Japan and Republic of Korea: Why Are They the Success Stories of Asian Football?

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: November 12, 2010

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Explaining what makes one country successful over another is incredibly difficult; just why are Brazil so much better than England, and what makes Spain more successful in recent years than the USA?

If the finance were the key factor, then Luxembourg and Norway would dominate. But if lack of finances motivated footballers to success, then the world’s stars would hale from Burundi or the Democratic Republic of Congo.

If population size determined success, then China and India would have five World Cups each. In actuality neither have impressed on the world stage. Uruguay, who have two World Cups and consistently compete, have a population over 300 times smaller than China’s.

Height doesn’t seem to be an issue either; some of the most successful footballing nations in the world have modest average heights on a world scale. And the tallest nation, the Netherlands, have never won a World Cup.

Although an Asian country has never won the World Cup, Korea Republic and Japan have both qualified for the last seven and four World Cups respectively, and have impressed—especially when the World Cup was hosted by Korea Republic and Japan in 2002.

In 2010, Japan were eliminated after a closely fought battle with Paraguay that ended 0-0 and went to penalties. Keisuke Honda was one of the surprise players of the tournament, someone who Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger—who had a brief career managing in Japan—called a “genius.” Korea Republic went to the 2010 World Cup on the back of an unbeaten qualifying campaign, but were put to the sword in the knockout round by the aforementioned impressive Uruguay.

So why are South Korea and Japan so much more successful than countries like China, Thailand and India?

According to Soccernomics, by Kuper and Szymanski, despite the stereotype that poorer people make better footballers, perhaps because they're more deter...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football

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