16-year friendship and World Cup promise of two Japanese players
*Japan - Croatia: 22:00 Monday 5/12, on MetaSports.
In the 51st minute, in the last match in Group E, Ritsu Doan stretched across the Spanish goal. The ball seemed to go all the way, but with unbelievable effort, Mitoma leaned forward to save the ball to help Tanaka use his knee to score a goal to make it 2-1. Thanks to that, Japan won a historic victory over the homeland of "tiki-taka", with tickets to the 1/8 round as the leader of the group that is likened to Death.
After the battle, Mitoma and Tanaka hugged each other tightly to celebrate. Mitoma said he was surprised by Tanaka's timely arrival, and considered the goal the result of his teammates' hard work. But Tanaka takes it for granted: "I believe in Mitoma every time the ball goes wide and know he will run to the end. I trust in Mitoma because we've played together since we were kids and now stand on the same World Cup stage. ".
Three years later, the best friends reached a new milestone when they played their first match together in the first team. Talent beyond the domestic level helps both have the opportunity to go to Europe to compete, but in different directions. Winger Mitoma joined Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League, while central midfielder Tanaka joined Fortuna Dusseldorf in Bundesliga 2. "Now the Japanese team becomes the only place where we can play together." , Tanaka shared.
The Japanese press soon found photographs of Mitoma and Tanaka playing for Saginuma. When they arrived at Saginuma School, they discovered something more interesting. At the age of 13, Mitoma wrote in her graduation notebook the message "will make the country proud as a football player" and "attend the World Cup". A year later, Tanaka repeated the message of his senior and until now, the promise has been fulfilled.
A Japanese Twitter user compared this detail to the "swear under the stars" in the manga "Captain Tsubasa" when the main character and all of Japan's U15 teammates set their sights on winning the World Cup. And Colombia's El Heraldo compared the relationship between Mitoma and Tanaka to the friendship of two characters Ozora Tsubasa and Misaki Taro also in the aforementioned legendary football manga.
The 1997-1998 generation of Mitoma and Tanaka was considered a special generation of Japanese football. This is a carefully cared for litter aiming to win the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo 2020 but failed. They were also born at the same time that football in the land of the rising sun realized the dream of attending the World Cup for the first time in France 1998, and then had seven consecutive appearances at the biggest football festival on the planet.
Today, Mitoma, Tanaka and other teammates will face Croatia in the round of 16 to continue to dream of conquering a new milestone: reaching the quarterfinals of the World Cup for the first time.
