When Japan were drawn in Group E with Germany, Costa Rica and Spain for the Qatar World Cup on April 1, Hajime Moriyasu relished that his side would face "extremely good opponents."In beating past tournament winners Germany and Spain to qualify for consecutive World Cup knockout phases for the first time, the manager and his players have shown facets of their game that could perhaps only be brought out against the very best.It was hard to envisage at the time of the draw, or even days before the start of the tournament that a Japan side who limped past the final Asian qualifiers and continu…READ FULL ARTICLE
