Hajime Moriyasu’s apology to Japanese fans

DBasia.news – The struggle of the Japanese national team in the 2022 World Cup must end. Meeting with Croatia in the last 16, they lost in a penalty shootout. And that failure made Hajime Moriyasu apologize.

Japan performed brilliantly in the 2022 World Cup group stage. In a group with Germany, Spain and Costa Rica, Japan unexpectedly ranked first.

Amazingly, Japan beat Germany and Spain. Yuto Nagatomo and his team only stumbled when they challenged Costa Rica.

After advancing to the last 16, Japan were challenged by Croatia. The match was held at the Janoub Stadium, Monday (5/12).

Japan took the lead at the start of the first half through Daizen Maeda’s goal. However, 10 minutes into the second half, Croatia equalized through Ivan Perisic’s header.

In the remaining time, the two teams pressed each other. However, until the second extra half ended, the score still remained 1-1. The match went to penalty kicks.

It was at that moment that Croatian keeper Dominik Livakovic became a hero. He saved three penalty kicks from Japan. Croatia won 3-1.

This failure disappointed Moriyasu. He chose to apologize to the Japanese fans who supported directly at the stadium.

Moriyasu carried out the Japanese tradition of seikerei. He bowed at a 90 degree angle as a sign of apology.

For Moriyasu, the failure this time was also the start of building Japanese football to be even better. Moreover, Samurai Blue’s players have shown to be at the highest level.

“The players did well. We failed to make it to the quarter-finals. However, I think the players pointed us to a new era,” commented Moriyasu.

“If Japanese football wants to be at the highest level, I believe we can overcome the challenges that exist.”

“We beat Germany and Spain who are two former world champions. We have to keep moving forward to change the future,” said Moriyasu.