football was not promising enough to be a job. So, they didn't try to maximize their potential to improve. This is why mostly SEA countries are placing at the bottom of FIFA ranking.
