Blonde ambition as Japan prepare for Paraguay
Reuters - Friday 25 June 2010, 19:19
GEORGE - With his close
cropped blonde hair Junichi Inamoto joked on Friday that he had
been repeatedly mistaken for Japan heartthrob Keisuke Honda.
But the much-travelled midfielder would love to give people
a reason to find out he is not the flashy Honda by scoring when
they meet Paraguay in the World Cup last 16 on Tuesday.
Honda's thundering left foot put the boot into Denmark on
Thursday when he scored one goal and set up another in a 3-1 win
while Inamoto made do with a late appearance from the bench.
"Hopefully, I can score when I get a chance to play so
people will know I'm not Honda," said Inamoto, who came on in
the 90th minute against Denmark. "It was very early in the
morning in Japan but I got lots of messages from friends.
"The last time we reached the round of 16 we finished there
so this is a great opportunity for us to rewrite the story
ourselves," he added recalling their 1-0 defeat by Turkey in
2002 when they co-hosted the finals with South Korea.
The prolific scorer Shinji Okazaki, who netted 15 goals for
Japan in 2009, has also found himself overlooked with Honda now
firmly installed as the first-choice striker.
HUNGRY OKAZAKI
But Okazaki grabbed some of the limelight against the Danes,
coming on late in the second half to get Japan's third goal and
his first at a World Cup.
"Now I'm hungry for more," Okazaki told reporters looking
ahead to the Paraguay match. "We didn't have a South American
team in our group but I expect the tackling will be much
fiercer.
"The most important thing is we don't lose those battles
because that is how we got this far. We have nothing to lose
now."
Japan returned to sunny George and a heroes' welcome on
Friday having the entire Western Cape to themselves after
Denmark and France, also training nearby, headed home early.
However, the Blue Samurai will also be saying goodbye soon
as they relocate their training base to Pretoria on Sunday.
The team that started the win over Denmark got the day off
on Friday, including Honda and Yasuhito Endo who both struck
brilliant goals from free-kicks.
"We'll just stick to the way we've been playing so far,"
said Inamoto. "We've scored goals with set pieces and (that) is
an important way to find the target but we've also created other
chances so should just keep playing the way we have."
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