{"id":1823,"date":"2026-06-30T15:10:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T07:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/?p=1823"},"modified":"2026-06-30T15:10:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T07:10:46","slug":"coach-says-japan-getting-closer-to-world-cup-glory-despite-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/30\/coach-says-japan-getting-closer-to-world-cup-glory-despite-defeat\/","title":{"rendered":"Coach says Japan getting closer to World Cup glory despite defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Coach Hajime Moriyasu said Japan have proved they have what it takes to one day win the World Cup following a last-gasp 2-1 defeat to Brazil on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Japan lost in the last 32 after giving up a 1-0 half-time lead, with Gabriel Martinelli scoring an injury-time winner in Houston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the Japan players were in tears at the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asia’s best side have still never won a knockout match at the World Cup, having come to North America touted as outside favourites to go far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moriyasu said pushing five-time champions Brazil close was proof they were getting nearer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The strength of the national team has definitely risen,” said the coach, who oversaw wins in friendlies against Brazil and England in the lead-up to the World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Even in friendlies we\u2019ve managed to beat opponents we\u2019d never beaten before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Those efforts by the players have unquestionably led to the national team\u2019s improvement, and I believe they have changed Japan’s place in the global football landscape.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moriyasu, who had always said he wanted to win this World Cup, added: “We knew that, as dark horses, we still had a chance to become number one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think we played a match today that could have made people say, ‘If they\u2019d won, who knows what might have happened?’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“And by doing so, what happens is that people recognise that we are truly raising our level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Even people who don\u2019t really know or pay much attention to football have come to see that Japan is fighting to become world champion and is growing and challenging itself.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moriyasu, who oversaw Japan’s exit in the first knockout round in Qatar four years ago on penalties to Croatia, took personal blame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This time we weren\u2019t able to achieve our goal of becoming world champions, and as a coach I feel deeply sorry about that,” he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I felt we had chances. In this match we played believing we had a chance to win, and in reality we did have chances we couldn\u2019t take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That\u2019s why I feel my own abilities as coach were what fell short the most.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On his future in charge, the 57-year-old said: “Nothing has been decided yet regarding my own position.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coach Hajime Moriyasu said Japan have proved they have what it takes to one day win the World<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1825,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1823\/revisions\/1825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}