I lost passion on our national team.(2018 FIFA World Cup Russia)

I lost passion on the Japanese national team, Samurai Blue.

Vahid Halilhodžić was fired, two months ago.

Now Akira Nishino is the manager of our national team.

2018 FIFA World Cup start two weeks later.

I cannot believe our national team will powerfully play football against the opposite teams (Columbia, Senegal, and Poland).

Who is Akira Nishino?

In Japan, Nishino is a famous manager.

His young national team beat the young Brasilin team in 1994 on Miami.

From 2002 to 2011, he was the manager of Gamba Osaka.

This team was one of the top teams, and got many titles.

But, after Gamba Osaka, his teams were not good (sometimes bad).

In 2016, he became a member of the technical committee of Japan Football Association (JFA).

I cannot believe in Nishino and our national team.

I cannot understand why he is selected as the national team manager.

What is his strong point as the national team manager?

The fundamental problem is why Halilhodžić was fired.

Very fuzzy are the reasons that the JFA president, Kozo Tashima, explained.

Our favorite old players

On May 31, 23 players going to Russia were selected.

Most of the players are similar to those of 4-years ago.

One problem are that the players are OLD, not fresh.

The average age of the starting member is 29.5 years old against Ghana on May 30.

The average age of the 23 players is 28.3 years old.

I respected Keisuke Honda, Shinji Kagawa, Shinji Okazaki, and other elder players.

They had led our national team and Japanese football.

I and Japanese football fans enjoyed their playings in top leagues.

But they get old.

What is new in our national team.

I saw this team four years ago.

Where are young players?

Where are Nakajima, Kubo, Morioka, Kobayashi, and Ito?

Some Japanese people doubt these recent processes done by JFA.

Commercial reasons might fire Halilhodžić and select old players.

Our national team that I had cheered for three years was broken.

I don't know why.

Now, it is impossible to believe that our national team will go to R16.

Probability of Halilhodžić's team may be not so high, but I can cheer them.



I and some (probably many) Japanese football fans lost passion on our national team.

I hold some void in my heart.