What a match that turned out to be last night concluding a great tournament. It was hard not to get behind Japan after the final pk considering what the country has been through and how well they played throughout the tournament. Despite the US playing probably their most complete match of the tournament (outside of the finishing department of course) the Japanese side hung in there over and over again pulling even just when they needed it most. It has been incredible to read about how they had limited training time on an actual field up to the World Cup as a result of the earthquake and aftermath and had been almost setting their sights on next years Olympics as their goal. Good thing they peaked early and played some of the prettiest soccer in this tournament.
My parents and I went to Champions Sports Bar and Grill here in Vienna, which is an American sports bar with the traditional sports bar fare of wings, nachos, cheeseburgers, and beer. The atmosphere was far from American. The American fans were out numbered easily 3:1 by the Japanese fans in the packed bar, chanting "Nippon! Nippon! Nippon!" the entire night. The age range of the Japanese fans was from boys roughly 7 years of age to an older man well over 70. The sense of Japanese national pride was incredible. To be honest I was very surprised at how many Japanese nationals there are in Austria. As I left the bar last night I definitely was not as disappointed in the outcome as I could have been had the game been poorly played or some poor officiating had made a difference in the outcome. Reading some of the quotes today by the captain, Sawa, and to see that the Tweets per second record had been broken during this match, it was evident that Japan was behind their team in full force and couldn't have been a more deserving victor.
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