Yellow supporters were celebrating a goal.
On 13th November there was an international football game at the National Stadium, Tokyo. It was the final of the AFC Champions League 2010, and South Korea’s Seongnam Ilhwa beat Iran’s Zobahan 3-1 to be the best club of Asia. It was a beautiful game.
It had a religious aspect. On the pitch the players of both teams had respect for each other. And the supporters and the players were united. After the final whistle was blown, Iranian fans warmly applauded the winners. The National Stadium is a “holy place” for many Japanese football fans. The stadium is not football-specific as a wide truck lies between the pitch and the seats. But it has hosted many international football games successfully for decades. And, Japanese high-school football players aim to play the game in this special stadium one day.
Compared with China, Japan seems to have a good reputation for hosting global games. The former is currently hosting the Asian Games, and Beijing played host to the Olympic Games in 2008. But some worried China’s ability to do so. On the other hand, the latter is hardly seen in that way. Besides, Tokyo is a cosmopolitan city, and Japan has a very tolerant attitude towards different cultures and other religions. China, however, could be like Japan in the future.
In the stadium, most of the supporters were clapping yellow balloons to support the Korean club. Only a small part of the seats were white for the Iranian club. There was no violence, and the game was great. But that unbalance was a bit pity.
Ryo Kubota is a staff writer at Transpheric Management in Tokyo as well as a freelance writer. He has covered Sports for the Nippon Newspaper Company in Tokyo and teaches at a private tutoring school in Iruma, Japan. Having studied in both Tokyo and England in the areas of sociology, he has a keen interest in the world at large.
