{"id":916454,"date":"2026-06-30T13:13:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T18:13:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/30\/moriyasu-japan-closing-in-on-elite-nations-despite-world-cup-exit\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T13:13:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T18:13:31","slug":"moriyasu-japan-closing-in-on-elite-nations-despite-world-cup-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/30\/moriyasu-japan-closing-in-on-elite-nations-despite-world-cup-exit\/","title":{"rendered":"Moriyasu: Japan closing in on elite nations despite World Cup exit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Soccer <\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Hajime Moriyasu believes Japan are getting closer to being one of the elite international\u00a0teams\u00a0despite their dramatic exit to Brazil at the World Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Japan were beaten 2-1 by Brazil at\u00a0Houston Stadium, with\u00a0Gabriel Martinelli coming off the bench to score a last-gasp\u00a0winner and\u00a0seal a spot in the last 16.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Kaishu Sano&#8217;s first international goal had given Japan a 29th-minute lead, but Carlo Ancelotti&#8217;s side piled on the pressure after the break and got themselves level.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Having seen an earlier header cleared off the line by\u00a0Takehiro Tomiyasu,\u00a0Casemiro nodded Brazil level in the 56th minute as the match appeared set to go to extra time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But after Ao Tanaka was robbed of possession on the edge of the box, Bruno Guimaraes slipped in Martinelli, who swept beyond Zion Suzuki to snatch the victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Japan are still yet to progress from a knockout stage game at the World Cup, with this their fifth attempt, though Moriyasu is confident about the future of his team.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The gap between us is closing now,&#8221; Moriyasu told \u200breporters. &#8220;Of course, Brazil is a top-tier team and we are definitely approaching that level.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As a result, we were devastated. Of course, there is that kind of difference in our level, and we have to up our \u200bgame. To compete at the top is a goal we all have.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"ja\">\ud835\udde6\ud835\uddd4\ud835\udde0\ud835\udde8\ud835\udde5\ud835\uddd4\ud835\udddc \ud835\uddd5\ud835\udddf\ud835\udde8\ud835\uddd8<\/p>\n<p>\u30d6\u30e9\u30b8\u30eb\u3068\u306e\u30e9\u30a6\u30f3\u30c932\u3002<br \/>\n\u5148\u5236\u3059\u308b\u3082\u5f8c\u534a\u306b\u9006\u8ee2\u3092\u8a31\u30571-2\u3067\u6557\u6226\u3068\u306a\u308a\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002<\/p>\n<p>\u6700\u5f8c\u307e\u3067\u8d70\u308a\u7d9a\u3051\u305fSAMURAI BLUE\u3078\u3001<br \/>\n\u305d\u308c\u305e\u308c\u306e\u5834\u6240\u304b\u3089\u3001\u305f\u304f\u3055\u3093\u306e\u3054\u58f0\u63f4\u30fb\u30b5\u30dd\u30fc\u30c8\u3092\u3042\u308a\u304c\u3068\u3046\u3054\u3056\u3044\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FIFAWorldCup?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@FIFAWorldCup<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/%E6%9C%80%E9%AB%98%E3%81%AE%E6%99%AF%E8%89%B2%E3%82%92?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#\u6700\u9ad8\u306e\u666f\u8272\u3092<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/%E3%82%B5%E3%83%83%E3%82%AB%E3%83%BC%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E4%BB%A3%E8%A1%A8?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#\u30b5\u30c3\u30ab\u30fc\u65e5\u672c\u4ee3\u8868<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zBu0P5lX6h\">pic.twitter.com\/zBu0P5lX6h<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 \u30b5\u30c3\u30ab\u30fc\u65e5\u672c\u4ee3\u8868\u00a0(@jfa_samuraiblue) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jfa_samuraiblue\/status\/2071699002211586131?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 29, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Japan had gone unbeaten in their Group F campaign, with a 4-0 thrashing of Tunisia coming between draws against the Netherlands and Sweden.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And they more than held their own against the five-time champions.\u00a0Brazil failed to have a first half shot on target from inside the box for the first time in a World Cup match since their quarter-final defeat to Belgium in 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But they were hit with a late blow. Martinelli&#8217;s winner, timed at 95:00, is the latest winning goal in normal time of the knockout stages of the World Cup on record (since 1996).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m disappointed that we have to leave the tournament at this stage, but the players gave their all today, as they did throughout the journey to reach this point,&#8221; Moriyasu added.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The coaching staff also worked tirelessly to support the players.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Right now I&#8217;m devastated after giving everything we had, but I want to accept this result and use it to become an even stronger team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Moriyasu cited Japan&#8217;s inexperience at this stage of the World Cup as something the nation need to improve on if they are to have success in the coming years.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is one of \u2060the strong points of the team,&#8221; Moriyasu said. &#8220;Having more players gain such experience will contribute to the growth of football in Japan.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.soccernews.com\/moriyasu-japan-closing-in-on-elite-nations-despite-world-cup-exit\/401233\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a>SoccerNews Editorial Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Soccer Hajime Moriyasu believes Japan are getting closer to being one of the elite international\u00a0teams\u00a0despite their dramatic exit to Brazil at the World Cup.\u00a0 Japan were beaten 2-1 by Brazil at\u00a0Houston Stadium, with\u00a0Gabriel Martinelli coming off the bench to score a last-gasp\u00a0winner and\u00a0seal a spot in the last 16.\u00a0 Kaishu Sano&#8217;s first international goal had [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":916455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22487,150678,2005],"tags":[5586,150677],"class_list":["post-916454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","category-moriyasu","category-soccer","tag-japan","tag-moriyasu"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}