The South Africa World Cup soccer match on May 24th, between Japan and Korea, was the last game held in Japan. Tickets to the game were sold out already in the reservation stage. The match was held was at Saitama Stadium, which was also used during the Japan Korea World Cup. As Japan’s largest soccer stadium, the Saitama Stadium overflows with presence.Personally having gone to see the world cup games held in Japan in 2002 and Germany in 2006, instead of going to the next game in South Africa, I decided to go today to cheer on Japan.

Urawamisono Station, closest to the stadium. Despite it being a week-night, many spectators made their way to the game.

On the way to the game, food stands like this offer cuisine from various countries.

We saw Saitama Stadium before we arrived. Under the fog and rain it looked spectacular.

The kick-off. Over 60,000 people from both countries came to support their team.

In this picture are the Korean team’s supporters

Japanese team’s aces, Endo and Nakamura Shunsuke

Both teams fighting intensely with each other

The game ended with a score of 2-0 for Korea. Japan was unable to achieve a win in its last in-country game. Shortly after the game began, a goal was scored by Korea’s Ji-Sung Park (Manchester United), and in the second half another was scored by Chu-Young Park (Monaco). The Japan team made more attempts at the opposite net than Korea made, but did not manage to score any points.

For Japan the match had an unfortunate ending, but with the actual South Africa World Cup coming in only three weeks, I want to wish both countries the best, and hope that they can make a contribution to soccer in Asia.

Saitama Stadium
Address: Saitama City, Midori-ku, Nakanoda 500
Website: http://www.stadium2002.com/en/index.php (English)
http://www.stadium2002.com/ (Japanese)